Demarest’s Bergen County title victory comes in thrilling fashion by Darren Cooper of The Record
WEST NYACK – NV/Demarest has won the last two Public C state titles. It’s first Bergen County boys title might just mean more.
“My boys just dug deep,” said Norsemen coach Sam Singer. “This is much harder than the state tournament. These are kids that they see all the time. This means that they are the best in the county and they believed in themselves and this proved it.”
NV/Demarest earned their first outright Bergen County boys swimming title Saturday night at Felix Festa pool edging Bergen Catholic, 243-214.5. The Crusaders had won the last five county titles, although shared one with the Norsemen in 2016.
And don’t let the final score fool you. The boys competition was a straight up two-team battle between the Norsemen and Crusaders. Bergen Catholic led by 3.5 points going into the final race: the 400 free relay.
Puso knew she had her four best swimmers ready and the best seed time by 4 seconds, but the Norsemen still had to go out and do it.
Matt Maretic started off for the Norsemen and gave them a slight cushion. Freshman James Don and Justin Song added to it, and Park brought it home splitting an unofficial 46.8 in the final 100.
“That’s what you live for, that last moment, I was so pumped up on the block,” said Park, who also won the 100 freestyle. “That was the biggest race of the season.”
“I really thought it would come down to the last race,” said Singer, “but with my four best guys that it wasn’t going to be a question. I knew Tim, I knew that I could put anything on him and he would come through.”
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Bergen Catholic finished second in the race, but was later disqualified by the judges for leaving early. That explains the disparity in the final figures.
“My boys swam out of their minds today,” said Singer. “Give Bergen Catholic a lot of credit. They definitely gave us a run for our money, hats off to them for swimming as well as they did.”
“We have been fighting for first place for so long,” said Park. “My freshman year we tied and that was kind of tough, last year was a tough loss. This is my junior year and seeing all the seniors work their tails off in practice means the world to me. We worked for this. We worked for every single race and we worked for that relay at the end.”
The Bergen boys Meet of Champions has a history of coming down to the last race of the night. It was telling how hushed the pool deck got just before the race began as many coaches and swimmers were keeping tabs on the close dual. Bergen Catholic had won the first race of the night, the 200 medley relay and built an early lead on excellent depth and speed.
NV/Demarest also won the 200 free relay in a new meet record 1:29.03 and Phil Gong won the 100 breaststroke for the Norsemen. Tenafly had a pair of individual winners with Eddie Cho in the 200 individual medley and Hudson Tritter in the 100 backstroke.