Green-Fields Wins Tri-County Swim Championship

by Marc Narducci | Aug 9, 2019

One of the former powers of Tri-County swimming emerged this year in a big way.

After going 5-0 to win Division A, and then earning its third straight Gloucester County Peach Bowl championship, Green-Fields of West Deptford ended the season with the biggest prize, the Tri-County Swim championships.

As an added bonus, this year’s championship among the 33 Tri-County teams was staged at Green-Fields.

It was Green-Fields’ first Tri-County championship since winning in 1992. That ended what had been a dominant run Green-Fields.

The Tri-County swim championships began in 1961 and Green-Fields won its first title in 1971. That was the first on an incredible 12 straight Tri-County championships ending in 1982.

Green-Fields would win subsequent titles in 1989, 1990 (at its own pool) and in 1992.

It goes to show how difficult it is to stay at the top in Tri-County. After that 1992 title, Pheasant Run of Cinnaminson emerged as a dominant force, winning an incredible 17 titles from 1993 through 2012. Wedgewood of Haddonfield, the defending champ, then won five of the last six years and now it was Green-Fields’ turn.

The Turtles won this year’s meet in convincing fashion, scoring 905.5 points. Not surprisingly, the first four finishers were from Division A. Medford’s Deer Brook was second with 742 points, followed by Pomona of Riverton with 661 and Wenonah with 529.

The previous week, Pomona edged Deer Brook in the Jack Hafner Burlington County championships, 793-785.

Cherry Hill’s Old Orchard and Willowdale, were fifth and sixth respectively with 477 and 461.50 points respectively. Taking seventh was last year’s champ Wedgewood of Haddonfield with 445 points.

Coached by Nancy Curtis, Green-Fields did well in the relays winning five races. A relay win was worth 32 points.

Here are the relays that the Turtles won: girls 8-and-under 100 medley; boys 11-12 200 medley; boys 15-18 200 medley; boys 11-12 200 freestyle; and boys 15-18 200 freestyle.

Jack Ruggieri and Gabriel Conduit won two individual events for Green-Fields (Swimmers were allowed to swim two individual and two relays in the Tri-County championships)

Jack Ruggieri won the boys’ 15-18 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly; Conduit earned the boys’ 11-12 50 backstroke in a meet record 29.77 and the 50 butterfly. Other individual winners included Jess Cecilia in the girls 8-under 25 breaststroke and Grace Popoff, girls 8-under 25 butterfly.

There were plenty of other outstanding swims. As one can see by just the winners, the Turtles showed great depth in all age classes – 8-and under all the way to 18-and-under.

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- Greenfields of West Deptford: the Favorite in the Weekend Tri-County Swim Championships

One of the largest South Jersey sporting events of the summer will conclude another season when the Tri-County Swim League holds its annual championship.

- Wedgewood Defends Tri-County Swim Title

Last year, Wedgewood of Haddonfield won its first-ever Burt German Tri-County Swim championship, earning the title by 38 points. This year, the Ducks defended their title in a much more convincing fashion, claiming the championship by scoring 760.5 points. Second place Pheasant Run of Cinnaminson ended with 611 points. Another perennial Burlington County power, Deer Brook of Medford, captured third place with 542.5 points.

It was an impressive win, capping a season of outstanding achievements for Green-Fields.

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Author: Marc Narducci

Green-Fields Wins Tri-County Swim Championship

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