GOING THE DISTANCE: Princeton High girls’ swimmer Sabine Ristad heads to victory in a 500-yard freestyle race earlier this season. Last Friday, Ristad placed first in both the 500 free and the 100 backstroke to help top-seeded PHS defeat fifth-seeded WW/P-South 120-50 in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Central Jersey Group B sectional semis. The Tigers, now 12-0, will face second-seeded Manasquan in the sectional final on February 15 at The College of New Jersey. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Sabine Ristad didn’t waste any time getting things rolling for the top-seeded Princeton High girls’ swim team as it hosted fifth-seeded WW/P-South in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Central Jersey Group B sectional semis last Friday.

Swimming the backstroke leg to lead off the 200-yard medley relay in the first event of the meet, junior Ristad helped the PHS A quartet take first by nearly three seconds.

“It is my favorite; coming right out of warmup, I jump in and I get ready to go,” said Ristad. “It is like alright. it gets me in the right headspace. It is fun to swim for my team.”

Ristad had a lot of fun in the meet, going on to place first in both the 500 free and the 100 backstroke as PHS rolled to a 120-50 win over the Pirates. The Tigers, now 12-0, will face second-seeded Manasquan in the sectional final on February 15 at The College of New Jersey.

Other individual victors for PHS against WW/P-S included Annie Flanagan in the 200 free, Courtney Weber in the 200 individual medley, Kyleigh Tangen in both the 50 free and 100 free, and Nia Zagar in the 100 breaststroke.

Ristad and her teammates were fired up for a big effort as they started their sectional run as they look to defend their Group B state title.

“It is where the season really picks up for us, this is so exciting for us,” said Ristad.

“We come in and we want to win so bad. Every little thing builds on itself. We win one race and then we want to win the next race more. It just builds and builds and gets more exciting.”

In the 500 free, Ristad prevailed in an exciting race that saw PHS go 1-2-3 with Jessie Wang taking second and Rachel McInerney placing third.

“I definitely love distance, it is one of my favorite things to swim,” said Ristad, who clocked a winning time of 5:30.40 with Wang coming in at 5:35.62 and McInerney posting a 5:43.52 mark. “I usually swim with Jesse and Rachel, it is so fun to swim with those girls. I love swimming with them. I can’t slack off, I need to be with Jesse.
I need to be with Rachel.
We all push each other forward, it was amazing.”

As for the 100 back, Ristad was pushed hard by Flanagan, posting a winning time of 1:02.73, just 0.18 ahead of her teammate.

“I love backstroke so much; whenever I come out of the 500, I  have got to get tight back into my headspace, I can’t let myself drift,” said Ristad. “I swim with Annie, she pushes me so hard every time, especially with underwater. I come up and Annie is still underwater. I have got to do more.”

As a junior, Ristad has been looking to do more for the Tigers. “Having lost so many seniors last year that we really relied on, I knew personally it was time to step up and to improve myself over the summer and the fall to get better for the team,” said Ristad, who also swim for X-Cel club. “I do some open water swimming on the side. I have been training hard with my team, putting in more yards all to build to this. It is the very exciting part of my year.”

Ristad has drawn inspiration from this year’s senior group.

“We have lovely seniors, I have grown up swimming with a lot of them through age group stuff,” said Ristad. “I train with Courtney Weber on a daily basis. Jesse and I swim with her on a daily basis. I have swum with a lot of them before outside of high school. They are such good leaders, they really push our team in the right direction.”

PHS head coach Carly (Misiewicz) Fackler believes her girls’ team has room to grow despite its sparkling 12-0 record.

“I still don’t know if we have reached our full potential on the girls’ side which is great,” said Fackler. “I want us to be exactly at that point. I want us to have more to go. I want us to have that next level that we can still find. We don’t want to peak today, we want to peak in a week and a half or two weeks from now.”

Fackler believes that Ristad has reached a higher level this winter.

“The 500 free is her bread and butter. She does open water, triathlons, and all of that stuff, so she is used to that,” said Fackler. “The pool is nice. It is nice and calm, it is predictable. You know what you get. In open water, you never know what you are getting. She is somebody who is really stepping up across the board with relays as well.”

Two of the squad’s senior stars, Tangen and Weber, stepped up in the win over the Pirates.

“Kyleigh is Kyleigh, you saw her dive in that that 200 free relay and she was I am not going to let us lose,” said Fackler. “She is a great competitor, she has that true race mentality. Courtney did have some good swims. Nia beat her in the 100 breast, it is good that they have been pushing each other the entire year. They really bring out the best in each other.”

As PHS heads into the sectional final against Manasquan, Fackler knows her team will need to bring its best to prevail.

“It is knowing that every level is going to get that much more competitive and that much more tough,” said Fackler, whose squad topped Manasquan in the sectional final last year on the way to the state title. “It is not going to be easy wins, it is not something where we can just coast to wins.”

Ristad, for her part, believes the Tigers have what it takes to make a run at another state title.

“We know that the stakes are higher and that it is important to really put our foot in the right place for the rest of the season,” said Ristad. “We want to take it meet by meet; push ourselves to this meet, push ourselves to the next meet and see where it takes us because that is what happened with us last year. I don’t think we were expecting to go all the way. We definitely really want it badly. We are all working hard in practice, we are all working hard with each other. I have a good feeling about it.”