Pomona Looks to Remain at the Top in Tri-County Swimming

The South Jersey summer swimming season is in full gear and the 34-team Tri-County Swim league promises to have some outstanding races.

Pomona Swim Club of Cinnaminson is the defending champ, beating Wedgewood of Haddonfield by nine points in last year’s championship.

Pomona also won by a similar margin in last year’s regular season over Wedgewood to win the Division A title.

There are six divisions, the top four A through D consisting of six teams each and the other two Divisions, E and F, having five teams.

A team that wins its division (other than in Division A) moves up a division the next year and a team finishes in last place in its division (other than in Division F) drops down a division.

A date to look at is this Saturday July 7 when Pomona visits Wedgewood. Regardless of which team wins this dual meet, both clubs figure to be serious contenders for the overall title.

Titles often go in cycles.

Last year Pomona won its first ever. On the other hand, Wedgewood had captured four consecutive Tri-County titles before placing runner-up to Pomona last year.

This year’s Tri-County championship will be staged at Brookside Swim Club in Glassboro, Aug. 4-5.

Depth is the key in summer swimming but what makes it so interesting is that every age group is just as important. There are some high profile swimmers who may miss various meets due to other competition and a team has to be able to adjust for that.

“We will be missing kids in some key meets but you can’t worry about it,” said veteran Wedgewood coach Jim Villa. “All I care about is how well the people out there do and whether you win or not, it is icing on the cake.”

Things go in cycles in Tri-County, so dominance one year doesn’t ensure the same for the next season. For instance, Pheasant Run of Cinnaminson had the most dominant run in Tri-County history.

Before Wedgewood took command, it was Pheasant Run that ruled the league. The Flyers won three consecutive Tri-County titles from 2001-2003. After Greenfields of West Deptford won the title in 2004, Pheasant Run then won an incredible eight consecutive championships.

That means the Flyers won 11 titles in 12 years, an unheard of string of dominance. Yet these days, while Pheasant Run is still a quality program, the Flyers have dropped down to Division B. It goes to show how much competition there is to stay in the A Division.

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Author: Marc Narducci; Photo by Marc Narducci