The state championship and the right to be regarded as the finest boys’ swim team in all of New Jersey await Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
And all that Bridgewater-Raritan has to do is beat a team that it already dominated this winter.
Bridgewater-Raritan, ranked No. 1 in New Jersey, is one victory away from winning the program’s fifth state championship when it swims against its Somerset County rival, Hillsborough High School, ranked 15th in the state, in the Group A state championship meet on Sunday, February 22.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s meet with Hillsborough will kick off a day of state finals at Rutgers University’s Sonny Werblin Recreation Center in Piscataway when these Skyland Conference members square off at 9 a.m
Due to the impending snowstorm that is expected to arrive in the afternoon, the NJSAA revised the state schedule.
Bridgewater-Raritan's third-ranked girls' team will also compete at 9 a.m., seeking its sixth state championship, meeting 10th-ranked Cherry Hill High School East in the Group A final.
The girls' Group A state final was scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m.
The 11 am meets on Sunday will be the boys' and girls' Non-Public championships, concluding the day's events.
The boys' and girls' Group B and C finals are scheduled now for Tuesday, February 24, at Rutgers. Tuesday, February 24.
Bridgewater-Raritan, which is 11-0, will enter the Group A boys' state final confident, since the Panthers stormed past Hillsborough, 105-65, in their January 13 meeting. That result is the lone loss suffered by Hillsborough (10-1) this winter.
Bridgewater-Raritan, coached by Evan Seavey, advanced to the state final after it cruised past 15th-ranked Ridgewood High School, 130-40, in the semifinals on Wednesday, February 18, at Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne.
Hillsborough earned a crack at Bridgewater-Raritan after it eliminated sixth-ranked Cherry Hill High School East, 91.5-78.5, in the Group A semifinals that were also held on Wednesday, February 18, in Wayne.
Bridgewater-Raritan last won the Group A boys’ state title in 2018.