ROCK STAR: Princeton High girls’ swimmer Becca Della Rocca displays her freestyle form in a meet earlier this season. Last Saturday, freshman star Della Rocca made a superb debut as she competed in her first Mercer County Swimming Championships. Della Rocca placed first in the 400-meter freestyle, second in the 100 butterfly and did the anchor leg for the victorious 400 free relay team to help PHS take third in the team standings. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Becca Della Rocca fed off the constant din of cheering, starting guns, and team chants filling the air at the WW/P-North pool last Saturday as she competed in her first Mercer County Swimming Championships.

“It is so awesome. I love the energy, it is so cool,” said Della Rocca, a freshman star for the Princeton High girls’ squad. “I was excited and I was really nervous. I was worrying about adding time, but everything went pretty well.”

Things actually went really well for Della Rocca at the county meet as she placed first in the 400-meter freestyle, second in the 100 butterfly and did the anchor leg for the victorious 400 free relay team. Della Rocca’s heroics helped PHS take third in the team standings with host WW/P-North winning the title.

Reflecting on her day, Della
Rocca was proud of her effort in the 100 fly.

“I just tried my best; I thought maybe I did have a chance to win,” said Della Rocca. “It gave me confidence going into the 400 free.”

Exuding confidence, Della Rocca cruised to the title in the 400 free, clocking a time of 4:35.63.

“I always think about it as eight 50s, my plan was just to descend the 50s and get faster,” said Della Rocca. “I felt really confident when I jumped in.”

In the 400 free relay, Della Rocca jumped into her anchor leg, looking to go as fast as she could.

“I didn’t want to lose the lead,” said Della Rocca.

“I am a distance swimmer so I just try my best to hold it. I was so excited.”

PHS head coach Carly Misiewicz was excited to see her girls end the meet on a high note with the breakthrough performance in the 400 free relay.

“I said girls let’s just give everything we have got; for them to come out and win and drop seven seconds from what we did yesterday,” said Misiewicz.

“I have no idea where that time came from; I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Misiewicz was proud of the team collectively as it placed a strong third.

“It is phenomenal,” said Misiewicz. Going into this, I was thinking we were sitting somewhere around fourth or fifth in the middle of things and we ended up third.”

Della Rocca was in the middle of things all afternoon for the Little Tigers.

“Becca was crucial,” said Misiewicz of Della Rocca, who also competes for the X-Cel club program.

“She was the anchor in the 400 free relay, the butterfly leg in the medley, winning the 400 in a dominant way, coming a close second to a senior from Lawrence in the 100 fly so a phenomenal performances for her.”

Another crucial performer for PHS was senior co-captain Emily Curran, who placed fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free.

“She always gives 110 percent when she is in the water for sure; she is a captain this year and someone who is really, really a leader of this team,” said Misiewicz, who also cited the efforts of sophomore Cammie Davis and freshman Ella Caddeau at the county meet.

“She is someone who had so many injuries last year that prevented her from swimming. It would have been so easy for her to say I am just going to take the year off and focus on club in college. She was in two A finals today and key on that last relay and the anchor on the medley really. She is a phenomenal swimmer and exactly what you want to have on your team.”

In the view of Misiewicz, the team’s superb performance at the county meet bodes well going into the state tournament.

“I think this really shows us what we can do and all of the potential that we truly have; going into this, the dual meet record really goes out the window,” said Misiewicz.

“It is whoever comes in, shows up, and wants it more. I think, today, it really showed that Princeton wanted this.

Della Rocca, for her part, is enjoying showing what she can do at the high school level.

“The biggest challenge is that there are a lot of people watching,” said Della Rocca. “It is not just something I want to just do for fun, everyone really cares about it. The team is so great. I love everyone on the team, they are so nice.”