March 17, 2025
By Chloe O’Donnell
Staff Writer
The swim team completed its season on Feb. 1 following the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference League Meet at LHS, where the boys finished in fifth place and the girls came in sixth out of nine teams.
The boys and girls teams–which are co-oped with North Arlington High School–closed their regular season on Jan. 21 with a 3-5 record.
Junior captain Carley Paserchia, who joined the team as a freshman, set a personal record in the 100-meter backstroke at the league meet with a time of 1:01.47.
She said the swimmers worked especially hard this season since six seniors graduated last year.
“We’re taking the swimmers we have and sculpting them into the best swimmers they can be.”
“We really came together to get over losing so many people,” Paserchia said.
She said meeting swimmers from other schools was among the highlights of the season.
“You’re going to remember people, you’re going to remember people’s times… and you’re going to make friends with other teams,” Paserchia said.
She said Head Coach Frew helped the swimmers improve their times by requiring them to work hard during practices.
“The week leading up to the [league] championship meet, [Coach Frew] pushed us so hard at practice, but there were at least five people who got a new personal record at that meet,” Paserchia said.
Assistant Coach Hoyt said watching the 10 freshmen on the team improve as swimmers was rewarding.
“It just clicked with them, like ‘Oh, I can do this,’ and their times just started going down. It was very impressive to see how their hard work was paying off,” Hoyt said.
She said her objective was to help every swimmer achieve their potential.
“We’re taking the swimmers we have and sculpting them into the best swimmers they can be,” Hoyt said.
Hoyt said she and Frew are proud of the team.
“Our experienced swimmers helped shape the new swimmers, who put in the time and energy to keep improving,” Hoyt said.
Freshman Esteban Manjarres, who joined the team this year, said he appreciated the supportive atmosphere at meets.
“We always cheer for our friends. I think that gives us hope when we’re swimming,” Manjarres said. “Seeing them cheer gives us more energy.”
Manjarres said the team wants to continue working hard next season to become faster and break records.
“We want to improve every day, we want to get better and we want to get good times,” said Manjarres.
