If it was not already obvious that New Jersey’s top-ranked boys’ swimming team in Bridgewater-Raritan High School was in a league of its own, any doubt of that may have been squashed on Tuesday afternoon, January 13.
While the undefeated Panthers collected an average 118.6 points in their first five dual meets of the season, Tuesday afternoon’s epic showdown on the road against their chief division rival: undefeated and fourth-ranked Hillsborough High School, was the biggest regular-season dual meet circled on their calendar.
Frankly, everyone else in New Jersey also had their eyes glued to this meet.
The boys’ meet not only pinned two undefeated rivals ranked amongst the top five in the Garden State, but the girls’ end of the epic dual meet also checked these two boxes, as both third-ranked Hillsborough and fifth-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan also entered their matchup undefeated. Even though both pairs of squads will also square off in both their county and conference meets later this month, Tuesday afternoon’s historic showdowns proved that there is a good chance each corresponding squad will swim against each other again sometime in February with the highest of stakes.
A state sectional title, or perhaps even more than that depending on how the boys’ and girls’ state tournament brackets are drawn up next month.
But for the Panthers’ boys’ swimming team, one fact was also confirmed after their performance against Hillsborough: a team who entered the week with the most Power Points amongst all of New Jersey’s boys’ swimming teams from Group A public schools.
The road to a boys’ swimming state championship will run through Bridgewater-Raritan.
Not only did top-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (6-0, 4-0) win its 25th consecutive regular-season dual meet going back to the end of head coach Evan Seavey’s first season in charge. For the first time under his direction, the Panthers eclipsed triple digits in six straight meets after rolling to a 105-65 victory over previously undefeated and fourth-ranked Hillsborough (6-1, 3-1) to win the Skyland Conference Delaware Division title Tuesday, January 13, at the Hillsborough YMCA in Hillsborough.
“This was a great meet against an incredibly competitive team,” said Seavey, who now has a 35-4 overall record as the Panthers’ head coach. “We talked about how competitive and close this meet was going to be over the last couple of days. We knew that we weren’t just going to railroad this team and that they were going to put up a great fight throughout the entire meet, and that’s exactly what they did. Our guys knew that no matter what happened, we needed to stay the course, because there were 11 events in this meet. We knew that we were going to need close to if not all 11 events to win this meet.”
“That’s pretty much what it boiled down to.”
Bridgewater-Raritan won nine out of 11 possible gold medals, but even though the Panthers dominated on the scoreboard, the Panthers had to work for every one of their 105 points.
With only the top three lanes receiving points in each relay, the pressure was on immediately after the meet’s opening horn, which signified the start of the 200-yard medley relay. But when you have an ‘A’ lane consisting of two returning All-State First Team swimmers alone from one season ago like Bridgewater-Raritan, chances are, that gives you a psychological edge.
Even in an opposing team’s loud venue and hostile environment.
Senior Jaden Lee and sophomore Aaron Roy were these All-State swimmers who started and ended the Panthers’ top lane, respectively, as they along with juniors Marvellous Suciayahdi and Derek Carranza won by nearly four seconds (1:34.61) against Hillsborough’s runner-up lane of junior Josh Cetin, senior Tiago Granados, senior Gavin Grouser, and junior Evan Minakas. Coming in third place (1:41.08) was the group consisting of senior Samuel Meyer, senior Matthew Enriquez, sophomore Owen Forget, and senior Antony Buniowski for Bridgewater-Raritan, which jumped out to a 10-4 lead that it never relinquished.
Hidden in the chaos was the Panthers’ third-place lane being just 0.05 second away from the NJSIAA’s Meet of Champions qualifying time of 1:41.03, which both Bridgewater-Raritan’s and Hillsborough’s top lanes achieved according to the NJSIAA Swimming Individual Tournament Regulations.
Either way, that result proved to be a much-needed cushion for Bridgewater-Raritan, as Hillsborough answered with a 1-2 punch in the 200-yard free style by senior John Eodice (1:42.46) and junior Kevin Ward (1:45.12), who edged Bridgewater-Raritan junior and returning All-State Second Team swimmer Gregory Rydberg by just 0.08 second to trim the Panthers’ lead to 16-14.
Even though Rydberg settled for a bronze medal, he and his two Hillsborough competitors all comfortably eclipsed the qualifying time of 1:47.77 needed to qualify for the boys’ 200-yard free style at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions, which requires a time of 2:00.55 in the 200-yard individual medley: the meet’s third race.
Amazingly, a sub-two-minute time of 1:58.35 by Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore Ryan Cervino was not enough to win that race’s gold medal.
Talk about depth and a good problem to have if you are Bridgewater-Raritan, especially with Lee also swimming arguably his go-to race for the Panthers, who extended their lead to 27-19 after Lee tallied a whopping 1:55.05 in the middle lane.
“I’ve had so much experience with this event over the years,” reflected about the 200-yard individual medley race after the meet by Lee, who finished runner-up in this race at last season’s Meet of Champions. “Regardless of how much practice I have for this race, it’s all muscle memory now. It’s so ingrained in me that I can just pace it without thinking very much about it.
“This has helped me so much in these swim meets and not only put my mind into all of our races, but also being able to win and get points for B-R.”
Lee has done a lot of that over his successful four-year career for Bridgewater-Raritan, and after the Panthers’ victory on Tuesday afternoon, he has 13 gold medals in 13 dual-meet races to begin his senior season. Going back to his freshman year, you can still count the amount of times he has not touched the wall first in a dual-meet individual race on one hand: four times, to be exact. Three of those times understandably came in his debut freshman season, but they were all silver medals.
Not factoring in relay races, his only other loss in an individual race at a dual meet came via a second place finish in his team’s 96-74 victory against Bergen Catholic High School at home his sophomore year on January 4, 2024.
“Freshman and sophomore year, I was definitely intimidated, even though it might not have looked like that,” revealed of his early high school swimming career by Lee. “I felt like I put a lot of pressure on myself, because I wanted to swim fast for our team. But watching all of our upperclassmen really inspired me, so I want to have that same role for people like Aaron Roy, Ryan Cervino, or our other underclassmen. I was once in their shoes looking up to other juniors and seniors, but I want to show them that in the moment, you just have to perform and get the job done. Even though I did not have that early on, I want to pass on that sort of execution mindset through my performance, and I was able to get to that level of swimming through gaining experience.”
“It’s possible, but you just have to keep grinding, keep getting experience, and just keep swimming.”
Since his 2024-25 junior season, Lee is now a perfect 20-for-20 in gold medal opportunities in individual races and 36-for-40 (90%) overall factoring in both individual and relay races with Tuesday afternoon’s meet at Hillsborough now in the books.
And in a heavyweight fight against a team like the Raiders on the road, every point matters, but momentum is paramount.
Heading into the four-race intermission, Bridgewater-Raritan took control in both of these categories, as it ballooned its lead to what felt like an insurmountable 39-23 once junior and returning All-State First Team member Christopher Wasko (21.63 seconds), Roy (21.70 seconds), and Suciayahdi (22.65 seconds) highlighted a 1-2-4 finish in the 50-yard free style. For further context, while this dual meet’s shortest race therefore has the highest variability, 22.40 seconds is the magic number to qualify for the Meet of Champions, which third-place Granados (22.18 seconds) also achieved for Hillsborough.
Bridgewater-Raritan nonetheless remained ahead by double digits for good, and as its lead continued, only one question still loomed.
That was whether or not the Panthers would crack the century mark for the sixth time in as many dual meets to begin the season.
After the break, Bridgewater-Raritan picked up right where it left off by going 1-3-5 in the 100-yard butterfly, which saw Lee (49.77 seconds), Carranza (52.16 seconds), and sophomore Jayden Bui (55.60 seconds) tally another one of their eight double-digit scoring outputs in the meet’s 11 races. Each of the top four lanes were Meet of Champions qualifying results (53.25 seconds), which included runner-up Cetin (51.99 seconds) and Grouser (53.15 seconds) of Hillsborough.
Wasko’s time of 47.55 seconds in the subsequent 100-yard free style, which eclipsed the Meet of Champions qualifying time of 48.38 seconds along with runner-up Minakas (49.18 seconds), then helped propel Bridgewater-Raritan to a 60-34 lead after six races.
Hillsborough then answered with its best race of the day in the 500-yard free style, which saw Eodice (4:42.99) and Ward (4:50:24) go 1-2 and eclipse the Meet of Champions benchmark of 4:50.81.
Although this cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 65-45, the Panthers surrendered just 20 points over the meet’s final four races.
Both of the Panthers’ and Raiders’ top lanes of the 200-yard free style relay clocked a sub 90-second time and a Meet of Champions qualifying mark of 1:32.08, but Wasko, Suciayahadi, Forget, and Rydberg (1:28.44) edged Granados, Minakas, Eodice, and junior Luke Sudol (1:29.73) to win the race and help extend the visitors’ advantage to 75-49. Cetin’s result in the 100-yard back stroke of 54.22 seconds also exceeded the Meet of Champions qualifying mark by 0.09 second.
But even this was not enough for a Hillsborough gold medal, as Roy rolled to a 51.62 second, first-place result.
The Raiders prevented the Panthers from reaching the 86-point milestone needed to mathematically clinch the victory in the meet’s ninth race, but with Bridgewater-Raritan ahead 84-56, the inevitable became a reality moments later.
Cervino’s mark of 1:00.31 in the 100-yard butterfly along with Suciayahdi following just behind at 1:00.82: just under the Meet of Champions benchmark of 1:00.68, ultimately sealed the victory after the Panthers went ahead by a score 95-61. However, the Panthers needed at least second and third place in the 400-yard free style relay finale to keep their streak of earning at least triple digits in a dual meet alive.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s ‘A’ lane of four returning All-State swimmers in Lee, Rydberg, Roy, and Wasko left no doubt after punctuating their gold medal (3:10.13) by six full seconds over Ward, Cetin, Grouser, and Eodice.
Forget, Carranza, Meyer, while senior Gajendra Joshi (3:22.56) then rounded out the Panthers’ scoring and 105-point performance.
The Meet of Champions qualifying time for this final relay race on the boys’ side is 3:21.46, which both teams’ top lanes comfortably achieved.
And it proved to be a fitting end to another perfect four-for-four day for Lee, who will continue his swimming career at the United States Military Academy West Point after graduation from Bridgewater-Raritan High School in June.
“I could talk about Jaden as a swimmer for hours, and I still wouldn’t cover everything,” praised Seavey, whose four-year stint as the Panthers’ head coach has been concurrent with Lee’s four-year career for Bridgewater-Raritan. “He is undoubtedly the leader of this team and has stepped up in so many ways this season. He helps encourage kids who are struggling, celebrates kids who are doing well, and he has done a lot of work behind the scenes. I am incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to work with him and to be able to coach him for four years. He is a great swimmer, but he is a phenomenal and even better human being, and his character is second to none. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Jaden.”
“Enormous things are going to happen for him in the future both in and out of the pool, but I’m just enjoying the ride with him this season.”
At the rate Bridgewater-Raritan’s 2025-26 season is going, that ride may be a lot longer than any other team in New Jersey.
And the Panthers will certainly be favored to fill up their trophy case a lot in between.
While they will try to extend their current reign in both the Skyland Conference Championships and Somerset County Championships, Bridgewater-Raritan’s eyes will then certainly be on the biggest prizes of them all: its first state sectional championship under coach Seavey, and the program’s first state title since 2017-18.
Hillsborough, which is assigned to the Central New Jersey section, is a five-time reigning state sectional champion going back to the 2019-20 season factoring in the cancellation of the 2020-21 state tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Raiders advanced to the state championship meet last year before falling 103-67 to New Jersey’s No. 11 ranked team and three-time reigning state champion Westfield High School (6-2), which had its 47-win streak snapped against Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School after an 86.5-83.3 defeat back on December 23.
Westfield fell by a score of 104-66 against New Jersey’s No. 12 ranked team Christian Brothers Academy Thursday, January 15, at the Neptune Aquatic Center in Neptune. This marked the first time the Blue Devils allowed over 100 points in a loss since March 17, 2021, when it also fell at Christian Brothers by a score of 106-64. While these are the only three meets the Blue Devils have lost since then, two of them have occurred this season alone.
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough will be the Skyland Conference Championships, which will be contested at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, January 17, at Montgomery High School. This will also be the site of the Somerset County Championships at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, January 31.
In between, top-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (6-0) will try to remain undefeated at third-ranked and Non-Public state power Delbarton School (7-0) at 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, at Morristown Beard School in Morristown. The Panthers will then travel to undefeated and No. 19 ranked Ridgewood High School (7-0) for their end of a dual meet at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, January 21, at Ridgewood.
The Panthers will then have a boys’ and girls’ intrasquad meet on Senior Day at 3 p.m. Monday, January 26, at the Bridgewater YMCA in Bridgewater across the street from their high school’s campus. Bridgewater-Raritan will then launch its bid to win a state title and dethrone three-state reigning state champion Westfield, which is currently in comfortable position the No. 2 seed in its state sectional tournament bracket behind the Panthers: the presumptive No. 1 seed.
Westfield has beaten Bridgewater-Raritan in the last four straight state sectional finals, but with both teams in the North 2, Group A section, they are heavily favored to meet again in the sectional finals scheduled for Wednesday, February 11, at the Raritan Bay YMCA in Perth Amboy.
“We weren’t really expecting to win by this much, but swimming today definitely showed how deep our team really is,” concluded Lee about what lies ahead after defeating arch-rival Hillsborough. “We’re starting to get used to swimming gutsy swims and really making sure everyone pulls their weight.”
“This is a landmark meet for us, but it’s going to be really important to reflect on this meet and have this same mindset going forward into the state tournament.”