Northern Highlands completes a 4-peat with sectional title by Sean Farrell of The Record
WAYNE – Grace Aboussleman got her chance. Northern Highlands got a leader.
The longtime soccer player who tried out late for swimming as a freshman took advantage of her spot on the team by becoming one of the newest heroes in a program that always finds them. Aboussleman anchored a pair of relays to first as the Highlanders’ dynasty continued with a 92.5-77.5 victory over High Point/Wallkill Valley in Thursday’s North 1, Group B final. The team from Allendale came home with its fourth straight sectional title and sixth in seven years. No other Bergen County public school has won a championship in that timeframe.
“We have that depth,” said Aboussleman, a junior. “And we come in collectively with everyone wanting to do their best and knowing that they’re going to make a contribution.”
Winning in February is always the end-goal for Northern Highlands, so much so that coach Tom Viscardi sacrifices a few points along the way to get there. Staying out of last is a source of pride. Getting everyone to contribute is paramount. And in the championship meet, the Highlanders secondary swimmers stepped up, never finishing lower than fifth. It wasn’t a record-breaking time that put them over the top, but Rebecca Skier in the breaststroke getting a few points from the outside lane.
“The fact that we didn’t come in last the whole meet in any race is amazing and it’s due to feeling that every single person on the team matters,” Kayla Kerrigan said. “Every single person on the team does their job.”
“You tell them that you’re as important as these other kids,” Viscardi said. “If you make this team in November, you’re going to swim and you’re going to be counted on at one point. You’re not along for a free ride. They all really buy into that and work really hard and have great swimmers on our team to look up to.”
Northern Highlands was strong enough across the board to win comfortably on Thursday, despite winning only five of 11 races. An early victory by senior Samantha Chin grew the lead and freshman Reilly Fox added on with back-to-back wins in the 50 freestyle and butterfly.
“It honestly doesn’t matter whoever else is in the pool,” Chin said. “If it’s your race, you’re there to own it.”
The ride to the top was bumpy at times.
Northern Highlands (11-1) had to replace a deep senior class that made championships the expectation and saw a key swimmer transfer out. One top freshman went down with a knee injury and another missed the state tournament due to club commitments. Mia Robertiello was even kept out of the final with the flu. But somehow, the tradition continued as so many of the names changed. The Highlanders developed a new core around Aboussleman and Kerrigan and others like Julia Blass and Katie Noncarrow.
The reward was just the same.
“It’s truly a team like the cliché,” Viscardi said. “It’s the name on the front of the uniform, not the back.”
“That makes it so much more fun to coach. You’re not just sitting there and focusing on two or three kids the whole meet. It’s everybody. A lot of sports you can say, maybe somebody is going to step up today. It’s hard in swimming to a degree. But it always seems like somebody is doing something impressive.”