Montclair's Marc Sambolin (left) and Mount St. Dominic's Abigail Ortman hold their Cullen Jones Awards as the outstanding swimmers in the recent Essex County Championships at Seton Hall University.. (Photos by Doug Allen)

Mount St. Dominic's Megan Wujciak wins the 100-yard freestyle in 52.91 during the Jan. 29th Essex County Swimming Championships at SHU.

The Mount's Abigail Ortman starts what would be her winning race in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 59.91 while helping to lead the powerful Sea Lions.

Montclair's dynamic sophomore Marc Sambolin celebrates winning boys 50-free

Millburn's Cailey Silbert was an absolute sensation in setting two new meet record times for both the 200- (1:51.85) and 500-free (4:53.95) while leading the 2011 team champion Milers to a second place behind the title-winning Mount.

The Mount St. Dominic girls swimming team captured Essex swimming title

MKA's super freshman freestyler Morgan Smith had a second place (in 500) and a third (in 200) while giving every indication she'll be one to watch in 2013

Golda Och's star Jessica Antiles won the 100-yard breaststroke in the county meet with a time of 1:06.83 and also took top honors in 200-I.M. (2;06.78)

The Mount's Lauren Buckworth competes in breaststroke for her deep team

Seton Hall Prep won a 15th straight Essex County boys championship meet title

The Deep Mount Lady Sea Lions
Make Huge Splash In Essex Meet
By Bill Allen
For sidelinechatter.com

SOUTH ORANGE- As almost everyone knows, when it comes to swimming, the depth of the water is always key.

However, when it comes to swim teams, depth is, perhaps, even more super-salient.

At time this time last year, the swim squad from Mount Saint Dominic Academy saw its stars shine in the Essex County/Super Essex Confenence championships meet held Jan. 29th at Seton Hall University, as the Lady Sea Lions won six events and set a half-dozen new county and conference records... but finished a disappointing second -by a painfully scant five points- to archrival Millburn in the team standings.

This time around, the now much deeper MSDA swim squad set only one record and won just four events... but came out on top where it really counts, with the Mount totaling 295 points, while the defending champion Lady Millers were second with 246, followed by Montclair High with 188, Newark Academy (116), Livingston in fifth place with 101, Montclair Kimberley Academy (82), Caldwell in seventh place with 76, Columbia with 72, West Orange with 68 and West Essex Regional in tenth place with forty points.

That effort brought the Lady Sea Lions their second county crown in three years and their second SEC crown in the three years of current conference combat.

Leading the locals was the surprising showing by sophomore speedster Abigail Ortman.

A North Caldwell resident, Ortman was the only competitor, boy or girl, to leave the meet with four gold medals. Ortman won both her individual events by posting a time of :25.04 in the 50-yards freestyle and a personal best effort of :59.91 in the 100-yards backstroke, while also helping the team's two freestyle relay contingents to first place finishes.

In the 400 free relay, the foursome of ninth-grader Jasmine Spinelli (Verona), Ortman, senior Lauren Buckworth (Ceder Grove) and junior Megan Wujciak (West Caldwell) won by almost 10 seconds over a team from Millburn, finishing at 3:37.65, while, in the 200 free relay, the quartet of Ortman, Spinelli, Wujciak and Buckworth edged Millburn, 1:40.58 - 1:41.36, and broke a two-decade-old record of 1:42.50 set by West Orange in 1992.

An incredible performance in the Essex girls meet was also turned in by Millburn’s Cailey Silbert who won both the 200- and 500-freestyle in meet record times of 1:51.85 and 4:53.95, respectively.

Her 500-time was faster than the Essex boys meet winning time of 4:56.51.

In the 200-free, the second and third place times of 1:53.29 and 1;53.83 turned in, respectively, by the Mount’s Megan Wujciak and MKA’s young freshman phenom Morgan Smith, were also faster than the previous event standard of 1:54.66 established by Silbert in last year’s meet.

On the boys side, Seton Hall Prep won its 15 th straight team title, but Montclair’s boys, led by Cullen Award winner Marc Sambolin (firsts in the 50- and 100-free) had a very good day while placing second overall to the powerful Pirates.

The Mount’s Ortman joined the Mounties’ young free spring sensation Sambolin on the podium to accept the Cullen Jones Awards as outstanding swimmers in the Essex championships, which were once again held at SHU’s Arthur Imperatore Natatorium.

As far as the Mount team went, there were splendid performances all around in addition to Ortman.

After reaping four gold medals in each of her first three trips to the county/conference clash, Buckworth garnered "only" three golds and a silver, as she won the 100 butterfly for the fourth straight season (:58.66) and was part of the two victorious free relays, but finished second in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:10.36, with Golda Och’s terrific ninth-grader Jessica Antilles winning that race at 2:06.76. However, Buckworth earned first place team points anyway, since Golda Och does not have a full team.

Wujciak, also came home with three golds and a silver by winning the 100 free race at :52.91, coming in second in the aforementioned 200 free at 1:53.29 and being part of both freestyle relays.

"While our "stars" had a big day, just like last year, the difference was in that we had four scorers in both the IM and the butterfly and three in the 200 free, the 500 free, the backstoke and the breaststoke," assessed longtime MSDA head coach Andrea Jordan, a Verona High alum.

Joining Buckworth as scorers in the 200 IM were Maggie Coleman, a junior from Cedar Grove who finished fourth with a personal best (PB) time of 2:15.93, ninth-grader Claire Mason (8th/2:19.31, PB) and senior Ali Borrelli (10th/2:21.79), while, in the 100 'fly it was Buckworth in first place, followed by Spinelli (5th/1:01.59), sophomore Kara O'Sullivan (9th/1:04.42) and junior Allie Stein (17th, but with 12th place points, 1:09.91).

In the 200 free, it was Wujciak as the runnerup, followed by junior Blair Frantz (6th/2:03.39) and Emily Campbell, a senior from Caldwell who finished 10th at 2:08.98.

The 500 free saw Spinelli finish fourth at 5:20.20, followed by Frantz (5th/5:21.5, PB) and Stein (13th/5:46.29), while the backstroke brought Ortman in first place, followed by O'Sullivan (8th/1:05.47) and junior Jesse Schnurr (14th, but 11th place points, 1:07.14).

Finally, in the breaststroke, Mason took eighth at 1:13.25, Coleman finished ninth via a 1:13.51 effort and Borrelli ended-up 12th at 1:15.17.

"This was a true and very really team effort which involved virtually each and everyone of our swimmers and I'll take a team title over setting a bunch of records, but finishing second any day," Jordan emphasized.

"This was just incredible!" declared Campbell. "We all worked really, really hard and we really deserved this.

"We've gone unbeaten in dual meets since the beginning of the SEC and, now, we've won two out of three county and conference championships and we've really grown-up and grown-together as a team and a really proud of all my teammates."

With a 116-51 victory over MKA on Tuesday night, Jan. 31, the Lady Sea Lions also clinched their third straight SEC regular season title and are slated to close out their regular season slate by traveling to take on crosstown competitor Caldwell on Monday night, Feb. 6, at the Caldwell Community Center.

2012 ESSEX COUNTY SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS AT SHU

BOYS:

TEAMS: 1-Seton Hall Prep 255. 2-Montclair 186. 3-Millburn 183. 4-Columbia 127. 5-Caldwell 112. 6-Montclair Kimberley 108. 7-West Essex 106. 8-St. Benedict's Prep 69. 9-Newark Academy and Livingston 64. 11-West Orange 22.

200-YARD MEDLEY RELAY: 1-Montclair (Kristof VanWinden, J.D. Chow, Marc Sambolin, Matthew Peknay) 1:43.13. 2-Seton Hall Prep 1:43.54. 3-Caldwell 1:44.12. 4-Columbia 1:45.18. 5-Millburn 1:45.73. 6-West Essex 1:48.13.

200-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-James Lovey, West Essex, 1:47.45. 2-Kristof VanWinden, Montclair, 1:49.53. 3-Justin Dunn, Seton Hall Prep, 1:51.02. 4-Will Zaubler, Montclair Kimberley, 1:51.50. 5-Jeremy Zak, Montclair Kimberley, 1:52.53. 6-Miles Markey, Seton Hall Prep, 1:56.57.

200-YARD INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: 1-Ben Lin, Millburn, 2:00.93. 2-Krishna Duvvuri, Columbia, 2:02.11. 3-Jackson Salter, Caldwell, 2:04.88. 4-Tim Barth, West Essex, 2:05.78. 5-J.D. Chow, Montclair, 2:06.20. 6-Matthew Peknay, Montclair, 2:08.22.

50-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-Marc Sambolin, Montclair, 21.80. 2-Nigel Hunter, Columbia, 22.19. 3-Alex Maquet, Millburn, 22.70. 4-Arjun Arora, Newark Academy, 22.99. 5-Will Zaubler, Montclair Kimberley, 23.30. 6-Tom Curivan, Seton Hall Prep, 23.39.

100-YARD BUTTERFLY: 1-Jackson Salter, Caldwell, 54.58. 2-Matthew Peknay, Montclair, 56.73. 3-David Burton, Caldwell, 57.09. 4-Nitay Caspi, Livingston, 57.28. 5-Terence McNally, Seton Hall Prep, 57.36. 6-Andrew Caetano, St. Benedict's Prep, 58.05.

100-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-Marc Sambolin, Montclair, 47.30, meet record; former record, 47.39, Mike Przywozny, Seton Hall Prep, 1994. 2-Justin Dunn, Seton Hall Prep, 50.22. 3-Arjun Arora, Newark Academy, 50.40. 4-Alex Maquet, Millburn, 50.86. 5-Renato Calatroni, Seton Hall Prep, 53.07. 6-Matthew Hong, Millburn, 53.11.

500-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-James Lovey, West Essex, 4:56.51. 2-Jeremy Zak, Montclair Kimberley, 5:08.88. 3-Peter Schott, Millburn, 5:10.45. 4-Dennis Kelly, Montclair Kimberley, 5:11.26. 5-Miles Markey, Seton Hall Prep, 5:12.75. 6-George Jiang, Millburn, 5:18.71.

200-YARD FREESTYLE RELAY: 1-Columbia (Nigel Hunter, Basil Bryant, Randolph Hunter, Krishna Duvvuri) 1:32.63. 2-Seton Hall Prep 1:33.03. 3-West Essex 1:36.79. 4-St. Benedict's Prep 1:36.91. 5-Millburn 1:37.67. 6-Livingston 1:37.96.

100-YARD BACKSTROKE: 1-Ben Lin, Millburn, 52.01, meet record; former record, 52.14, Kyle Madley, Seton Hall Prep, 2011. 2-Kristof VanWinden, Montclair, 56.12. 3-Tim Barth, West Essex, 56.29. 4-Zach Jones, Seton Hall Prep, 58.62. 5-Nick Hennig, Verona, 58.69. 6-Hayden Kucharski, Seton Hall Prep, 1:00.70.

100-YARD BREASTSTROKE: 1-Tavish Boyle, Seton Hall Prep, 1:01.63. 2-Krishna Duvvuri, Columbia, 1:03.16. 3-Travis Aion, Caldwell, 1:03.34. 4-Nitay Caspi, Livingston, 1:03.41. 5-J.D. Chow, Montclair, 1:04.00. 6-Nigel Hunter, Columbia, 1:04.56.

400-YARD FREESTYLE RELAY: 1-Montclair (Matthew Peknay, J.D. Chow, Kristof VanWinden, Marc Sambolin) 3:22.53. 2-Millburn 3:25.17. 3-Seton Hall Prep 3:28.52. 4-Montclair Kimberley 3:29.91. 5-Caldwell 3:33.18. 6-Newark Academy 3:41.79.

GIRLS:

TEAMS: 1-Mount St. Dominic 295. 2-Millburn 246. 3-Montclair 188. 4-Newark Academy 116. 5-Livingston 101. 6-Montclair Kimberley 82. 7-Caldwell 76. 8-Columbia 72. 9-West Orange 68. 10-West Essex 40.

200-YARD MEDLEY RELAY: 1-Millburn (Danielle Misiak, Isabelle Morrealle, Lindsay Stearns, Katie McGrath) 1:53.78. 2-Newark Academy 1:58.95. 3-Montclair 1:59.05. 4-Livingston 1:59.52. 5-Mount St. Dominic 1:59.74. 6-Montclair Kimberley 2:00.13.

200-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-Cailley Silbert, Millburn, 1:51.85, meet record; former record, 1:54.66, Cailley Silbert, Millburn, 2011. 2-Megan Wujciak, Mount St. Dominic, 1:53.29. 3-Morgan Smith, Montclair Kimberley, 1:53.83. 4-Jen Koide, Newark Academy, 1:58.18. 5-Elizabeth Butler, West Orange, 2:01.78. 6-Blair Frantz, Mount St. Dominic, 2:03.39.

200-YARD INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: 1-Jessica Antilles, Golda Och, 2:06.76. 2-Lauren Buckworth, Mount St. Dominic, 2:10.36. 3-Katherine Cullinan, Glen Ridge, 2:14.45. 4-Maggie Coleman, Mount St. Dominic, 2:15.93. 5-Lindsay Stearns, Millburn, 2:17.12. 6-Samma Regan, Montclair, 2:17.67.

50-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-Abigail Ortman, Mount St. Dominic, 25.05. 2-Maggie Woodruff, Columbia, 25.46. 3-Katie McGrath, Millburn, 25.66. 4-Lucy Frezza, Montclair, 25.81. 5-Nancy Yang, Livingston, 25.83. 6-Jordyn Norris, Newark Academy, 25.92.

100-YARD BUTTERFLY: 1-Lauren Buckworth, Mount St. Dominic, 58.66. 2-Jordan Silbert, Millburn, 59.93. 3-Lindsay Stearns, Millburn, 1:00.52. 4-Tiffany Smith, West Orange, 1:01.34. 5-Jasmine Spinelli, Mount St. Dominic, and Kristin Cullinan, Glen Ridge, 1:01.59.

100-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-Megan Wujciak, Mount St. Dominic, 52.91. 2-Lucy Frezza, Montclair, 55.77. 3-Maggie Woodruff, Columbia, 56.88. 4-Jordyn Norris, Newark Academy, 57.32. 5-Tara McGarty, Nutley, 57.51. 6-Isabelle Morrealle, Millburn, 58.15.

500-YARD FREESTYLE: 1-Cailley Silbert, Millburn, 4:53.95, meet record; former record; 4:59.42, Cailley Silbert, Millburn, 2011. 2-Morgan Smith, Montclair Kimberley, 4:59.50. 3-Jordan Silbert, Millburn, 5:14.31. 4-Jasmine Spinelli, Mount St. Dominic, 5:20.20. 5-Blair Frantz, Mount St. Dominic, 5:21.15. 6-Elizabeth Butler, West Orange, 5:21.76.

200-YARD FREESTYLE RELAY: 1-Mount St. Dominic (Abigail Ortman, Jasmine Spinelli, Megan Wujciak, Lauren Buckworth) 1:40.58, meet record; former record, 1:42.50, West Orange, 1992. 2-Millburn 1:41.36. 3-Livingston 1:45.40. 4-Montclair 1:49.05. 5-Columbia 1:49.86. 6-Verona 1:53.56.

100-YARD BACKSTROKE: 1-Abigail Ortman, Mount St. Dominic, 59.91. 2-Katie McGrath, Millburn, 1:01.20. 3-Tiffany Smith, West Orange, 1:02.84. 4-Courtney Munro, Cedar Grove, 1:03.36. 5-Alison Collins, Nutley, 1:03.82. 6-Tara McGarty, Nutley, 1:03.94.

100-YARD BREASTSTROKE: 1-Jesscia Antiles, Golda Och, 1:06.83. 2-Isabelle Morrealle, Millburn, 1:08.53. 3-Katherine Cullinan, Glen Ridge, 1:09.65. 4-Jen Koide, Newark Academy, 1:10.39. 5-Nora O'Leary, Montclair, 1:10.91. 6-Samma Regan, Montclair, 1:11.66.

400-YARD FREESTYLE RELAY: 1-Mount St. Dominic (Jasmine Spinelli, Abigail Ortman, Lauren Buckworth, Megan Wujciak) 3:37.98. 2-Millburn 3:47.65. 3-Montclair 3:50.24. 4-Newark Academy 3:53.11. 5-Montclair Kimberley 3:55.25. 6-Caldwell 4:03.53.

Golda Och's Jessica Antiles is one of the young Essex County stars who shined brightly in the recent county swimming championships held at SHU

The Mount's 200- and 400-free relay units copped first place honors in helping to lead a deep and persistent Lady Sea Lion squad in Essex meet.  
 
Millburn's girls were an impressive second place behind the Mount in Essex meet. Three of the key performers for the Millers are, from left, Lindsay Stearns, Cailey Silbert and Jordan Silbert as team had 246 points


Montclair's up-and-coming boys team was led by its victorious 400-free relay unit of Matthew Peknay, J.D. Chow, Kristoff Van Winden and Marc Sambolin, who copped the boys Cullen Jones Award as the top swimmer.


Golda Och's Jessica Antiles and the Mount's Lauren Buckworth (right) are off the blocks to begin battle in the 200-I.M. a race which Antiles won in 2:06.78 and the Lady Sea Lions' Buckworth was next up in a 2:10. 36.

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