Believe it or not, another season of winter sports is upon us. All winter sports athletes at OP are ready for another successful season. The winter season is one of the best here at OP. The hockey team and basketball team have both produced noteworthy results in recent years, and the swim team has been Non-Public B runner-up for two years in a row. Many anticipate similar results in the 2018-2019 season.

The OP Swim Team has seen incredible results in the past few years. In both the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons the team finished as the runner-up in the Non-Public B state championship, blocked only by swimming powerhouse Pingry. However, the team lost multiple strong swimmers this past year due to graduation. However, don’t expect this to hurt their chances for a successful season. Under the strong leadership of head coach Chris DeSantis, many swimmers will show strong improvements over the course of the season. I’d expect Captain Andrew Meisner to continue his domination in the 500 Free. Luke Bernstein will continue to lose time in his already fast 500 Free. Furthermore, expect some faster times out of him in the 200 Free. Senior Jake Nowaki should get faster in the 100 Back. Kyle Roethlin will (hopefully) get faster in the 100 Fly and the 200 IM. I’d also expect Sam Ilagan and Pat Herrighty to see faster times from an already fast 2017-2018 season.

The OP Swim team will face similar opponents this year and expect similar results. If the team can make it to the State Finals once more, they will undoubtedly face Pingry, the fastest team in the Non-Public B tournament and arguably the fastest team in the State. Despite this level of opposition, the team is ready to take on the challenge and have another successful year.