IHA, Bergen Catholic swimming race to the top at the Bergen County Meet of Champions

WEST NYACK – Bergen Catholic coach Lia Kunnapas had a feeling that every race would matter this year at the Bergen County Meet of Champions.

Did it ever.

The midseason meet produced another nail-biting finish on Sunday night with the Crusaders prevailing in the final lap to upset defending champion Tenafly by a 256-241 score.

Bergen Catholic won four of the 11 events – including individual gold from Doyee Kim (individual medley) and Raymond Stelmark (500 freestyle) – on the way to its first Bergen title in six seasons. Nine points were all that separated the top two teams heading into the 400 freestyle relay.

"It's surreal," Kim said. "It's honestly something that you only dream about. Last year, we came close. My freshman year, there was (no meet). Overall, it's just an amazing feeling to come out and have fun racing."

Immaculate Heart raced past the field on the girls side for its 24th straight county title. The Blue Eagles were powered by their sophomore class with first-place swims from Kayla Rodriguez in the breaststroke and Kathleen Turano in the 200 and 500 freestyles. Turano knocked off IHA's oldest school record in the latter race, a mark previously held by tournament official Lauren Syre.

"It was awesome," Turano said. "The woman working the computers was the former record-holder so it was cool to meet her."

Records fell all night long with Tenafly's Aaron Baltaytis and Northern Highlands' Meghan Rourke making waves in their final trip to the Felix Festa Middle School Pool. Baltaytis lowered a meet record of his own by completing the butterly in 47.60 -- almost a second faster than his winning time at last year's state meet.

Rourke went 4-for-4 in her races with a personal-best in the individual medley and another victory in the 100 free. She followed it up by helping the Highlanders set tournament marks in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

"I couldn't ask for a better end to my senior year," Rourke said. "I'm really so happy and so proud of my teammates. They really stepped up and made it very, very special."

IHA still finished the meet with 303 points, while Ridgewood and Northern Highlands both placed second with 168. Indian Hills tied for fourth behind a pair of solo wins from sophomore Katie Lawrence.

"We knew that Northern Highlands was going to be a good team this year and keep it close with us," Kunnapas said. "Our goal is to come out and win this every year. The girls know that it's not a guarantee."

One of the turning points for Bergen Catholic came in the 500 freestyle. The long distance event was unusually tight with the top three swimmers all touching the wall within two seconds. Stelmark needed to take a glance at the scoreboard to confirm his 1-3 finish with teammate Jeremiah Tomioka.

"I had no idea," Stelmark said. "I had to look up. I thought (Leonia/Palisades Park's Vincent Kim) out-touched me. I felt amazing, but toward the end, I was totally dead."

Stelmark saved just enough energy to push Bergen Catholic to the top in the 400 free relay. Eric Yoo, Stelmark, Kim and Gavin Perez completed the event in 3:11.80, even though a top-two finish wasn't required.

"It was winner-takes-all for us," Kim said. "We thought that you always play on the safe side. I gave it an extra-quarter of a second -- I think we all did -- on the relay start to make sure we weren't DQ'ed. We watched our underwaters and watched each part of the race, ensuring that we finish in a place that we'd liked."

Girls swimming

Team scores: 1. IHA, 303; 2. Northern Highlands, 168; 2. Ridgewood, 168; 4. Indian Hills, 110; 4. Leonia/Palisades Park, 110; 6. Pascack Regional, 91; 7. Old Tappan, 73; 8. Demarest 64; 9. Tenafly, 59; 10. Fair Lawn, 58; 11. Ramsey, 45; 12. River Dell/Westwood, 30; 13. Hackensack, 25; 14. Paramus, 4; 15. Teaneck, 2.

200 medley relay: 1. IHA (Kimberly Zhang, Kayla Rodriguez, Madison Assanah, Isabella Piccinich), 1:49.84, 2. Ridgewood, 1:53.31; 3. Leonia/Palisades Park, 1:53.77; 4. Demarest, 1:57.26; 5. Fair Lawn, 1:58.15; 6. Old Tappan, 1:58.22.

200 freestyle: 1. Kathleen Turano, IHA, 1:51.79, 2. Grace Lee, Northern Highlands, 1:51.94; 3. Jessie Wolf, Northern Highlands, 1:56.27; 4. Elizabeth Vursta, IHA, 1:58.96; 5. Sinead Cook, 2:00.22; 6. Karolena Shaw, Indian Hills, 2:01.01.

200 IM: 1. Meghan Rourke, Northern Highlands, 2:06.99; 2. Rebekah Jung, Leonia/Palisades Park, 2:08.59; 3. Kayla Rodriguez, IHA, 2:10.90; 4. Lily Martin, Old Tappan, 2:14.13; 5. Madison Klak, IHA, 2:14.15; 6. Leticia Laynez, Hackensack, 2:15.30.

50 freestyle: 1. Isabel Lee, Ridgewood, 24.58; 2. Jessica Malocha, Pascack Regional, 25.10; 3. Isabella Piccinich, IHA, 25.37; 4. Mariana Builes, IHA, 25.49; 5. Emelia Lan, Tenafly 25.63; 6. Nichole Koltsov, Ridgewood, 25.72.

100 fly: 1. Katie Lawrence, Indian Hills, 55.90; 2. Grace Lee, Northern Highlands, 59.02; 3. Emily Kim, Old Tappan, 1:00.03; 4. Casey McLaughlin, Ramsey, 1:00.89; 5. Madison Assanah, IHA, 1:01.02; 6. Joyce Baik, Indian Hills, 1:01.14.

100 freestyle: 1. Meghan Rourke, Northern Highlands, 52.09; 2. Isabel Lee, Ridgewood, 53.27; 3. Jessie Wolf, Northern Highlands, 53.93; 4. Isabelle Santos, IHA, 55.57; 5. Emelia Lan, Tenafly, 55.98; 6. Esme Hendriske, Ridgewood, 56.39.

500 freestyle: 1. Kathleen Turano, IHA, 4:54.87; 2. Josie Marino, Ridgewood, 5:13.69; 3. Casey McLaughlin, Ramsey, 5:14.50; 4. Karolena Shaw, Indian Hills, 5:17.99; 5. Elizabeth Vursta, IHA, 5:18.10; 6. Sinead Cook, IHA, 5:19.47.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Northern Highlands (Grace Lee, Savana Levi, Meghan Rourke, Jessie Wolf), 1:37.51; 2. IHA, 1:40.65; 3. Indian Hills, 1:42.69; 4. Leonia/Palisades, 1:44.13; 5. Fair Lawn, 1:46.83; 6. Old Tappan, 1:46.87.

100 backstroke: 1. Katie Lawrence, Indian Hills, 56.50; 2. Rebekah Jung, Leonia/Palisades Park, 58.49; 3. Madison Assanah, IHA, 58.79; 4. Amanda Bramley, Pascack Regional, 1:00.41; 5. Mariana Builes, IHA, 1:00.61; 6. Marta Gershanok, Demarest, 1:01.61.

100 breaststroke: 1. Kayla Rodriguez, IHA, 1:04.98; 2. Jessica Malocha, Pascack Regional, 1:05.04; 3. Isabelle Yoo, Leonia/Palisades Park, 1:08.81; 4. Emma Dillane, IHA, 1:10.20; 5. Josie Marino, Ridgewood, 1:10.66; 6. Sienna Plutzer, Tenafly, 1:11.03.

400 freestyle relay: 1. Northern Highlands (Grace Lee, Savana Levi, Meghan Rourke, Jessie Wolf), 3:13.13; 2. IHA, 3:38.06; 3. Ridgewood, 3:43.66; 4. Indian Hills, 3:53.41; 5. Demarest, 3:57.56; 6. Pascack Regional, 3:57.86.

Boys swimming

Team scores: 1. Bergen Catholic, 256; 2. Tenafly, 241; 3. Demarest, 142; 4. Northern Highlands, 104.5; 5. Leonia/Palisades Park, 97.5; 6. Ridgewood, 89; 7. Old Tappan, 76; 8. Don Bosco, 72; 9. Hackensack, 49; 10. Rutherford, 45; 11. Fair Lawn, 36; 12. Indian Hills, 25; 13. River Dell/Westwood, 24; 14. Mahwah, 22; 15. Pascack Regional, 16; 16. Ramsey, 8; 17. New Milford, 5; 18. Teaneck, 8.

200 medley relay: 1. Tenafly (Hayoung Choe, Jason Yi, Aaron Baltaytis, Andrew Lee), 1:33.49; 2. Bergen Catholic, 1:39.31; 3. Demarest, 1:41.24; 4. Don Bosco, 1:42.54; 5. Leonia/Palisades Park, 1:43.13; 6. Ridgewood, 1:43.16.

200 freestyle: 1. Timmy Lee, Demarest, 1:42.45; 2. Gavin Perez, Bergen Catholic, 1:44.96; 3. Raymond Stelmark, Bergen Catholic, 1:45.78; 4. Vincent Kim, Leonia/Palisades Park, 1:48.00; 5. Roy Dafinoiu, Tenafly, 1:49.88; 6. Erin Aydin, Old Tappan, 1:51.62.

200 IM: 1. Doyee Kim, Bergen Catholic, 1:54.26; 2. Steven Roche, Indian Hills, 1:54.80; 3. Dimitri Melnikov, Bergen Catholic, 2:00.02; 4. Joseph Bae, Old Tappan, 2:01.18; 5. Alex Gorakine, Fair Lawn, 2:02.16; 6. Ellis Tritter, Tenafly, 2:02.70.

50 freestyle: 1. Michael Granin, Ridgewood, 22.29; 2. Andrew Lee, Tenafly, 22.37; 3. Harrison Lee, Northern Highlands, 22.54; 4. Jaden Ellis, Hackensack, 22.66; 5. Kaan Yaprak, Demarest, 22.69; 6. Eric Yoo, Bergen Catholic, 22.91.

100 fly: 1. Aaron Baltaytis, Tenafly, 47.60; 2. Matthew Chang, Leonia/Palisades Park, 52.29; 3. Joseph Bae, Old Tappan, 53.38; 4. Hayoung Choe, Tenafly, 53.51; 5. Sam Skibo, Ridgewood, 53.58; 6. Harrison Lee, Northern Highlands, 53.71.

100 freestyle: 1. Timmy Lee, Demarest, 47.36; 2. Christopher Jackson, Hackensack, 47.39; 3. Jaden Ellis, Hackensack, 48.46; 4. Michael Granin, Ridgewood, 48.63; 5. Eric Yoo, Bergen Catholic, 48.90; 6. Gavin Perez, Bergen Catholic, 48.95.

500 freestyle: 1. Raymond Stelmark, Bergen Catholic, 4:37.77; 2. Vincent Kim, 4:38.11; 3. Jeremiah Tomioka, Bergen Catholic, 4:49.26; 4. Dylan Song, Northern Highlands, 4:52.30; 5. Tristan Moore, Don Bosco, 4:56.44; 6. Roy Dafinoiu, Tenafly, 4:57.54.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Bergen Catholic (Rhyse Ruffy, Eric Yoo, Dimitri Melnikov, Gavin Perez), 1:29.53; 2. Northern Highlands, 1:31.35; 3. Tenafly, 1:33.94; 4. Leonia/Palisades Park, 1:34.94; 5. Old Tappan, 1:35.63; 6. Demarest, 1:36.30.

100 backstroke: 1. Aaron Baltaytis, Tenafly, 48.63; 2. Christopher Jackson, Hackensack, 51.57; 3. Doyee Kim, Bergen Catholic, 51.98; 4. Hayoung Choe, Leonia/Palisades Park, 52.36; 5. Matthew Chang, Leonia/Palisades Park, 53.10; 6. Sam Skibo, Ridgewood, 53.45.

100 breaststroke: 1. Jason Yi, Tenafly, 57.60; 2. Andrew Lee, Tenafly, 59.10; 3. Steven Roche, Indian Hills, 59.11; 4. Dimitri Melnikov, 59.38; 5. Rhyse Ruffy, Bergen Catholic, 1:01.81; 6. Jason Park, Tenafly, 1:02.65.

400 freestyle relay: 1. Bergen Catholic (Eric Yoo, Raymond Stelmark, Doyee Kim, Gavin Perez), 2. Tenafly, 3:11.95; 3. Demarest, 3:17.00; 4. Northern Highlands, 3:19.52; 5. Ridgewood, 3:25.43; 6. Don Bosco, 3:25.55.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ swimming: IHA, Bergen Catholic win titles at the Bergen County Meet