COURTING SUCCESS: Princeton High girls’ swimmer Courtney Weber displays her breaststroke form in a meet earlier this season. Last Thursday, sophomore star Weber placed first in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 breaststroke as fourth-seeded PHS defeated fifth-seeded Middletown South 94-76 in the North 2 Group B sectional quarterfinals. On Monday, PHS fell 92-78 to top-seeded Summit in the sectional semifinals to end the season with an 11-1 record. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Courtney Weber and her teammates on the Princeton High girls’ swim team were fired up for a battle of unbeatens as they hosted Middletown South in the North 2 Group B sectional quarterfinals last Thursday.

“We were really excited, we haven’t swam against a team this fast in a while,” said PHS sophomore star Weber, who had helped the Tigers come into the day at 10-0 with the Eagles boasting an 8-0 mark.

“Since counties, we really haven’t had competition. It really brings a team’s spirit when we have to swim against fast people.”

Displaying her speed in the meet, Weber placed first in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 breaststroke as fourth-seeded PHS defeated fifth-seeded Middletown South 94-76.

Weber helped PHS start the meet with a bang, doing the breaststroke leg as the 200 medley relay posted a win with the Tigers also taking second in the event to jump out to a 12-2 lead.

“That fully set the tone, that made us believe that we could win and could take it by a lot,” said Weber.

In the IM race, Weber clocked a winning time of 2:11.71 to edge junior teammate Beatrice Cai by 2.10 seconds.

“I was really happy with my swim in the IM, I didn’t think I would go that fast,” said Weber. “I didn’t even know if I was going to beat my teammates. I was really happy because we went 1-2 in that.”

Weber was also happy with her performance in the 100 breast as she came in at 1:08.62 to nip junior teammate Annie Zhao by 0.13 to give the Tigers another 1-2 finish.

“That was way faster than I thought I was going to go, that would have broken our old team record,” said Weber. “We just got a new team record but that would have broken the one we had before last weekend. It used to be a 1:08, now it is at 1:07, I just broke it at the last meet.”

While PHS went on to fall 92-78 to top-seeded Summit in the sectional semis Monday in what turned out to be its last meet of the season, Weber is proud of the improvement she has made this winter.

“I feel like I have made a lot of progress from freshman year to now,” said Weber, who also swims for the X-Cel club program. “I have worked on specifically a lot of my turns and all of my underwater, especially on my breaststroke. I changed club teams and my breaststroke got a lot faster. It has really helped in my IMs and it has picked up my breaststroke so I can help in the medley relay. I have tried to pick up my sprint freestyle so I can help in those relays.

Having her older sister, senior Jordyn, on the PHS squad has been a big help to Weber.

“It is great, because she has been through all of this before, she can help me,” said Weber. “I had so many questions about everything and she is helping me a lot. Even though I do have a lot of good swims, I also have some that I am disappointed in and she really helps pick me up and makes sure that I am OK.”

PHS head coach Carly Misiewicz was looking forward to a  great battle against Middletown South.

“Both of our teams were excited to have a really good competitive meet,” said Misiewicz. “We knew what they had going into it. We knew that they just did at their county meet, they know what we did at ours.”

Starting the meet with the big performance in the medley relay was critical for the Tigers.

“Going one-two in that medley, that was huge,” said Misiewicz. “We were hoping 1-3 or maybe 1 and they pick up 2-3. We made a couple of last minute changes. I originally didn’t have Kyleigh [Tangen] in there and I bumped her in there. That proved out to be extremely beneficial. The medley relay was something that we noticed that they really hadn’t lost all year in the regular season. We were, ‘all right, let’s try and capitalize on this right now.’”

Getting a pair of 1-2-3 sweeps in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke proved beneficial for PHS.

“That was huge; the 500 free hurt a little bit and the 50 and the 100 free too but those were things that we expected,” said Misiewicz, who got a win from Cai in the fly and Jesse Wang in the back with Sabine Ristad taking first in the 200 free.

“I knew going into it that they had good sprinters. As it always is, it is just like a puzzle to figure out where can we capitalize the most and not to take points away from ourselves.”

Misiewicz was not surprised to see Weber pile up points in the win.

“Courtney is a true competitor, she just truly loves racing and you can tell that,” said Misiewicz. “Yes they are all friends but you are competitive against everyone as well like with her and Annie in the breaststroke and her and Beatrice in the IM. It is great because they push each other. They are all friends but there is nothing wrong with friendly competition. It helps us a team too.”

The Tigers pushed each other collectively in topping Middletown South.

“Really across the board, everyone stepped up and that was my pre-meet message to them,” asserted Misiewicz. “Every point, every place matters, fifth place is a lot better than sixth place. It is one point to nothing at all. It was beat the person next to you and be aware of what is happening in the pool. If you are in lane seven, you have to be aware of what is happening in lane two.”

Weber, for her part, has enjoyed the way the Tigers have stepped up for each other this season.

“We have a team spirit that I haven’t seen at any club team,” said Weber. “I love high school swimming because everyone comes together. We win as a team, we lose as a team. Everyone picks each other up.”