Sandpipers roll through regular season schedule
By doug mckenzie
Staff Writer

Heading into last night’s meet with South Plainfield, the East Brunswick Sandpipers swim team was rolling along.

The team, which is based out of the Crystal Springs Aquatic Center, made it through the first half of the regular-season schedule undefeated, topping all four of the other teams in its league, including last night’s opponent from South Plainfield.

And second-year coach Bully Schreier thinks his team has a chance to build on its fast start the rest of the way.

"We’re looking really good so far," he said. "They redivided our league this year, and we’ve already swam everyone once and beat them."

The other four teams in the A League’s White Division are Frog Hollow (South Amboy), Rivercrest (Piscataway), South Plainfield and Roycefield (Hillsborough).

Although the new division keeps the Sandpipers from facing neighboring clubs, such as Brookside (Milltown), Metuchen and Cedar Hill, they will see all of them in the conference meet.

"We’re in the state’s hardest conference (A League) with the best teams," Schreier said. "The Red Division is the best in the conference, and we’re on top of the next division, the White."

Schreier added that he will be interested to see how his swimmers do against the best the Red Division has to offer.

"I think we match up pretty well with them, but we’ll see at the league championships at Frog Hollow."

That two-day meet is set for the weekend of July 26, and will include the other local teams, located in the B and C League, such as Nob Valley (North Brunswick) and the Willows Swim Club (South Brunswick).

This year’s Sandpipers are solid in every age group, although Schreier said that the girls’ 11/12 group is the strongest.

"We have three girls in Kristen Steenvorden, Jenny Zavoda and Ashley Steenvorden that are among the best swimmers in the conference," he said. "And all three are very close in time."

The 8-and-under boys are led by Johan Higgins, Anthony Steenvorden and Scott Huong, who Schreier said is the group’s best all-around swimmer. Among the top 8U girls are Julie Chen, Keriann Cahillane, Shannon Iannuzzo and Virginia Keating.

The 9/10 boys are led by Nick Ankosko, Amalin Krishnamoorthy and Jimmy Mullen, all very good all-around swimmers, according to their coach. Among the top 9/10 girls are Vicky Borbas, Kylie Suydam and Emily Jang.

Joey Giampetro, C.J. Suydam and Matt Polito are the top 11/12 boys, while newcomer Aaron Moskovitch leads the 13/14 boys contingent, along with Jimmy Clarke and Kevin Sheridan.

The Sandpipers are very deep in the 13/14 girls group, with Tracy Lindboe, Kavitha Krishnamoorthy and Mia Sorkin leading the pack.

Among the top 15-18-year-old swimmer are Darren Ankosko, Danny Cahillane and Steve Schreyer on the boys’ side, and Chrissy LeBlon, Kelly Sheridan and Kristine Huang among the girls.

"We’re doing very well so far, with a lot of depth in each group," Schreier said. "We are the favorite in our division, and are looking forward to the league meet to see where we match up with the rest of the conference."

The Sandpipers have just three regular-season matches left before the league meet, starting with Saturday’s meet at Rivercrest. On July 19, the Sandpipers will host Frog Hollow at 9:30 a.m., and will wrap up the regular season with a home meet against Roycefield on July 23 at 6:30 p.m.