Passaic Tech makes it three in a row by Sean Farrell of The Record
WAYNE – Denise Aronson believed the wins would come. Just not this quickly.
The Passaic Tech boys swimming team captured its third straight Passaic County title, with the Bulldogs’ record-breaking speed and extraordinary depth paving the way to another comfortable victory in their own pool on a snowy Saturday.
The program has only needed a decade to become a dynasty. The Bulldogs have turned the home of the Passaic County meet into the home of the champions.
“I said that it would be 10 years until we’d be a contender,” said Aronson, whose program started as a club in 2005 and became a school team the following year. “But 10 years later, we’ve actually won counties.”
The Bulldogs followed their usual winning formula.
They placed in the top three in almost every event. They built up the lead in the relays and set meet records in two of them. And they put out strong secondary swimmers throughout the day.
“They all know that the B lane swimmer is just as important as the A lane swimmer,” Aronson said.
For the Bulldogs, some of the toughest battles came against each other.
“We’re very proud since we know that this team started at the bottom and now we’re on top,” sophomore Piero Urteaga said. “To have a three-peat is just amazing seeing where we came from. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Urteaga anchored his unit to victory and then got to watch one of his teammates in a neighboring lane arrive for second place. Urteaga found himself in a similar situation in the 50-yard freestyle when he barely edged out fellow Bulldog Daniel Castro for the title.
“[Urteaga] has a lot of heart,” Aronson said. “He’s not going to let that guy next to him beat him. And he’s only going to get better.”
Three swimmers won a pair of individual races – DePaul’s Brandon Miller and Wayne Valley’s Zach Valenzuela and Evan Custance.
Valenzuela set a record in the 100-yard breast stroke by completing the event in 58.82 seconds to become the first swimmer in the Passaic County meet to win in under a minute. The Indians took second once again, but they narrowed the gap between themselves and the champions.
“We came a lot closer than we did last year,” Custance said. “We came within 100 points of winning and that means a lot to us, to every single guy on our team.”
The Bulldogs led the team scoring race from start to finish. Junior Joseph Malicki started the day by leading off the record-setting 200-yard medley relay team, and success continued for his fellow classmates.
“As freshman and sophomores, we worked hard in practice,” said junior Brandon Matos, who won the 200 IM. “In your junior year, you grow more. You build more. All that hard work and all that technique starts to kick in.”
The Bulldogs came away with 430 points and one more celebratory dip in the pool for their coach.
It’s becoming an annual tradition in Wayne.
“I’m just excited,” Aronson said. “I’m so happy for my kids. They’ve all worked so hard for this.”