Boys win sectional first time since 1962; coach McGrath was a man with a plan SEE RELATED STORY
SEWELL — The spectators at the NJSIAA South Jersey boys swimming final Thursday between Ocean City’s Red Raiders and Moorestown’s Quakers could be forgiven for thinking the results were up in the air until the final event, but coach Shane McGrath was a man with a plan.
And the Red Raiders had faith in their coach.
With the Public B sectional title on the line, Ocean City High School’s boys were leading by a narrow 4-point margin, 80-76, entering the 400-yard freestyle relay with 14 points on the line.
Senior Pat Armstrong dove into the pool at Gloucester County Institute of Technology and immediately took the lead in the race. Teammates Nick Bianchi, Matt Woodside and Gavin Neal followed, putting the Quakers in the rearview mirror and getting the Red Raider faithful in the stands on their feet. They won the event by more than 2 seconds, taking 6 points. For good measure, teammates Tommy Armstrong, CJ Denn, Mike Kelly and Andrew Allegretto took third place, securing 4 more of the 14 points for a 90-80 victory.
And the 62-year drought was over.
The Red Raider boys were South Jersey champions for the first time since 1962.
The win wasn’t just a product of that final race, but was built on a series of decisions McGrath made to match up his best swimmers with Moorestown’s top swimmers from the first event onward.
“Our coach McGrath, he had this meet down to a T,” senior Pat Armstrong said. “He knew exactly how it was going to go and we trusted him the entire time. We let him lead the meet and he led us right to a victory.
“We knew exactly what we had to do in that 400 and we got it done,” he said. “It’s an awesome feeling.”
“We had a lot of plans going into this, about where we wanted to be seeded and who we wanted to go against to get here and it all worked out perfectly,” Woodside said, noting things actually worked out a little bit better than planned. “We won by 10 points. That wasn’t the goal. We were supposed to win by 2.”
“I knew I wanted to be at 78 points, ideally, after the breaststroke,” McGrath said of the event leading up to the final race. “And in the breaststroke we had a couple of guys step up, go a little faster than they’ve been this season, and I knew if we could get to that last relay with 78 points we had a real good shot of winning it. And that was the goal.”
Throughout the meet, McGrath was talking to his swimmers and scrutinizing the event lineup sheet with assistant coach Raymond Conover. McGrath knew his swimmers had to perform up to his expectations and their potential and they didn’t disappoint, but with a meet that could hang on one split second difference going the other way, it still kept the tension up.
“We were nervous the whole time,” McGrath said. “A couple things didn’t go our way and a couple things probably didn’t go Moorestown’s way, but this was the type of meet where you just keep battling and see what happens by the end of the meet.”
Getting the title meant a lot to McGrath and he let his swimmers know that.
“I told the kids it’s comparable to when I married my wife and when my son was born. That’s how big it is,” he said. “I’m so happy for my guys. They bought in, they worked so hard.”
Ocean City 90
Moorestown 80
Moorestown won the opening 200-yard medley relay behind Jonah Luetke, Alex Christou, Darek Staniszewski and Dylan Bell in a time of 1:44.41, but Ocean City finished second and third.
Tommy Armstrong, Andrew Koch, Mo Levin and Jackson Agnellini were second and Denn, Colin Abbott, Kelly and Allegretto were third.
The Quakers led 8-6.
Moorestown’s Luke Mumma won the 200 freestyle in 1:47.15 with teammates Jack Greenleaf fourth, but Woodside, Bianchi and Brett Heritage were second, third and fifth, each team earning 8 points.
The Quakers led 16-14.
The 200 individual medley was the biggest event of the meet for the Quakers. Alex Christou (1:57.32) led a 1-3-4 finish with teammates Staniszewski and Alex Yurkewicz third and fourth. Ocean City’s Kelly and Abbot were second and fifth.
The Quakers led by their biggest margin, 27-19.
The Red Raiders quickly rebounded with a 1-2-5 finish in the 50 freestyle.
Pat Armstrong won in 22.11 seconds with Neal one-tenth of a second behind in second and Agnellini a second back in fifth. Quakers Dylan Bell and Sam Thompson were third and fourth.
The Red Raiders had cut the Quakers’ lead to 2 points, 32-30.
After the 10-minute break, Ocean City tied the meet at 39-39.
Leutke won the 100 butterfly in 52.02 seconds and teammate Chase Mancine was third, but Ocean City earned more points in the event with a 2-3-4 finish by Pat Armstrong, Denn and Kelly.
Neal won the 100 freestyle in 49.08 seconds with Bianchi third and Agnellini fifth. Thompson and Staniszewski were second and fourth for Moorestown.
Ocean City led 49-45.
The Quakers cut the lead to 2 points with a win in the 500 freestyle by Mumma in 4:50.54, with teammates Yurkewicz and Xavier Ladik fourth and fifth. Ocean City’s Woodside and Tommy Armstrong were second and third.
Ocean City led 56-54.
The Red Raiders increased their lead to the biggest margin yet, 66-58, when they took first and third in the 200 freestyle relay. Pat Armstrong, Agnellini, Neal and Bianchi won in 1:32.01 and Levin, Abbott, Allegretto and Woodside took third. Thompson, Mancine, Mumma and Bell were second.
The Quakers used the next two events to cut into that lead.
Luetke won the 100 backstroke in 53.44 seconds with Jake Greenleaf and Eamon Coffey fourth and fifth. Denn and Tommy Armstrong were second and third.
Ocean City’s lead was down to 6 at 73-67.
Moorsetown’s Alex Christou won the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.76 with teammate Marek Staniszewski third. Ocean City’s Abbott, Bell and Koch were second, fourth and fifth.
Ocean City led 80-76.
And then the Red Raiders wrapped up their championship by taking first and third in the 400 freestyle relay.
The No. 1 seed Red Raiders were 13-2 after the meet. The Quakers finished their season at 6-5.
In the other sectional meets, No. 1 Princeton beat No. 2 West Windsor-Plainsboro North 105-65 in Central B; No. 1 seed Tenafly beat No. 2 Randolph 109-61 in North 1; and No. 1 Chatham beat No. 2 Montgomery 101-69 in North 2.
Ocean City faces Chatham on Tuesday at the Raritan Bay YMCA in Perth Amboy in the state Public B semifinals as Tenafly and Princeton battle in the other semifinal.
The state final is scheduled for Saturday at GCIT.
Story and photos by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff