STROKE OF BRILLIANCE: Princeton High boys’ swimmer David Xu displays his breaststroke form in a race this season. Last Saturday, freshman Xu took second in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 butterfly as PHS fell 97-73 to Chatham in the NJSIAA Group B state championship meet at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology pool. The defeat left the Tigers with a final record of 14-1. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Alex Shaw ended his career for the Princeton High boys’ swimming team last Saturday evening in a place he could never have imagined.

Senior star sprinter Shaw and his teammates headed to the Gloucester County Institute of Technology pool to face Chatham in the New Jersey Group B state championship meet.

“Starting off my freshman year, we would never have seen the light of making it this far,” said Shaw.

“It was just training and getting together, really pushing each other through practices and meets and hyping each other up to get this far.”

Hyping each other up before facing Chatham, the PHS squad roared out an ear-splitting pre-meet chant on the deck.

Once the meet started, though, powerhouse Chatham lived up to the hype, winning the 200-yard medley relay and going one-two in the 200 freestyle to jump out to an 18-12 lead and never looked back on the way to a 97-73 win.

While Shaw and his teammates were disappointed to fall just short of a state championship, there were no qualms about their effort in the final.

“Making it this far was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,” said Shaw, who took fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free as the Tigers finished the winter with a 14-1 record. “It would have been nice to win the state title. Props to Chatham, they fought hard and we fought hard. There were a lot of personal bests across everyone today.”

One of the best moments for PHS came with a win in the 200 free relay.

“That was a fast one,” said Shaw, who swam the third leg on the winning relay. “It was a lot of out-touching, everyone fighting their hearts out, coming down to hundredths of seconds.”

In reflecting on the team’s accomplishments this winter, Shaw pointed to everyone coming together as a key to success.

“There is a lot of brother bonding that we have got done, a lot of people got brought together,” said Shaw, a team captain along with junior star Julian Velazquez. “Mostly, the team is one big family, both inside and outside of high school. We are all together; we see each other everywhere throughout our everyday lives.”

With the squad stocked with young stars, Shaw believes that PHS has a big future.

“Next year, it is looking fantastic for them,” said Shaw. “With Daniel Baytin being a senior and we have all of the freshmen moving up.”

PHS head coach Carly Misiewicz got a fantastic vibe from her swimmers as they warmed up at the GCIT pool.

“We were very excited, I think that was really the best way to describe it,” said Misiewicz. “It was unexpected to keep it that close with Tenafly (an 87-83 win in the Group B semis on February 22), there was an unexpected disqualification unfortunately for them which allowed us to get to this point. We swam our hearts out in every single meet. We got better in the sectional finals (a 105-65 win over WW/P-North on February 17), we were faster on Tuesday and we were even faster today.”

Misiewicz realized that her swimmers had to go very fast to push Chatham.

“We knew what Chatham had, they had depth and they have some of those top guys as well,” said Misiewicz. “We knew that was going to be our biggest battle; unfortunately a couple of close races didn’t go our way. We kept it competitive and that was our goal. We don’t want to just give it away, we wanted to make them work for it.”

Digging an early hole made it harder work for the Tigers. “We fell behind a little bit; it is the first time this year we have been in that situation which is good and bad,” said Misiewicz. “It is good because it means we have had a pretty good run but that is tough. You are crawling away, you are trying to chip at that deficit. They didn’t give up, being able to go two-three in that last relay showed that.”

Junior star Baytin had a very good meet for PHS, posting wins in the 50 free and the 100 breaststroke.

“Dan was phenomenal, his swims in the 50 free and 100 breast were great,” said Misiewicz. “He is a true competitor. He was in the 200 free relay and then to come back to win the breaststroke. You can tell he is hurting.”

The 200 free relay ended up being a phenomenal moment for PHS.

“That was huge too, being able to see Dan get in the water,” said Misiewicz, whose winning quartet included freshman Daniel Guo and sophomore Alvin Tien in addition to Baytin and Shaw.

“I obviously know what he is capable of but 20.9 in that split was huge. Alex was the third guy on that relay.”

Misiewicz credited Shaw with leading the team in and out of the water.

“Alex has been tremendous, he is such a good kid,” said Misiewicz. “He is so positive. He is like the cheerleader in the sense that he really gets everybody fired up, being one of three seniors with so many freshmen and so many sophomores.”

Two of the team’s freshman stars, Guo and David Xu, stepped up against Chatham. Guo placed third in the 200 free and second in the 100 free while Xu took second in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 butterfly.

“Daniel got third in the 200 free and he said, ‘I am sorry’; I said, “You had a best time which was a 1:49 on Tuesday and you went 1:46 tonight,’” recalled Misiewicz. “I said, ‘How are you sorry? You dropped three seconds in four days.’ Going under 50 in the 100 free was another best time for him. David Xu has been someone from the very beginning who has done well. He has given us wins in the 200 IM and 500 free in the states. We switched it up a little bit today and put him in the 100 fly.”

In the view of Misiewicz, she got the best efforts from her swimmers collectively on Saturday.

“At the end of the day, my message was leave it all in the pool and they all did,” said Misiewicz. “When you see them crawling out of the pool and laying behind the blocks, you know that they truly gave everything.”

The Tigers gave everything throughout a memorable winter which saw them go undefeated in the regular season for a second straight year and place first in the Mercer County Championships for the first time since 2014 before the run to the state final.

“I haven’t really had time to process it because it has just been happening so fast,” said Misiewicz. “The energy that they had, the fact that they are a team and that they come together and really support each other, I love coaching them.”

With a number of young stars slated to return, Misiewicz sees good things happening for the team going forward.

“The future is looking pretty bright for us, we came up a little short today but they were just so excited to be here,”  said Misiewicz. “I would love to be that Haddonfield, that Chatham, who is always that top dog. You are always hunting and chasing something else and looking to reach that next goal. I think if anything, this loss today makes us more excited and more hungry for next year.”

Shaw, for his part, won’t soon forget his final year with the PHS program.

“This is it for me,” said Shaw. “Making it this far and wiping out everyone else but one team, it was truly one heck of a year for me.”