Barnegat's Stellar Swim Season Highlighted By Cherry's 100th Career Victory By Lou Monaco

 

Jan. 11 was a historic day for the Barnegat boys/girls swimming team.

 

The day marked the 100th career victory, a 109-61 boys triumph over Toms River East, for Barnegat co-head coach Emily Cherry. 

 

It was actually a double-win day for Cherry and Rebecca Kane, her co-head coach for the past three seasons, as Barnegat also outswam Toms River East on the girls side, giving Cherry 101 wins. 

 

“Technically, we knew that the boys had won after the 200 free relay, so we knew about the milestone win first and then the girls won in the next event after the 100 backstroke,” said Cherry, who just completed her 13th season at the helm (106-114-1) and was previously the head coach at Somerville (2000-03) and Moanalua High School in Honolulu (2003-05). “In the middle of last season, someone asked me what my coaching record was, pointing out that I was probably close to 100. I had not thought of it before. I have all of the meet sheets from the past 18 years and I went back and counted. At that point, I needed 13 more wins. We won six of the remaining seven meets that season (we lost the State Sectional semifinal meet against Haddonfield), so that meant that at the beginning of this season I knew it was very possible to get the seven remaining wins to reach 100. After discussing it with Rebecca and John Germano (our Athletic director), we decided to let the swimmers know at the beginning of the season. They were really excited about it, and after each meet, they would count down. I am so proud of these swimmers and how hard they worked this season. This is a testament to all of my swimmers over the years and the hard work, enthusiasm and love of swimming that they bring to practice and meets day in and day out. I spend some time at the end of each season reflecting on the season, and thinking back to previous seasons. This year in particular, I thought of a lot of my former swimmers as they are all a part of this accomplishment.” 

 

Reflecting on the boys’ performance this year, Cherry said, This season has been a dream season!  We were 10-2-1, with one of those losses being a 103-67 setback as a two-seed to Oakcrest in the South Jersey Public C final. We have a lot of depth on our team right now, which is the key to our success. While we generally had a few first-place finishes, it was our 2-3-4 finishes that clinched many of our wins. We swam a number of bigger schools, schools that are in Group A or B in the state and Shore Conference, and only lost to Oakcrest and Manasquan, along with tying St. Rose.  All three of those teams have a few club swimmers, while none of our kids are club swimmers. That’s just amazing, if you look at how well we did, most people would expect there to be a number of club swimmers, or swimmers that qualified for Meet of Champions (none of our swimmers did).  Some of our swimmers are in clinics and do summer league swim teams, but no one swims on a club team year round. We have a lot of young men who give it their all every day in the pool and are constantly improving. They look for ways to improve and they take what we tell them and apply it.  They work well together and are supportive of each other.  They are obviously competitive with each other (what high school athlete isn’t?), but they celebrate each other’s successes and the team’s success as much, if not more than their own individual successes.  They understand that it is a team effort and everybody contributes. 

 

 

The SJ, Public C final was the furthest Barnegat has gotten in the state tournament, since a sectional semifinal showing last year as a fourth-seed. 

 

Cherry also summed up the girls’ season by saying, “Our girls lost some key swimmers last year in some key events (individual medley, butterfly) and we were already a really small team last year.  Luckily we had a good number of freshmen come out, so we are starting to rebuild.  While our girls didn’t have a winning record, every meet they went in and gave it their all.  They consistently improved every meet had many personal bests. They broke three school records, one of which was from 2007. I think that having them win on the day of my 100th win, and therefore be a part of the success, just added to the celebratory feel for the team. There are few teams with as much heart as our girls have. 

 

Anna Sackett broke three school records this season in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 200 individual medley. 

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