Michenfelder leads Rams to first win of season
HIGHTSTOWN » Matt Michenfelder went from under the weather to over the top.
The junior was a four-time winner in helping the Hightstown High boys swim team to its first win of the season, 105-64, over Nottingham Tuesday.
It wasn’t the easiest of meets for Michenfelder, who came out of his sick bed to make it into school for meet day.
“I was happy for the most part, but I feel like I could have done a little better,” he said. “I was a little rusty, a little sick over the weekend. I had a cold. I lost a lot of energy after the first race and was really dehydrated but I just kept on pushing through.
“I wasn’t in school yesterday. It was pretty bad. Had to miss.”
Which had coach Eddie Larkin concerned, as he knew he needed his top swimmer to make sure the Rams finally hit the win column.
“He’s had a rough week, but he came in and had a good meet for us,” Larkin said. “I was very much concerned. I messaged him on our team messaging app and he told me he’d be fine to go today, so that was a relief. He was a little shaky but he worked hard.
“He’s our big guy. Last year he was one off of the finals for MCTs, we’re hoping this year he can make a splash.”
He splashed to victories in the 200 individual medley and 100 back, and was also part of the first-place 200 and 400 free relay teams.
Another four-time winner was Andrew Morgan, who claimed the 50 free and 100 free while also swimming in the first-place 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.
“Andrew Morgan was one of the guys who really stepped up; he got into a 27.7 for the 50 free, we were looking for that,” Larkin said. “A couple other guys stepped up as well. I told them I needed them to get first places and they did that.”
They would include Joe Kesckes, Yoni Livstone and Santiago Callegari in the 200 medley relay; along with John O’Brien and David Lee in the 200 and 400 free relays.
Nottingham (2-4) held its own with firstplace finishes, getting wins from Dustin Tyler (200 free), Steve Wilfing (100 fly), John Miktus (400 free) and Ben Hubbard (100 breast). Hightstown, however, had too much depth, getting top-three finishes from Jackson Switsky, Arinze Achebe, Kesckes, Lee, Callegari, Ryan Lindner, O’Brien and Livstone.
“It feels really good got get a win, I hope we can continue this on Thursday,” Michenfelder said. “Right now we’re kind of still rounding into shape, but I feel toward the end of the season we’ll be a lot more confident.”
Larkin was happy to see his squad finally win one as well.
“It’s big; big for the season,” the thirdyear coach said. “We started off with a tough stretch, it’s good to kind of get ourselves moving on. We have a good stretch now to try and get a couple more wins, it’s good to open the floodgates for our wins this year.
“We have a young team, and I’d say we’re more of a dual meet team. We have the depth. We don’ have those elite guys that will be swimming in college but we’ve got a lot of guys that are gonna be working really hard.”
Even if they’re recovering from health issues.
FIRST-PLACE FINISHES
200 medley relay: Hightstown (Kesckes, Livstone, Callegari, Morgan) 2:15.13
200 free: Tyler (N) 2:33.44
200 IM: Michenfelder (H) 2:32.17
50 free: Morgan (H) 27.74
100 fly: Wilfing (N) 1:13.09
100 free: Morgan (H) 1:04.26
400 free: Miktus (N) 5:23.22
200 free relay: Hightstown (Michenfelder, O’Brien, Lee, Morgan) 2:01.48
100 back: Michenfelder (H) 1:15.07
100 breast: Hubbard (N) 1:23.34
400 free relay: Hightstown (Kesckes, O’Brien, Callegari, Michenfelder) 4:33.26
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