WW-P South beats rival WW-P North in quarterfinals
WEST WINDSOR >> Jessica Turner did a lot of wasted planning, and she could not have been happier.
After Turner’s West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys swim team lost a close dual meet to arch-rival WW-P North in early January, and then finished behind the Northern Knights in the Mercer County meet, the coach plotted 400 relay strategy down to the last detail.
But when a hearty breaststroke trio took 2-4-5, it clinched the meet one event before the relay as the Pirates claimed a 9377 victory in an NJSIAA Central Jersey Group B semifinal in The Bubble Monday. WW-PS will seek its second sectional title in three years when it faces Tuesday’s Princeton-Manasquan winner at Neptune High Thursday.
In the first meeting between the sister schools, WWPN clinched a 90-80 decision by winning the 400 relay. Turner was ready for more drama.
“I honestly thought it was going to come down to the relay,” she said. “We had it mapped out where we had a couple options if we were gonna have to make some changes in our relay. We tried to have two plans going in; if we’d have to go 2-3, if we’d have to try to win it. We were so close last time. North is a great team, they have a great group of guys. You know what they’re bringing, they’re really strong swimmers.”
But South was missing quality freshman Scott Nahoum in the first meet, and he made his presence felt this time by winning the 400 free, taking third in the 200 free and taking part in the winning 200 free relay.
“I knew Scott was looking forward to this meet,” said Turner, whose team had byes in the first two round of states. “He’s our center (lane) distance swimmer so it’s nice to have him there.”
“He’s a freshman who shows a lot of promise,” added senior Charlie Lu, a three-time winner. “Last time it was super close, we all felt like if we had Scott there, things could have turned out differently. Today we showed it would have been different.”
Lu did his part, winning the 50 and 100 freestyle races while swimming in the 200 free relay. Lu was part of all three Pirate firsts in the loss to North, but did not enter the meet feeling as if he had to carry the team.
“I feel like everyone is doing their own share of the work,” he said. “As a senior there is a bit of that burden on my shoulders as one of the key freestylers. But I feel everyone shares that burden. We say ‘No sixth-place here’ because every spot matters.”
WWPS had just one sixthplace finish in the eight individual events, as 23 of 24 swimmers had at least one point. Dan Bhavsar had two firsts, and Turner praised Alex Simonelli, who finished second in the 50 and 100.
The coach also lauded her breaststrokers, who were without Anthony Wong (flu). Zak Saeed filled in and took fourth, while Akshay Bapat and Sohan Pramanik went 2-5.
South needed the depth considering North won six events. Ethan Yuen was a four-time winner, while Steve Kim won three times and George Zhu won twice. But the Pirates were not about to lose twice in the bubble to the Knights.
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores
FIRST-PLACE FINISHERS
200 MR: North (Kim, Zhu, Yuen, Golbin) 1:47.3 200 IM: Bhavsar (S) 1:51.82
50 free: Yuen (N) 2:04.86
100 fly: Yuen (N) 56.27
100 free: Lu (S) 51.92
400 free: Nahoum (S) 5:05.73
200 free relay: South (Nahoum, Sharma, Bhavsar, Lu) 1:39.07