Raritan Valley YMCA Riptide swim team brings home 2nd place in Men's division at Sun Kissed Invitational

The Sun Kissed Invitational is the end of a long journey for Raritan Valley Riptide. After a 7 month season that begins in September, swimmers hope to do their best times at the year’s biggest meet.

The modern incarnation of the former YWCA National Championship, the Sun Kissed Junior/Senior Championship of the USA takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina. This year’s meet was Thursday through Sunday, April 3rd to 6th. It brings together teams from all over the United States, who compete for four days in two age divisions: the Junior division, for swimmers age 10 to 13, and the Senior division, which has no age limit. The Riptide swim team, based out of East Brunswick’s Raritan Valley YMCA, ends each season by bringing 40 or more of the team’s top swimmers to the meet. This year’s performance was highlighted by a second place overall finish in the combined Junior/Senior Men’s division.

The meet got off to a fast start for Raritan Valley on Thursday night. In three of the first four events, Riptide swimmers turned in team records, making them the fastest performers in the team’s 19 year history. In Event 1, Melanie Fosko set Riptide’s girls record for 1000 Yard Freestyle (10:52.45), and Vinnie Gibbons followed with a boys 1000 record (9:35.59) in Event 2. And in Event 4, Max Alexeev recorded Riptide’s fastest ever 500 Yard Freestyle by a swimmer age 12 and under (5:23.21). Later in the meet, Fosko and Gibbons would add team record performances in the Senior Girls and Senior Boys 500 Freestyle as well. The men’s 200 Medley Relay team of Drew Ramos, Lucas Irvine, Vinnie Gibbons, and Jonathan Leonardo ended the night with a third place finish in a team record 1:36.82.

The rest of the weekend was headlined by Christina Napoli, who destroyed her previous personal best times en route to three team records and three appearances on the medal stand. Napoli set new team standards in the 100 Fly (58.60), 200 Fly (2:09.85), and 400 IM (4:41.24), while finishing second overall in the 100 Fly and third in the 200 Fly. Napoli also swam butterfly on Riptide’s bronze medal 400 Medley Relay (Colleen Dwyer, Melanie Fosko, Christina Napoli, Allison Huber).

Michael Stanaway also came away from the meet with multiple team records. As an 8th-grader swimming in the Senior division, Stanaway set team standards for 13-14 Boy 100 and 200 Fly (55.92, 2:03.84). Other meet highlights included Lucas Irvine swimming the 100 Breast in under a minute, and graduating seniors Justin Atkinson and Drew Ramos simultaneously qualifying for top-8 finals in the 200 Back. Nina Mendes led the Junior Girls, winning the consolation final of the 200 Fly.

RVY’s overall score was aided by a monster performance from the Junior Boys age group. Ten boys in that age group attended the meet for Riptide: Max Alexeev, Dominick D’Esposito, Michael D’Esposito, Lucas Espada, Itamar Hillel, Timothy Jew, Matt Landis, Bladen Lee, Jacob Snow, and Trent Tighelaar. All ten boys made it beyond prelims in at least two individual events, and all ten contributed to at least one point-scoring relay team. Junior Boys relays appeared twice on the medal podium, with a second place finish in the 200 Medley Relay and a third in the 400 Medley Relay.

The final night of the meet was highlighted by three of the team’s best individual performances, all resulting in appearances on the medal podium. In addition to Napoli’s 3rd in the 200 Fly, Itamar Hillel capped off the Junior Boys’ big weekend with their best individual finish, a 2nd place in the 100 IM. Graduating senior Colleen Dwyer ended her Riptide career with an inspiring performance. The only girl in team history to swim a 100 yard backstroke in under one minute, Dwyer failed to break a minute in 100 Back prelims and entered finals as the 6th seed. She recovered to turn in a scorching 58.62, for another team record and an overall 2nd place finish.

As Riptide’s last swimmer to enter the water in the final event, Vinnie Gibbons ended the meet with a display of pure speed. Narrowly clinging to third place, Gibbons split a stunning 20.86 seconds in the 50 Free, which sent the team of Drew Ramos, Alex Skwish, Jonathan Leonardo, and Gibbons to the podium to collect the bronze medal.