Facing two different opponents, the Blue Devils were in for a long meet. As cheers echoed across the pool from the Bridgewater and Columbia deck, Westfield tried to match their energy. Both sides screamed louder and louder just to be cut off by a referee whistle. “Quiet for the start” came over the loudspeaker as the deciding race of the day, the girls 400 freestyle relay lined up on the blocks. One press of the start gun and they were off. The girls needed to finish first and second to secure a victory but after pushing hard for two minutes, they crashed into the wall in the third and fourth slot, ending the meet and their season on a disappointing note.
On the boys side, they took a 111-59 win over Columbia, solidifying their spot in the Public A sectional finals.
Because of Westfield’s position and high seed entering the meet, almost all of their team was able to compete in yesterday’s matchup.
“A lot of the guys stepped up in our relays. Gavin Goodlatte is a freshman and he dropped a 24 off the relay start, so I’m really proud of him for that,” said captain Ben Nematadzira.
Other notable performances go to captain Charlie Jeckell, who dominated the 500 freestyle and the Medley Relay which took a time of 1 minute and 40.57 seconds. Junior Cole Sharkey came out with a first place finish in the 100 fly, finishing in 55.40, and junior Danny Pierce won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:51.88.
Although the boys coasted through their matchup against Columbia, Wednesday will tell a completely different story. The boys will face Bridgewater-Raritan at the Raritan Bay YMCA for their biggest meet of the season: the sectional finals.
“I think all of us on the team know about the history of this, of the team that we’re swimming [for]. And we just know how to turn it on when we need to, it’s happened every meet. We’re just going to do it again,” said Nematadzira.
Jeckell feels the same. “It’s a deep rooted rivalry. This is the meet we’ve been preparing for all season. We’ve been looking forward to this one. It’s been circled on the calendar, and we’re all ready to turn it up.”
The boys are not strangers to this meet, making it to sectional finals for the past five years, and last year, they even took home the trophy.
“As a team, I feel like we’re a playoff team,” said captain Danny McGann. “We have some guys that don’t swim all year round. So the training really comes in towards the end of the season. We normally see ourselves go way up towards the end of the season. And playoffs are kind of what we look forward to all year.”
The girl’s ending, however, was not as glorious. Swimming their meet against fellow powerhouse Bridgewater-Raritan, each team needed to scrape every point they could. “Two teams that are ranked next to each other in the state, so you know it’s going to be a battle and whoever has the better days wins, and Bridgewater had a better day,” said head coach Steve Whittington.
The girls fell to Bridgewater with a final score of 91-79.
Westfield was able to come through with first place in races like the 200 medley relay, along with the 200 free, 50 free and 100 fly. However, Bridgewater gained ground on coming up with second, third, sometimes even fourth and fifth place which ultimately was the downfall for Westfield.
“One thing that we know for sure is that depth wins championships and not being able to score for fifth places and fourth places is crucial,” said Whittington. Even though the margin seems wide, the meet actually came down to the last race putting emphasis on each and every point that can be earned.
Senior Clare Logan, who will be swimming at Duke University next year, had a similar mindset. “With such a small team it’s really hard to go against a team with such strong depth and I think that was our issue yesterday. I think Bridgewater swam an amazing meet and we got touched out on a lot of races which is where we lost a good amount of points,” said Logan. She continued, “Yesterday’s meet was definitely not how I wanted our season to end, but I think we did try our best. It was really sad that our season was cut short but I’m super proud of how the girls fought to the very end.”
Senior captain Emily Constable, who will be continuing her swim career next year at Vanderbilt University, said, “As my last meet as a senior, it was a bittersweet feeling as this was my last time swimming with the team but also showed how far we have all come as a team and the obstacles we had overcome to get to that point.”
Westfield did face many challenges this season, such as their tough battle in the Union County Championship, their win against Trinity Hall and even dominating Scotch Plains, all which became defining markers of Westfield’s season.
“Watching all my swimmers improve on a regular basis and being the best swimmers that they can be is always the highlight of the season,” said Whittington.
As Logan reflected on the season, she said, “I hope that next year’s team will have the same energy and excitement for meets that we had this year. Although our graduating class this year is pretty strong I think with a lot of talented underclassmen the team will still be really great in the upcoming years.”
Constable noted the importance of having fun “because it really does go quickly.”
The girls closed their seasons, head held high, putting up a noteworthy fight against Bridgewater, and next season, they will look to make it even further into the Public A tournament.
Even though the girls season ended early the boys will continue to the Public A sectional final on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. against Bridgewater which will prove to be their most challenging and heated matchup yet.
