Sayreville swim teams going through a rebuilding stage
BY WARREN RAPPLEYEA Staff Writer
The Sayreville High School swim team made the conversion from a co-ed team to boys and girls teams, and coach Sarah Rodis-Magaw sees a bright future for her team.

"We didn't win as many meets as we wanted to, but thiswas amajor building year and we made a lot of progress," the coach said. "After being co-ed for a long time, itwas a transition to switch back, and our swimmers handled it well."

The Bombers girls went 2-4, picking up victories against Piscataway and Mother Seton along the way.

Meanwhile, the boys team struggled to an 0-6mark, though therewere several highlights, most notably the performance ofAlex Ratajczyk in the GreaterMiddlesex Conference (GMC)Meet.

The junior took first place in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle events, setting a meet record with a time of 23.43 seconds in the 50. Ratajczyk completed the 100-meter event in 47.79 seconds and earned a trip to the Meet of Champions for both events. He also combined with Ryan Behr, Justin Calimari and fellowjuniorRobMasterson to take fifth place in the 200-meter freestyle relay.

Behr recovered from a broken hand to turn in a solid campaign in the freestyle events. Junior John Deverin and freshman Skyler Lutz also showed plenty of promise, Rodis-Magaw said.

On the girls' side, Maureen McKenna came up big at theGMCs. The freshmanwon the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:01.97, which qualified her for the Meet of Champions, and she finished second in the 50-meter freestyle in 25.40 seconds. McKenna's sister, Shannon, took fifth and seventh places, respectively, in the 200- and 500-meter freestyle races.

TheMcKenna sisters teamedwith junior Rachel Lutz and sophomore Dana Quinn to finish fifth in the 4x100-meter relay and sixth in the 200-meter medley relay. Lutz competes in butterfly and individualmedley events, and Quinn has become an excellent relay swimmer, improvingwith each passing meet, the coach said.

The Bombers girls look set for the future andwill lose just three seniors to graduation: Aekta Shah, Gabby Grzybowski and Dana Zaleski. The boys will lose six seniors: Behr, Calimari,Mike Batko, Steven Libretti, John Mellilo and Kevin Santos.

"Fortunately we have a lot of young, talented swimmers to build around on both teams, andwemade ourmark at theGMCs," Rodis-Magaw said. "I give all of our swimmers credit. This was a tough year and yet they showed their determination, worked hard and kept dropping their times. I'mvery proud of them."