Three seniors leaped into their home pool at the same time for their third-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys’ swimming team in the 200-yard freestyle, and they snatched the majority of this race’s points.
Two more seniors contributed to a critical gold medal in the 200-yard freestyle relay for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ swim team: now ranked No. 18 in New Jersey.
You could not have scripted a better Senior Day for the Panthers’ Class of 2025 on Tuesday, January 14.
Honored at a ceremony before Bridgewater Raritan's dual meet against Watchung Hills Regional High School were the following nine graduating senior members of the high school’s swim team: Tiffany Bui, Heesoo Kim, Katie Krause, Vaanya Salwan, and Claire Zhu on the girls’ side, and Dominik Placek, Rayan Reddad, Suraj Shah, and Greg Yukhvid on the boys’ side.
Reddad, Shah, and Placek fittingly placed second, third, and fourth in order, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle as part of a big day for the Bridgewater-Raritan boys’ squad (6-0, 3-0), which rolled to a 122-48 victory over the Watchung Hills boys’ squad (2-4, 0-3).
Despite the Bridgewater- Raritan girls’ team (3-4, 1-3) trailing by four points early in its meet against the Watchung Hills (2-5, 0-4), which opened the meet with seven straight gold medals, the Panthers’ depth kept them deadlocked with the visiting Warriors with four races to go.
Kim and Krause then snatched Bridgewater-Raritan's one gold medal in go-ahead fashion with junior Claire Hegedus and sophomore Merah DeRosa in the 200-yard freestyle relay to help Bridgewater-Raritan broke open its first lead, and the Panthers held on from there for a 91-79 at the Greater Somerset County YMCA in Bridgewater.
Following the Skyland Conference Championships on Saturday, January 18, at Montgomery School, Bridgewater-Raritan will return home for a state-ranked dual meet against Hillsborough High School: 5-0 and ranked No. 6 in New Jersey on the boys’ side, 4-2 and ranked No. 16 on the girls’ side at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 21, in Bridgewater.