Lawrence’s Dalton shines; WW-PN takes team title
PLAINSBORO >> Emerson Dalton has been in plenty of meets at the club level, but this was her first big test as a high school swimmer.
The Lawrence High freshman delivered a memorable performance by winning both the 200 and 400 freestyle and was named the Swimmer of the Meet at the Mercer County Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
“You never know what is going to happen and anybody can have a better day than you are,” Dalton said. “It was more nerve-racking than a high school meet with all the people watching you. Some of these teams we’ve never swam against.”
Dalton touched in 2:06.70 in the 200, then followed it up with a 4:26.49 in the 400 — a time that was less than a second off the meet record of 4:26.19 held since 2010 by Princeton’s Victoria Cassidy.
“Just positive energy,” said Dalton, who helped the team to a fifth-place finish and set school records in both events. “With all these teams being here, I swim club and have a lot of friends on different teams. It was just fun being able to be with them and have positive thoughts.”
Host West WindsorPlainsboro North captured the team title for the second time in the last three seasons. The Knights scored 235 points to hold off Pennington in second with 221 and Princeton in third with 185.
North got a pair of wins from Victoria Zhang (50 free, 27.11; 100 fly, 1:05.56), who then anchored a meetrecord 1:51.01 in the 200 freestyle relay. Zhang was joined by Ashley Agogliati, Naomi Ho and Lauren Chan on the relay team. The Knights broke the previous mark of 1:52.09 set in 2010 by West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
Both Zhang and Ho returned to the squad as juniors after taking last season off for club commitments.
“I’m really excited for the girls,” North coach Todd Robinson said. “We liked our chances coming into the meet. We knew it was going to be close, and it certainly was. Pennington was right on our heels and it was pretty much anyone’s meet right up until the end.”
Hightstown star Layne Peterson breezed to a meet-record time of 1:02.88 in the 100 backstroke. She broke her own time of 1:03.87, which she swam in the prelims.