Swimming: Midseason rankings, what to watch at the Bergen and Passaic county tournaments

Sean Farrell, NorthJersey.com
·4 min read

One of the biggest weeks of the swimming season has arrived.

The Passaic County Championship returns on Saturday with a 9 a.m. start time at Passaic Tech. The Bergen County Meet of Champions follows suit at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Felix Festa Middle School pool in West Nyack.

Here's what you need to know for this year's championships, plus North Jersey team rankings.

Bergen County Meet of Champions

Returning individual champions

Girls: Indian Hills' Katie Lawrence (50 and 100 freestyle), Immaculate Heart's Kayla Rodriguez (butterfly and breaststroke) and Northern Highlands' Grace Lee (500 freestyle).

Boys: Demarest's Eric Lee (200 individual medley), Tenafly's Aaron Baltaytis (butterfly) and Jason Yi (breaststroke) and Hackensack's Christopher Jackson (backstroke).

Big North Freedom Swimming Championships at Hackensack High School on Thursday, February 3, 2022. Christopher Jackson, of Hackensack, in the boys 200 yard IM.
Big North Freedom Swimming Championships at Hackensack High School on Thursday, February 3, 2022. Christopher Jackson, of Hackensack, in the boys 200 yard IM.

Defending team champions

The Tenafly boys captured their first Bergen County championship in a decade last season with state champion Aaron Baltaytis setting the meet record in the butterfly. Baltaytis added one more county record in the medley relay along with Hayoung Choe, Jason Yi and Andrew Lee. Their speed propelled the Tigers past runner-up Bergen Catholic by a 231-182 margin.

Immaculate Heart kept its streak as the only girls champion in tournament history by winning for the 23rd straight time. The Blue Eagles came out on top in seven of 11 events and scored 308.5 points in a comfortable title march over Northern Highlands (152) and Indian Hills (141.5).

Girls team preview

Immaculate Heart is once again a clear-cut favorite.

The Blue Eagles head into the meet with a big lead in powerpoints over the rest of the field and four legitimate title contenders in the sophomore class: state medalist Kayla Rodriguez and teammates Kathleen Turano, Isabella Piccinich and Madison Assanah.

Northern Highlands should be able to finish a little bit closer this year with Grace Lee and Meghan Rourke racking up points. Ridgewood and Leonia/Palisades Park will join them in the top tier.

Boys team preview

The favorites this year are the same three teams the finished atop the scoreboard in 2022 – Tenafly, Bergen Catholic and Demarest. Tenafly is riding an 18-match winning streak against North Jersey teams behind some exceptional speed in the relays. A victory on Sunday would make the Tigers the first public school to win back-to-back outright titles since Tenafly's 2011 and 2012 teams.

Best race

Three of the top four medalists from the boys backstroke race can return led by meet record-holder Christopher Jackson (Hackensack) along with Tenafly's Hayoung Choe and Leonia/Palisades Park's Matthew Chang. Baltaytis would be the favorite if he re-enters the race as a returning state second in the event.

Big North Freedom Swimming Championships at Hackensack High School on Thursday, February 3, 2022. Sarah Rodrigues, of Wayne Valley, in the girls 200 yard IM.
Big North Freedom Swimming Championships at Hackensack High School on Thursday, February 3, 2022. Sarah Rodrigues, of Wayne Valley, in the girls 200 yard IM.

Passaic County Championship

Returning individual champions

Girls: Wayne Valley's Sarah Rodrigues (backstroke and 200 individual medley)

Boys: Passaic Tech's Tyler Roer (200 freestyle and backstroke) and Adam Kiss (200 individual medley and 500 freestyle), Wayne Valley's Matthew Piacentini (butterfly), Pompton Lakes' William Torticill (100 freestyle).

Defending team champions

Passaic Tech cruised to another title sweep at the championships last season in Wayne.

The Bulldog boys raced to a tournament scoring record en route to the program's seventh straight PCT title.

Coach Gen Wall led the Passaic Tech girls to their fourth straight championship, tying Wayne Hills (2010-2013) for the longest such streak.

Girls team preview

Passaic Tech will be the team to beat even after graduating all three of its individual champions. The Bulldogs reloaded the lineup with a speedy freshman class anchored by Francesca Cordero, Julia Lo and Danna Tapia. Wayne Hills will be back in the title hunt after swimming to second in the 2022 tournament. Patriots coach Mike Shale has a deep lineup across the board and a breaststroke ace in Callie Ng, who's less than a second off from the 14-year-old school record.

Boys team preview

Passaic Tech is the prohibitive favorite after almost doubling up on second-place Wayne Valley a year ago. The Indians scored an eight-point win over Wayne Hills on Wednesday and look formidable with returning medalists Matthew Piacentini, Max Matthews and Zak Li.

Best race

Pompton Lakes' William Torticill made history last season as his school's first county champion since 2013. To repeat in the 100 free, the Cardinals junior may need to hold off the same three Passaic Tech swimmers who finished within three seconds behind him: Michael Sanchez, Thomas Celentano and Ariel Molina.

Boys swimming team rankings

  1. Tenafly 6-0

  2. Bergen Catholic 6-0

  3. Passaic Tech 7-1

  4. Northern Highlands 3-1

  5. Ridgewood 3-3

  6. Demarest 5-1

  7. Don Bosco 6-1

  8. Rutherford 7-0

  9. Fair Lawn 6-1

  10. Wayne Valley 4-2

(Records through Wednesday)

Girls swimming team rankings

  1. Immaculate Heart 5-0

  2. Northern Highlands 4-0

  3. Ridgewood 3-2

  4. Passaic Tech 7-2

  5. Wayne Hills 8-0

  6. Indian Hills 6-0

  7. Leonia/Palisades Park 5-0

  8. River Dell 4-2-1

  9. Fair Lawn 5-1-1

  10. Tenafly 6-0

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ swimming: Midseason rankings, storylines for county tournaments