SOPHOMORE SENSATION: Princeton High girls’ swimmer Abbey Berloco, right, enjoys the moment with Maria Nitti of Notre Dame after winning the 50-meter freestyle final at the Mercer County Swimming Championships in early February. Sophomore Berloco also prevailed in the 400 free and helped PHS win the team title at the meet, its fourth straight county crown. Berloco went on to place first in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events at the state Meet of Champions and helped PHS win the 400 free relay title. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Abbey Berloco set the bar very high this winter coming into her sophomore season for the Princeton High girls’ swimming team.

During her freshman campaign in 2014-15, Berloco earned the girls’ Most Valuable Swimmer award at the Mercer County Championships, winning both the 50 and 100 freestyle races as PHS won its third straight county crown. She then helped the Little Tigers win the Public B Central Jersey sectional title and advance to the B state final. Culminating the season at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions, Berloco took fifth in the 50 free and helped the PHS 400 free relay team win the title.

Although a lot of attention was focused on Berloco as she started her sophomore campaign, she wasn’t fazed.

“I don’t feel pressure,” said Berloco. “I feel motivated because last year as a team we all did so well, it would just be really great to match that level of last year.”

Berloco drew further motivation from a desire to diversify her portfolio.

“This year I have mostly been working on my technique and my endurance,” said Berloco, who also competes for Hamilton Aquatic Club.

“Last year, I started off with the speed and I wanted to build from there. I am starting to work on going longer distance races so that is one of my bigger goals this season.”

PHS head coach Carly Misiewicz noticed a more mature Berloco this winter.

“Abbey has stepped up in that leadership position, she is no longer a freshman, waiting for everyone else to tell her what to do,” said Misiewicz.

“Now she is saying can I do this or how can I help out here, what can I do here. She is a positive force.”

Berloco proved to be a force in the water once again. At the county championships, she won the 50 free and 400 free on the way to being named Most Valuable Swimmer on the girls’ side at the meet. She also helped PHS to a record-setting performance as it won the 400 free relay to punctuate the meet and take its fourth straight team title.

While the Little Tigers were knocked out of the Public B sectional semis by powerhouse Scotch Plains-Fanwood for its only dual meet loss of the season, Berloco saved her best for last at the Meet of Champions. Berloco won the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events at the meet and helped PHS win the 400 free relay. Berloco set a meet record of 23.20 in the 50 free and the quartet of Berloco, seniors Madeleine Deardorff and Brianna Romaine along with junior Melinda Tang, fell just .28 seconds short of the meet record in the 400 relay with their time of 3:28.60.

In the view of Misiewicz, one of the things that sets Berloco apart is her will to win.

“Abbey is a great swimmer, she is a true competitor,” said Misiewicz. “She will do anything we put her in, she will do the 400, the 50, the 100, or the 200. She always has that attitude that I can go out and win no matter what.”

For matching her brilliant debut campaign and solidifying her status as one of the top swimmers to come through the area in years, Berloco is the choice as the Town Topics’ top female performer of the high school winter sports season.

Top Male Performers

Coming into the winter, Jon Bendorf was determined to keep the Hun School boys’ hockey team at a championship level while Connor Fletcher was focused on helping the Princeton Day School squad restore its winning ways.

With Hun coming off a 22-3-3 season in 2014-15 that saw it win both the state Prep title and the Mercer County Tournament crown, junior forward Bendorf felt additional responsibility to produce.

“Being one of the oldest kids on the team this year, I need to step up and play like it and be a leader out there,” said Bendorf.

“I am hoping we can make a run like we did last year and have a great season.”

But with Hun struggling in the early going as it started 1-4-2, Bendorf’s leadership took the form of helping out along the blue line.

“We have asked Jon to play defense, we don’t have enough guys back there so he has been playing defense for the last two games,” said Hun head coach Ian McNally.

“He is still leading our team in points from the back end. He has got so much poise with the puck and understanding of how the game works that he can play any position.”

Bendorf’s contributions at both ends of the ice helped Hun right the ship. The Raiders won the Purple Puck Tournament in late December in the Washington, D.C. area and then rolled to their third straight Mercer County Tournament title in late February.

Displaying his full range of skills, Bendorf dominated the MCT title game, tallying two goals and three assists to earn MVP honors as top-seeded Hun defeated second-seeded Notre Dame 6-2.

McNally, for his part, saw Bendorf as the catalyst to Hun’s county triumph. “Jon is a very offensive player, he scored two goals of the first three or four that went in and set the tempo for us,” said McNally of Bendorf, who ended up leading Hun in scoring with 46 points on 20 goals and 26 assists as it posted a final record of 17-8-2.

“He is unbelievably calm. The rush looks dead and he still has it. He just turns around and looks for something else to happen and passes to somebody else.”

For Bendorf, who is headed to the Madison Capitols of the USHL (United States Hockey League) and has committed to play college hockey for Rensselaer, doing his best for Hun has been a priority.

“I have my travel team but you know Hun definitely has a spot in my heart,” said Bendorf.

“I love putting on the Hun jersey and playing in front of our fans and just going all out to help my team win.”

Meanwhile, across town at McGraw Rink, PDS senior forward and team captain Fletcher believed that the Panthers were primed to rebound from a frustrating 2014-15 campaign that saw them go 3-16-1.

“We had a really tough season last year and a real young group and the way that they have matured throughout this season and over the offseason has been a real blessing for us,” said Fletcher, who also stars in soccer and lacrosse and is headed to Cornell where he will play for the school’s storied men’s lax program.

PDS head coach Scott Bertoli saw Fletcher as just the guy who could help a young Panther squad live up to the program’s winning tradition.

“He is a force on whatever field or rink he is on,” said PDS head coach Scott Bertoli of Fletcher.

“He is such a good kid, he does everything the right way. All of our young guys look up to him. It is funny because I think the best job he has done was last year as a junior captain for a team with very limited success. The kid went about his business right way. He had fun coming to the rink every day and I think the kids really benefitted from that. As a coach I appreciate it and as a coach I am smart enough to realize what he meant to that group last year and that has carried over to this year.”

With Fletcher providing production and leadership, PHS enjoyed a reversal of fortune. Starting out 5-0-1, the Panthers gained confidence as the season went on.

“Once we got off to a good start this year, I was happy that we stuck with it,” said Bertoli, whose team piled up wins over Hun, Lawrenceville, St. Augustine, Wyoming Seminary (Pa.), and St. Joseph’s (Pa.) to avenge some defeats from the previous season.

“We had a really daunting schedule in January. I am looking at the schedule and I am thinking every one of these games is a 50/50 game and all it takes is to lose one or two of those early games and you lose your confidence and things start to spiral. That never really happened. We talked about it. You don’t get the opportunity to play with this group for so long, come February 10, it is over and it is done with and I think they really embraced that.”

Rolling past Hun 7-2 in the state Prep semis, Fletcher and his teammates fell just short of a state title, losing 3-0 to Morristown-Beard in the championship game.

“We weren’t trying to think win or loss there, it was just trying to go out and play our hardest game against them,” said Fletcher, in assessing the setback. “I feel like we played well, we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Fletcher enjoyed a Hollywood ending in the season finale against Chatham, assisting on a goal to force overtime and then scoring the game-winner in a 3-2 victory in the last play of his hockey career.

“You could not have scripted it any better, it was such a fitting ending for a remarkable career,” said Bertoli, reflecting on the win which gave the Panthers a final record of 15-6-3. “He has done as much, if not more, for our program and our team than anyone has in my time here.”

For Fletcher, helping the program get back on the winning track was his main focus.

“I think the biggest thing is that as players and as a team, we are not playing as individuals, we are playing with each other and for each other,” said Fletcher, who tallied 31 points this winter on 15 goals and 16 assists. “I feel like we have made huge leaps in terms of that.”

As a result of their special contributions on and off the ice in helping the Hun and PDS teams enjoy memorable campaigns, Bendorf and Fletcher are the joint choice as the top male performer this winter.

Top Newcomers

In assessing his Stuart Country Day School basketball team coming into the season, Justin Leith felt that freshman Bey-Shana Clark would make an immediate impact.

“She is just tremendous inside,” asserted Leith of Clark. “Certainly in the next couple of years she is going to be a very high level player, not just for Stuart but in general.”

With Clark producing a number of double-doubles with her scoring and rebounding prowess in the paint, Stuart got off to a 9-0 start.

“It has been pretty smooth,” said Clark, reflecting on the transition to high school ball. “I think I have gotten a lot better. I play AAU and I am doing marvelous now.”

Clark kept getting better as the season went on, ending up leading the team in points (15.7 a game) and rebounds (5.3 a game) as the Tartans went 19-9 and advanced to the Mercer County Tournament quarterfinals.

Emerging as an inside force in her debut campaign, Clark earns the nod as the top female newcomer.

The Princeton High wrestling team boasted a number of battle-tested stars as it entered the 2015-16 campaign, including junior James Verbeyst, senior Dave Beamer, junior Kyle Angelucci, junior Ethan Guerra, and senior Noah Ziegler.

But a pair of freshmen, Daniel Monahan at 113 pounds and Alec Bobchin at 120, started turning heads for the Little Tigers.

“They have come in and have hit the ground running as freshmen,” said PHS head coach Rashone Johnson.

“It is not too often where you can get freshmen who can come in and you can count on those guys to win for the most part. They just keep on going and going. I would say that as freshmen they come in with their experience and they have wrestled like veterans.”

Bobchin, for his part, emerged as one of the top freshmen in the area, going on to win the title at 120 pounds at the Patriot Invitational and placing first at 120 in the Mercer County Tournament. He ended up with a 20-4 record in his debut campaign.

For coming through like a veteran on the way to a county title, Bobchin is the choice as the top male newcomer of the winter season.

Top Coaches

In his first season at the helm of the Stuart Country Day School basketball program in 2014-15, Justin Leith was looking to change the culture of the team.

Embracing a work ethic and deepened commitment to the game, the Tartans showed progress as they went 11-16.

Coming into this winter, Leith was looking for his team to take the next step.

“The expectations have really been solidified and what is great is that now we have some new kids and the culture is starting to be established,” said Leith.

“The older kids bring them in, it is not me, and they are going to individuals, saying hey this is the way we do things here, which is really fun to be a part of.”

With the addition of precocious freshman forward Bey-Shana Clark and smooth sophomore transfer guard Jalynn Spaulding and the leadership from its trio of seniors, Kate Walsh, Harley Guzman, and Rose Tetnowski, the Tartans started having fun right away, winning the George School (Pa.) Invitational to open the season and getting out of the gate at 9-0.

“The thing I am happiest about is we are getting better every day, I don’t care about the record as much; I am not even thinking about that,” said Leith, reflecting on the team’s sizzling start.

“We certainly have games this year that would be a stretch for us to win so I know that may come. As long as we are getting better every game along the way, that is what matters. “

While the Tartans hit some bumps in the middle of the season, they made a big step forward in the Mercer County Tournament. Showing resolve, fourth-seeded Stuart defeated 13th-seeded Trenton High 49-45 in a first round contest, holding off a late rally from the Tornadoes.

“I don’t know when the last time Stuart advanced in the MCT so that was one of our goals this season,” said Leith, whose team fell in the county quarters and ended the season at 19-9.

“We talked about it and we accomplished that goal and we are happy with it.”

Getting the Tartans to accomplish its goal of daily improvement on the way to a sparkling record makes Leith the choice as the top coach of a female team.

When Paris McLean stepped down as the head coach of the Princeton Day boys’ basketball team, the school’s Director of Athletics, Tim Williams, didn’t have to look far for his replacement.

Having served as the boys’ hoops head coach at the Louisville Collegiate School for nine years before coming to New Jersey in 2011, Williams decided to assume the reins of the program himself.

With the Panthers coming off a 5-17 season in 2014-15, Williams found players ready for change.

“Things have been real positive, it has been really encouraging to see the way the kids have picked up things,” said Williams.

“They are like a bunch of sponges, they do whatever we ask them to do. They go right to it and have a lot of enthusiasm. I have heard from a lot of people around who poke their head into our gym and tell me there is a lot of energy in the gym and that is exactly what we are going for.”

After starting 5-5, PDS caught fire, winning eight of its next 10 games to bring a 13-7 record into the state Prep B tournament.

“The guys that were returning, the new guys that came in have really bought into what we have been asking them to do,” added Williams, reflecting on the team’s late surge.

“That has been the key, they have been really receptive to the things we have been asking them to do. I think they have really improved incrementally throughout the whole season.”

Seeded first in the Prep B tourney, PDS lived up to that ranking, topping fourth-seeded Wardlaw Hartridge 63-44 in the semis and then edging third-seeded Morristown-Beard 66-62 in overtime in the final, winning the first state Prep title for the boys’ hoops program since 1999.

“We had some modest goals at the beginning of the season; we thought about a state championship but I think it was way out there,” said Williams, whose team also advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercer County Tournament and ended the winter with a 16-8 record.

“The guys really started to solidify and think about what they were doing and how well they were doing it and I thought this could be a reality for us and we were working for it. I think the buy-in, the fact that everyone has subjugated themselves to some extent for the team with a bunch of new guys and a bunch of returning guys but who were young. I couldn’t be more happy. I have had so much fun coaching these guys. It has been wonderful.”

For getting his players to sacrifice and emerge as a championship team, Williams is the pick as the top coach of a male team this winter.