It was never a question of ‘if’ the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ swimming team would light up the scoreboard.
It was a matter of ‘when’ and ‘when’ became ‘now’ on Thursday afternoon, December 19, to end the last full day of classes on campus before the school district's Winter Break.
After falling in its two meets to a pair of state-ranked foes, the No. 19-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan girls’ team (1-2) collected eight gold medals in 11 events and left no doubt in a 116-54 victory against No. 12-ranked Ridgewood High School (2-1).
The No. 3- ranked Bridgewater-Raritan boys’ squad (3-0) on that same also joined the girls in clinching its meet after just eight races on the way to a big 110-60 victory over No. 13 Ridgewood (3-1) with nine first-place finishes at the Greater Somerset County YMCA in Bridgewater.
“It’s starting to click now,” said Chris Levin, Bridgewater-Raritan’s hall-of-fame girls’ coach. “Our girls have been showing a lot of grit and determination. We had a nice morning swim practice, and I told our girls that we swim really well after a morning practice.”
“They did exactly that and took it to heart.”
Junior Claire Hegedus and sophomore Merah DeRosa both swept each of their four events: the maximum of two relay races and two individual races, to lead the way for Bridgewater-Raritan. DeRosa joined junior Kimaya Desai, sophomore Alison Tamedl, and sophomore Katie Krause with a decisive 2:11.74 victory in the 200-meter medley relay to open the meet.
Bridgewater-Raritan's relay team of freshman Anya Mehta, freshman Anika Nandi, sophomore Kaylee Cerbone, and senior Heesoo Kim were edged by just 0.42 seconds for the silver medal, but their third-place finish of 2:17.71 gave Bridgewater-Raritan a 10-4 lead it never relinquished.
Hegedus then won the 200-meter freestyle (2:19.02) before Tamedl followed suit in the 200-meter individual medley (2:35.35) to launch a 32-14 lead for the Panthers. DeRosa then not only sent her team into the four-event intermission up 45-17 courtesy of a gold medal (28.88 seconds) in the 50-meter freestyle; Krause (30.14 seconds) and Kim (30.40 seconds) rounded out a perfect 1-2-3 scoring finish, and all three of these Panther swimmers finished at least one second ahead of all three of Ridgewood’s lanes.
Speaking of young swimmers, the underclassmen on the boys’ side have also continued to shine en route to a 3-0 start for Bridgewater-Raritan.
In fact, the Bridgewater-Raritan boys to a 30-point lead heading into the four-event intermission. On top of this, they started the meet with eight straight gold medals and sealed the meet in as many races. Most notably, all but one lineup spot went to a Bridgewater-Raritan gold medalist in this span (four-swimmer relay races also factored in) and was filled with someone outside of the Class of 2025.
Although this is understandable given there are only four seniors in this year’s boys’ lineup compared to 11 last season, this is certainly a testament to Bridgewater Raritan's depth and the ability of this squad to reload regularly under third-year head coach Evan Seavey.
Greg Yukhvid was the lone senior in this stretch for Bridgewater-Raritan, which also delivered six of the meet’s 11 silver medals against Ridgewood on the way to now scoring an average of 103 points in its three meets to begin the 2024-25 season.
Yukhvid joined junior Jaden Lee, sophomore Derek Carranza, and freshman Aaron Roy with a win in the 200-meter medley relay (1:48.79), and junior Samuel Meyer, sophomore Marvellous
Suciayahdi, freshman Owen Forget, and junior Gabriel Quevedo took second place (1:56.65) tohelp the Panthers open the meet with a 12-2 lead.
Sophomore Greg Rydberg, who tied classmate Chris Wasko with four gold medals to lead the Panthers, then won the 200-meter freestyle (2:02.31) before the 200-meter individual medley had Lee (2:08.99), freshman Jayden Bui (2:21.97), and Suciayahdi (2:22.55) produce a 1-2-3 finish.
Wasko then won his first of four races in the 50-meter freestyle (24.56 seconds) to send Bridgewater-Raritan into the break with a 46-16 lead. “This is a very prestigious team with a lot of history,” Wasko went on to say of Bridgewater-
Raritan and is one of 18 freshmen or sophomores in the lineup. “We’re going to get better as the season goes on. Everyone is going to learn a lot, and it’s going to be a really fun year to grow with these guys.”
Both squads for Bridgewater-Raritan will again be looking to make a deep run this year after advancing to the state sectional finals in 2023-24, where each fell to an undefeated state champion–the Westfield boys and the Ridge girls.
Following a well-deserved rest for winter recess, Bridgewater-Raritan will begin 2025 with a dual meet against Summit High School, which has the No. 9 ranked girls’ team in New Jersey.
The first race will begin at 3:30 p.m. Friday, January 3, at the Summit Area YMCA in Summit.