Demarest sweeps Big North American titles by Sean Farrell of The Record
HACKENSACK — No. 1 wasn’t on the line. NV/Demarest swam like it anyway.
The Norsemen left no doubt at the Big North American meet on Tuesday, in the final dress rehearsal before this weekend’s Bergen County Meet of Champions.
Their speed was unmatched and their program was rewarded with its seventh division title in a row, just one off a team record.
They won seven of 11 races and watched the Norsewomen follow suit with a championship as well.
For North Jersey’s top public school swim program, the best just keeps on getting better.
“The kids keep showing me things that I’m not expecting to see,” coach Samantha Singer said. “They’re just exceeding my expectation. We give kids opportunities and they just continue to earn their spots. That’s all we can ask from them. We have high school kids swimming super-fast. It’s not just relying on our club kids.”
Nothing seems to slow down NV/Demarest.
This season tested both its teams with graduation losses and unexpected ones, transfers and transformations. But Singer’s group has been immune to those challenges, winning every meet it’s entered into.
The latest one wasn’t close.
The Norsemen (9-0) won all three relays and saw Tim Park take first in two sprint events. Victories from Justin Song in the 500 freestyle and Phil Gong in the breaststroke gave them more than enough points to hold off second-place Tenafly and Mahwah in the team scoring.
“It just shows you the tradition of excellence that our swimming program has,” Park said. “I feel like every year, we graduate people and then we have people stepping up. We have new faces coming in like [James Don]. We’ve had so many swimmers step up this year. If you look at our senior class and then look at their times from sophomore year, it’s like looking at two different swimmers. And it’s just from bringing in fresh faces. The Demarest program just attracts good new freshmen every year.”
The Norsewomen had no trouble, either.
They won the first eight races and 10 of 11 with juniors Alexa O’Connor and Rachel Woods-Bannan each getting two solo titles. An incredible performance by Ramapo’s Molly Arts in the backstroke was the only thing that prevented a full sweep.
“I’m pretty impressed with everybody,” Woods-Bannan said. “It’s a strong sign for us knowing that we did so well today and knowing that we have so many strong swimmers. It shows that we’ll be fine on Saturday.”
Woods-Bannan admitted to feeling worried at the start of the season when her team needed to replace three core swimmers and had only two seniors left. But the Norsewomen (9-0) acclimated to those changes after a few meets, helped out by an incoming class led by Trystan Ng. This marks their second straight league title, after previously having a six-year drought.
“We just walked in here [as freshmen] and tried to do our best,” said O’Connor, on changing the program. “You don’t realize all the places and take account of that as much as we do now.”
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Firsts came in many different forms at the pool at Hackensack.
For Mahwah, it came from Colin Twiss. The precocious freshman won a photo finish in the 200 freestyle and became the first division champion for the fourth-year Thunderbirds. A longtime club swimmer, Twiss has brought hope to a young program and enjoyed the opportunity to swim for his hometown. After breaking through as the third seed, he nearly broke a school record later on in the 500 freestyle.
“It’s pretty cool,” Twiss said. “I’m not going to lie. It’s really cool. I just wanted to try to beat my times and score some points.”
The Norsemen, meanwhile, haven’t skipped a beat after graduating many leaders from their state championship team. And with a dual meet winning streak now at 36, they turn the focus on beating top-ranked Bergen Catholic for county supremacy.
“We think we’re better than them,” said Song, earlier this season. “100 percent.”