One fact became apparent after a highly anticipated showdown between two undefeated girls’ swimming rivals on Tuesday, January 13.
The road to this season’s Group A girls’ swimming state title may run through Hillsborough High School.
Even though it had to fight for every point against fifth-ranked and previously undefeated Bridgewater-Raritan High School (5-1, 4-1), third-ranked Hillsborough (8-0, 5-0) swept all 11 gold medals on the way to a statement 98-72 victory to seal the Skyland Conference Delaware Division crown over the Panthers at the Hillsborough YMCA.
With the exception of margins of victory of 19.81 seconds and 3.21 seconds in the 500-yard free style (5:13.34) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:06.75), respectively, by Hillsborough junior Emily Sudol, along with 4.73 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly (59.02 seconds) by Hillsborough freshman Olivia Kay, the Raiders’ average margin of victory for gold medals in their remaining eight races was just 1.44 seconds.
Given individual races’ gold medals are worth six points as opposed to four points for a silver medal, each of the meet’s five other individual gold medals won by Hillsborough may have been as many as four-point swings in favor of the Raiders, especially given Bridgewater-Raritan took second place in all but one of the meet’s 11 races.
Notably, senior Tammy Leng (1:59.52) won the 200-yard free style by 1.35 seconds over Bridgewater-Raritan freshman Gia LaRosa, Kay also touched the wall first in the 50-yard free style (24.66 seconds) by 1.35 seconds over Bridgewater-Raritan junior Merah DeRosa, and senior Dylan Briones won the 100-yard free style (53.63 seconds) by just 0.56 second over Bridgewater-Raritan freshman Mila Daniels as well as the 100-yard back stroke (59.33 seconds) by 2.11 seconds over Bridgewater-Raritan senior Kimaya Desai.
Had each of these four races alone gone Bridgewater-Raritan’s way, not factoring in any other variables, the Panthers would have had 16 more points and instead won the meet 88-82: one less point than the 89-81 victory Bridgewater-Raritan collected in the state sectional semifinals over Hillsborough last season on February 10, 2025, in Bridgewater.
The Raiders’ lone 1-2 result came in the 100-yard breaststroke, when Leng (1:12.14) and freshman Mineli Gunawardena (1:12.27) edged Bridgewater-Raritan senior Claire Hegedus (1:13.24) for each of the top two spots.
Given all three relay victories by the Raiders came by an average of just 1.63 seconds alone, particularly since first place in a relay is worth eight points compared to just four points for second place, Hillsborough’s sweep of every first place spot proved to be the difference in this pivotal matchup amongst New Jersey’s Group A landscape.
Sudol, Briones, along with sophomores Marielle Colipano and Megan Wishnow opened the meet with a 1.90 second margin of victory in the 200-yard medley relay (1:50.96) over Bridgewater-Raritan’s top lane of Desai, Daniels, DeRosa, and freshman Janani Senthilkumar. Wishnow, Leng, Kay, and sophomore Kiran Bar also won by 2.08 seconds in the 200-yard free style relay (1:44.26) over Hegedus, LaRosa, along with Bridgewater-Raritan freshmen Maria Stakias and Lily Tamedl.
To punctuate Hillsborough’s statement victory, Colipano, Kay, Briones, and Sudol took first place by just 0.92 second in the 400-yard free style relay (3:41.73) over LaRosa, Senthilkumar, Tamedl, and Daniels for Bridgewater-Raritan, which fell in the regular season against a team from a public high school for the first time since losing a 94-76 decision at Summit High School last season on January 3, 2025.
Going back to a 98-72 loss at Ridge High School last season on January 7, 2025, Hillsborough had entered Tuesday evening’s revenge matchup against Bridgewater-Raritan with victories in 12 of its 14 meets since then.
Both of the two times the Raiders failed to win a meet in this span were on the road at reigning state sectional champion Bridgewater-Raritan. The Panthers salvaged a tie against Hillsborough, 85-85, last regular season before eventually eliminating the Raiders in the state playoffs and then upsetting top-seeded Westfield High School in the state sectional finals to win a sectional title for the first time since 2019-20.
After winning the Skyland Conference Delaware Division crown over Bridgewater-Raritan on Tuesday evening, Hillsborough now possesses the most Power Points of any Group A girls’ swimming team in all of New Jersey and is in position to earn the No. 1 seed in the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group A, Girls’ Swimming Tournament next month.
Last season’s North 2, Group A finalists in Bridgewater-Raritan (5-1) and Westfield (8-1-1), which is ranked No. 12 overall in New Jersey, are currently neck-and-neck for No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in this season’s current North 2, Group A Power Points standings. This would give the Panthers home-pool advantage over the Blue Devils throughout every possible round of the state sectional playoffs outside of the sectional finals, which will be contested at the Raritan Bay YMCA Thursday, February 12, in Perth Amboy.
Most notably, Hillsborough earning the No. 1 seed would help the Raiders avoid needing to square off against either Bridgewater-Raritan or Westfield until the state sectional finals, as both of these other teams would be potential semifinalists on the other side of Hillsborough’s bracket if the state playoffs were seeded today. In other words, Bridgewater-Raritan and Westfield would likely have to face each other with a potential state sectional finals berth against Hillsborough at stake if all of the higher seeds open their state playoff bids with the necessary victories.
Hillsborough will be seeking its first sectional title since 2022-23, when it won the Central New Jersey sectional finals over East Brunswick High School, 102-68, before then falling in the state semifinals to eventual state champion Cherry Hill High School East.
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough will be the Skyland Conference Girls’ Swimming Championships, which will be contested at 3 p.m. Saturday, January 17, at Montgomery High School. This will also be the site of the Somerset County Girls’ Swimming Championships at 9 a.m. Saturday, January 31.
Hillsborough’s next dual meet will be at Hun School of Princeton at 3 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, at the Hillsborough YMCA in Hillsborough. Bridgewater-Raritan’s next dual meet will be at Ridgewood High School at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, January 21, at the Ridgewood YMCA in Ridgewood.