The Hopewell Valley Central High School swim and dive team held its records ceremony on June 19, honoring one team member with the annual Ethan J. Hatke Bulldog Award, and recognizing members of the boys’ freestyle relay teams for setting two school records this season.
Junior Ethan Hammett received the Ethan J. Hatke Bulldog Award. The award is named in honor of former CHS swimmer Ethan Hatke, who died while he was a sophomore at Virginia Tech.
Seniors Ethan Anderson, Donald Buglino, Charlie Kessel and Xander Wurtz were honored for setting new school records in the 400-yard freestyle relay, clocking a time of 3:22.01.
Anderson, Buglino and Wurtz were also joined by freshman Mark Sarachman to set a new school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with a time of 1:31.64.
“We are so proud of each of our athletes’ performances this season, as well as the way they’ve come together as a team,” says Carlyn Hubert, girls’ head coach. “With a smaller team, the girls often struggled to fill a line up. They consistently put the team before themselves and their best efforts forward, as did our boys.”
It was a solid season for both the boys’ and girls’ squads. The girls finished 7-6-1, while the boys finished 8-7. Both teams advanced to the NJSIAA Central Jersey Public C Semifinal round. The last time the girls’ team had qualified for team states was during the 2013-2014 season; the boys had qualified in 2014-2015 season.
Hopewell also sent four swimmers and two divers to the 2018 NJSIAA Boys and Girls Individual Swimming and Diving Championships, also known as the “Meet of Champions.” Freshman Mari Kwak and sophomore Chloe Smith qualified for the diving portion of the meet. Ethan Anderson qualified in the 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle events. Donald Buglino qualified in the 200-yard freestyle. Anderson and Buglino also joined Kessel and Wurtz in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“Our teams really showed their commitment this season and enjoyed improvements across events. Because we don’t have a pool of our own, we often don’t leave practice until 10:30 at night,” said boys’ head coach Dennis Atkinson.
