Colts' success points to bright future in the pool
BY GEORGE ALBANO
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff CBA's Andrew DiPietro swims the anchor leg of the 400-meter freestyle relay during the Colts' Feb. 21 meet against St. Joseph's in North Brunswick.

With a predominately young team, perhaps the 2007 CBA swim team was still a year or two away from making a run at a state championship.

But that didn't stop the youthful Colts from trying to win the top prize this season. In fact, the CBA swimmers advanced as far as the Non-Public A state semifinals before bowing to perennial power St. Joseph's of Metuchen 98-72 last Wednesday.

St. Joe's, ranked No. 1 in the state all season, then lost in Friday's finals to St. Augustine Prep in Richland, which posted a surprisingly easy 105-65.

"We swam St. Augustine in January and saw they were a very strong team," said veteran CBA coach Michael Sullivan. "We knew it would be a tough meet."

Sullivan and the Colts actually knew both state finalists very well. CBA went 8-3 this season with two of its losses coming against St. Joseph's while the other was to St. Augustine.

"I thought we swam very well against St. Joe's," Sullivan said of last week's semifinal meet. "A couple of kids had personal best and you can't ask for anything more than that.

"I also thought our relays did well," he added. "It was a good meet, I thought. We just didn't have enough to go past them. They were very strong."

Based on power points, St. Joseph's was actually the second seed while St. Augustine Prep was seeded first and CBA third. But St. Joe's was ranked No. 1 in the state, while St. Augustine was No. 2 and CBA No. 3.

And while the Colts came up short in last week's state semi, they certainly had their share of impressive efforts. Senior Andrew DiPietro won the 100 freestyle and swam the anchor leg on the winning 200 and 400 free relay teams.

While most of the team returns next season, DiPietro is one swimmer CBA will miss next season.

"He's been a very versatile swimmer over the years," Sullivan said. "As a freshman he swam the 200 IM and the breaststroke. Then we put him in the distance events, the 200 and 500 free. And then he swam the sprints.

"He was just one of those kids you could put anywhere in the lineup and he'll do well. He'll be sorely missed."

The Colts hope to make up for his loss, however, with the return of some promising underclassmen. One of them, sophomore Alex Fitton, won the 200 IM with a personal best of 2:02.71. He was also a member of the winning 200 and 400 free relay teams.

Another member of both victorious freestyle relays was junior Martin Harm, who also captured top honors in the 50 freestyle.

Meanwhile, freshman T.J. McCarthy recorded his personal best in the 500 free with a second-place time of 5:00.13.

"He just got touched out at the end," Sullivan said.

McCarthy was also the fourth member of the winning 400 free relay team, while senior Sean Gillispie rounded out the quartet that won the 200 free relay.

"We are losing six seniors and three of them scored in the meet," Sullivan pointed out. "So the strength of the team was our junior and sophomore classes, and we had some very good freshmen swimmers, too. We should be strong next year."

Not that this year wasn't a huge success. CBA once again captured the Monmouth County and Shore Conference championships, the 17th straight year the Colts have won both titles.

In fact, they've won them every year since Sullivan started the CBA swim program back in the 1990-91 season. He's also led the Colts to one state championship.

"That was in 1998, so we're overdue," Sullivan laughed. "But we had a very good season. The kids worked very hard and improved, and we finished up with a great meet. Even though we lost, I thought it was very encouraging for the kids."