SPRINT FINISH: Princeton High girls’ swimmer Kyleigh Tangen heads to victory in a freestyle race earlier this season. Last Saturday, senior star Tangen placed first in both the 50-meter and 100 freestyle races at the Mercer County Swimming Championships. Tangen’s heroics helped PHS place first in the team standings as the Tigers won their third straight county title. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

For the Princeton High girls’ swimming team, its performance in the 400-meter freestyle relay in the finals of the Mercer County Swimming Championships last Saturday exemplified the competitive fire that has led the squad to dominate the meet in recent years.

The PHS quartet cruised to a win by nearly 10 seconds as they posted a winning time of 4:04.92 with Robbinsville taking second in 4:14.84.

“Our 400 free relay dropped eight seconds from Friday (in the preliminaries) to Saturday,” said PHS head coach Carly (Misiewicz) Fackler. “It was that statement piece, distancing ourselves from the field.”

That was the final statement of the day for PHS as it won its third straight county crown, piling up a winning score of 359 points, more than doubling second-place finisher WW/P-South who came in at 156.

Coming into the finals on Saturday at WW/P-North, Fackler sensed that her girls’ squad was primed for a command performance.

“The girls were just dominant, almost every girl that swam in prelims made it back to the finals,” said Fackler. “In the 200 free, there were three girls that made it back. In the IM, all three girls that swam got back. In the 50 free, all four girls made it. That set the tone, it was ours to lose essentially.”

Senior star Kyleigh Tangen took first in the 50 and 100 free races to set the tone for the Tigers early in the meet.

“Kyleigh had big goals set for herself,” said Fackler. “Winning the 50 and the 100 last year as a junior was an accomplishment in and of itself. She wanted to repeat as champion in both of these events as well. She is a competitor; she gets out, she races and she accepts nothing but victory.”

Tangen was pushed by her teammates as Sabine Ristad took second in the 50 free while Annie Flanagan placed second in the 100 free.

“Having Sabine right next to her in the  50 free and Annie on the other side of her in the 100 free, they say different things like, ‘Oh we are racing against each other,’” said Fackler. “I tell them you can always use each other and have great races against each other, so utilize things like that to your advantage. It is great.”

Another senior standout, Courtney Weber, produced some great races, taking first in both the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke.

“We had another double winner there with Courtney. She was on our winning medley relay and was on the winning 200 free relay well,” said Fackler of Weber who has committed to attend Boston College and compete for its women’s swimming program. “She has been one of seniors that we look to and rely on in moments like that. She is an athlete who wants to win and will stop at nothing.”

Fackler has a number of other good athletes to rely on as Ristad also placed second in the 100 backstroke while Jesse Wang placed second in the 200 free and third in the 400 free and Nia Zagar finished third in both the 200 IM and 100 breast.

“Sabine was second in the back, she had two very close finishes,” said Fackler. “Megan Dera from Robbinsville is an outstanding athlete as well. Sabine was up there again and had a great competitor and great person to race with and swam even faster than she did the day before. Jesse was a distance star at the county meet, but at the same time I can put her in the 100 back and the 100 fly. Nia getting third in two events in the county is great. It sets the tone for not only the rest of this year but the future of the program too.”

Earning a county title three-peat was a special moment for the program.

“It is that excitement, that adrenaline rush,” said Fackler. “Of course you are on this natural high, it is three years in a row.”

With PHS having won the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Group B state championship last year, the Tigers have their eye on a title repeat.

“It shows them that we have a lot more to prove, we are not finished yet,” said Fackler, whose team is bringing an 11-0 record into the state tournament which starts on February 5. “Being able to repeat as a state champion would be amazing and would be nothing short of two awesome seasons back to back, but it is not going to come easy. Like I told them, nothing is guaranteed — you have to work for it. There is a difference between being cocky and being confident. I tell them it is just be confident in ourselves and our abilities and what we can do and what we can put together as a team.”

With such seniors as Tangen, Weber, Wang, Lauren Girouard, and Nora Chen leading the way, Fackler is confident that Tigers will get the most out of their abilities.

“The seniors are the core and the backbone of the entire team,” said Fackler. “It is great seeing how they performed at counties and how they stepped up in clutch situations throughout the regular season.”