(Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) BLUE WAVE: Nicole Kratzer of the Community Park Bluefish displays her breaststroke form in action this summer. Last week, Kratzer placed second in the 18-and-under 50-meter butterfly and fourth in both the 18-and-under 50 freestyle and 100 individual medley in Division 1 competition at the Princeton-Area Swimming and Diving Association (PASDA) championship meet.

CP Bluefish Face Challenging Summer But Produce Many Quality Performances

Bill Alden

Although the Community Park Bluefish boasted a throng of 150 swimmers this summer, those numbers didn’t add up to the success the powerhouse program typically enjoys in the Princeton-Area Swimming and Diving Association (PASDA) competition.

“We had a challenging year for the Bluefish,” acknowledged head coach Andy Sichet, whose team went 2-3 in dual meets this season in PASDA Division 1 competition.

“Most of our meets were away and we kept getting rained out. It was tough to get all the kids going.”

But many of those kids produced quality performances over the course of the summer.

“We had numbers but we measured success differently than the wins or losses,” said Sichet.

“We had a lot of personal achievements; many kids broke team records. We had kids who learned how to compete.”

The Bluefish squad saw several of its girl swimmers compete well this summer.

“Madeline Hoedemaker (age 10) set a lot of the records and Charlotte Singer (13) is coming up through the ranks,” said Sichet, who also got good work on the girls side from Ella Cadeau (8), Grace Hoedemaker (8), Allison Chou (10), Samantha Davis (12), Hannah Ash (13), and Nicole Kratzer (16).

There was also some record-breaking work produced by the team’s male competitors.

“Gefen and Gabriel Bar-Cohen (ages 8 and 12) started the season late but really helped us,” added Sichet, whose boy standouts also included Stephen Kratzer (12), Jaxon Petrone (8), Scott MacKenzie (15), and Max Wilde (17).

“Will Stange (14) is unstoppable. He is unbelievable, particularly on the backstroke. Jason Kratzer (8) was a good new addition. Charles Yandrisevits (10) is another up and coming swimmer; he is a good swimmer and good kid.”

Sichet’s swimmers had some good moments at the PASDA championship meet last week even though the squad didn’t contend for the team title.

“We had 81 swimmers go to the PASDA meet,” said Sichet. “Last year, we took 40 so we achieved our goal of having more numbers there. We set 20 CP Bluefish championship meet records.”

The team’s group of assistant coaches helped keep things on track as Sichet dealt with his large corps of swimmers.

“We had four coaches besides me; they did a great job,” said Sichet. “It was a challenge to get everyone in order.”

In Sichet’s view, the way the Bluefish swimmers dealt with the challenges that arose this summer bodes well for the future.

“It was a very positive experience; we have a lot of quality swimmers,” asserted Sichet.

“The season is only about a month long and we saw improvement from the 6-to-18 year old age groups; that was a pleasure to see. I have great expectations for next year.”

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