On the night of Monday, Feb. 23, you might have heard fire trucks and sirens going down the streets of Haddonfield. This wasn’t for any kind of emergency, but for a celebration of the Haddonfield Memorial High School’s boys swimming team on its state championship win.
The boys HMHS swim team earned the title of 2015 New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Group C Champions.
“It was a very good end to the season. All year long, we compete and train for February. Our goal is to do anything we can to prepare for it. I think it showed the boys can really compete at the end of the year,” coach Robert Querubin said.
Querubin has been the coach of the boys swim team for more than 20 years at HMHS. The team hasn’t won a state championship since 2010, so winning this year’s title was a great accomplishment.
“Haddonfield has been fortunate with swimmers who want to take it to the next level and train year round. We have quality swimmers, who have repeatedly gone throughout the school to get others to join as well as to encourage the other guys to elevate their training. You can have several fast swimmers, but if they don’t have the depth year after year, it won’t lead to scoring,” Querubin said.
Although the team didn’t have a specific strategy to win, Querubin said there really isn’t any trick to winning. There is just the preparation during the regular season and training when they can that can lead to victory. Also, accepting the challenge of the sport and knowing that you can only get better is key. The boys finished the regular season 7–3, but ultimately it was the championship that really counts.
“It’s just accepting the challenges. When you compete against these bigger or better teams, you need to learn from it. You need to ask: what could I do better? What do I need to keep training on? Every team needs to go through that,” Querubin said.
At the beginning of the season, Querubin said he needs to instill competitiveness in the swimmers as well as know they need to be confident, but not overly so.
“You need to think, ‘I like our chances.’ That helps. You need to impose that on the swimmers, no questions or negative thoughts. You want them to be confident, but not over-confident. You need to have the mentality that you can do very good things and think about what you could accomplish,” Querubin said.
Some of the highlights in winning the state final against Tenafly High School 92–78 include: Senior Michael Kurtz winning two individual events with the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.90 and the 100 freestyle at 48.20, and adding a state qualifying time in the 100 free. The other winning events were the 200 medley relay at 1:41.08 with a team of Kurtz, junior Tim Proctor, senior Peter Kurtz and junior Brian McGrath, and the 200 free relay at 1:30.30 with the team of Peter, Michael, freshman Conor Skelly and junior Jared MacNeill.
Junior Brendan Finnegan also had a significant impact with season-best times in the 100 butterfly at 54.84 and 100 breaststroke at 1:03.19, finishing second in both events. He also finished the season with the fastest times in those events on the team. Finnegan was scheduled to compete in the 200 free and 100 fly events at the individual championships last weekend at GCIT. Junior Jared MacNeill has been a key contributor all season, swimming the freestyle events. He has the fastest 200 and 500 free times on the team where he finished second in the 200 at the championship.
When the team won the group, Querubin said there was a great celebration and huge relief as well.
After taking pictures at the pool with their trophy, the boys were celebrated back in Haddonfield after their win by being escorted behind the fire engines with their bus full of champions.
“The school bus follows the fire trucks through town, it’s pretty neat. It’s a nice celebration as part of the town to the winning team.
“They get into it, and it’s a cool way for parents, and anyone who is out that time of night, to see them and be recognized. We’ve been fortunate, in this small town,” Querubin said.
The boys swimming coach felt having been at the competition and having the opportunity to compete for the state championship has been a very good influence on the underclassmen. They will want to maintain that hard-working and winning attitude and spirit.
“If you’ve been there, you’re going to want to go back. It helps to promote that you have to have the effort, training and to work hard because there is certainly no guarantee of winning,” Querubin said.
