Shore Conference Swimming Championship- Boys Preview
By Emily Nassi (Freehold Twp.), Student Swimming Correspondent

200 Medley Relay
Christian Brothers Academy, the Monmouth County champion, is seeded nearly seven seconds ahead of Toms River South, the Ocean County champions.  CBA’s time is also exactly a second-and-a-half faster than the record set in 1994 by their own school.

200 Freestyle
Greg Daniele of Middletown North is seeded first at 1:43.70, almost five seconds ahead of Connor Jaeger, the defending champion, but both will battle it out in what should be an extremely close race.  Don’t count out Shore Regional’s Andrew Dennis or Toms River East’s Brian Molloy, either.  Dennis placed second to Jaeger last year at Shore Conference, and second to Daniele this year at the county meet, while Molloy is the Ocean County champion.

200 Individual Medley
CBA’s Alex Fitton holds the top seed at 1:59.47, in front of Toms River South’s Brian Way. Way placed second last year by .05 seconds to Monmouth Regional’s Eddie Carnes, who is not swimming the event this year. Fitton placed fifth last year. Harrison Cefalo, also of CBA, and Andrew Hiss of Freehold Township are the third and fourth seeds, respectively.  

50 Freestyle
Martin Harm of CBA will look to defend his title in this event, and is seeded first with a time of 21.42, the top time in the state this season. Both he and Taylor Gledhill of Red Bank Regional, the second seed at 21.75, have seed times under the record time of 21.83 set more than 20 years ago in 1986 by John Morrison of Holmdel. Carl Nagle, also of Red Bank Regional, is seeded third, while CBA shows its presence in this event with three more swimmers - TJ McCarthy, Terry Hubert, and Charlie Pataffi - all in the top six.

100 Butterfly
In what should be another close race, Greg Daniele of Middletown North is seeded more than a second in front of Eddie Carnes of Monmouth Regional.  Martin Harm of CBA, who won the event last year, is seeded third.  Daniele’s and Carnes’ seed times are also under the record (52.84) set in 1984 by Peter Kaiser of Rumson.  Russ Kyff, seeded fifth, is the only Ocean County swimmer in the top eight.

100 Freestyle
Red Bank Regional’s Taylor Gledhill, the Monmouth County champion, is top seeded at 47.90, with CBA’s TJ McCarthy  seeded second.  Andrew Dennis of Shore Regional is seeded third, trading in this event for the 500 freestyle this year.  Billy DeRouville of Toms River North, the Ocean County champion, is seeded second.

500 Freestyle
Connor Jaeger of Rumson-Fair Haven will look to defend this title and is seeded first at 4:38.93, the top time in the state this season. Jaeger is in record-breaking territory, as his time is a little over two seconds off the record of 4:36.29. Toms River East’s Brian Molloy, the Ocean County champion, comes as the second seed, almost 12 seconds behind Jaeger. About 15 seconds behind Molloy are two Ocean Township swimmers, Mike Pembleton and Shane McCary, as the third and fourth seeds.

200 Freestyle Relay
CBA holds the top seed at 1:28.48, which is once again under the record set by its own team last year. Red Bank Regional, the second seed, has a time four seconds behind CBA, while Pt. Beach is seeded third.

100 Backstroke
Monmouth Regional’s Eddie Carnes is the returning champion, as well as the top seed at 53.64. Carnes was also the Monmouth County champion this year.  CBA’s Alex Fitton and Freehold Township's Steve Fox are the second and third seeds.

100 Breaststroke
CBA’s Harrison Cefalo is top seeded at 1:00.23. The freshman is less than a second off the record (59.34) set by Emmett Walling of Manasquan in 2005. Luka Vasta of Ocean Township, who placed second to Cefalo at Monmouth County Championships, is seeded second. The Ocean County champion, Toms River South’s Brian Way, is seeded third.

400 Freestyle Relay
CBA holds the top seed with a time of  3:17.81 for the third relay of the day. Although CBA is not under the time, the Colts are less than a second off the record held by a Toms River North squad that beat CBA by .02 in 2006 for the first-place finish.  Toms River South, Ocean Township, and Toms River North, the second, third and fourth seeds, have a seed time nearly 12 seconds behinds CBA’s time.