Competing in the boys 100-meter breaststroke final at the Mercer County Championships last Saturday at the WW/P-N pool, Princeton High freshman Oliver Hunsbedt was happy to have junior teammate Christian Chiang in the next lane.

“It was a great way to push each other and for us to have a great competition together,” said Hunsbedt. “We were talking about it before; we really wanted to beat each other.”

Hunsbedt went on to have a great swim, taking first in a time of 1:09.70 with teammate Chiang coming in third at 1:12.85.

“As a freshman, I am just really excited,” said Hunsbedt, who also swims for the Whitewaters club.

“There are too many emotions right now, it is crazy. My club coach is going to be so proud and so will my high school coaches. I am just so happy to win it.”

Hunsbedt was happy to end the day by helping PHS take second in the 400 free relay behind Notre Dame.

“That was really fun,” said Hunsbedt. “Notre Dame is a really great team and we tried our best to beat them. We got second so we beat everyone else.”

PHS had a fun day collectively, taking third in the team standings behind champion Notre Dame and runner-up WW/P-S.

Chiang took sixth in the 100 butterfly while Alex Petruso placed fourth in the 100 free and fifth in the 100 backstroke. The Little Tigers took third in the 200 medley relay and second in the 200 free relay in addition to the second-place finish in the 400 free relay.

While the Little Tigers saw their four-year county title streak come to an end, PHS first-year head coach Carly Misewicz believed that her boy swimmers competed to their potential.

“We swam our hearts out today,” said Misiewicz. “The guys were awesome, they far surpassed all of our expectations. Everybody was stepping up and filling in those spots on the relays.”

Misiewicz liked the heart Hunsbedt displayed in his first county meet. “He was psyched; he was so excited and pumped,” said Misiewicz.

“Going into that breaststroke final, he said “Oh my god, I’m going for it.’ He had that last relay coming off the breaststroke. Oliver is the kind of kid who likes to chase somebody. He likes it when we are behind and are chasing people down.”

Seeded fourth in the Group, North 2 sectional, PHS is looking forward to being in the chase for a state title.

“Everyone is dropping crazy amounts of time so they now are knowing their potential and we just want to keep it rolling through states,” said Misiewicz.

Hunsbedt, for his part, feels that PHS has the potential to do well in the states.

“We all just pushed each other to the limits today, we competed well as a team,” said Hunsbedt.

“We can’t wait for states. We have a lot of stuff planned; we are going to have an exciting time.”