EWING
They went into it with no preconceptions.

The Bishop Eustace Prep School girls' swim team knew what it was up against.

Swimming in their first state final against one of the best teams in the state, the Crusaders knew they faced an almost impossible task.

While the outcome went pretty much as expected, the Crusaders walked off the pool deck at The College of New Jersey Sunday with the satisfaction that they had done their best, knowing the entire season had been a huge success and there is bright hope for the future.

The record will show Bishop Eustace, the third seed in the tournament, lost to the top seed, Academy of St. Elizabeth, 107-63, in the Non-Public B state championship meet.

But the record won't tell the whole story.

"St. Elizabeth was well worth the seventh ranking in the state," Bishop Eustace coach Mike Parker said. "They were just too good for us. They had too much speed.

"But I thought we acquitted ourselves well today. Our meet against Mount St. Dominc (88-82 victory in the semifinals) was the highlight of our season. This season has been great for the girls and great for the school. It's sad in a way because we have to say goodbye to the three seniors. They are all great young ladies. But we have some other girls who will be back."

One of those seniors, Cara Choplin, provided the Crusaders with one of their two victories. She won the 500 free in 5:40.07 - her last high school meet.

"The thing I'm most proud of is we had to swim three tough meets to get here," Choplin said. "And we swam well here today.

"Every year we said we wanted to get here, but we always came up a little short. This year we worked hard all season and I'm just so happy to get here. For me it's my last meet, it's a state final, I'm happy that I swam well and happy that everybody else did too."

The other Bishop Eustace (8-8) win came from sophomore Meg McCotter who touched out St. Elizabeth's Maggie Beaudouin in the 200 IM, winning in 2:21.57.

"This has been an awesome experience," McCotter said. "Last year we talked about it, but we didn't get there. This year we didn't discuss it as much.

"The past couple of meets have been just phenomenal. They have been the most exciting meets I have ever been a part of. We swam really well today.

"It's tough because we graduate three girls. But we have a lot coming back. We will expect big things next year."

St. Elizabeth (16-0-1) won all three relays. C.J. Pisano, who led a sweep in the 50 freestyle that put the meet out of reach early, also won the 100 free and swam on two winning relays.

Katie O'Gorman won the 200 free, the 100 back and swam on two winning relays, while her sister, Anne, won the 100 butterfly.

"This shows we were deeper than a lot of people thought," St. Elizabeth coach Greg Yarnell said. "People know about C.J. and Katie because they swam finals at the Meet of Champions, but a lot of people didn't know about our five, six, seven, eight, nine swimmers. They didn't see them all the time. These are kids that only swim high school but they showed they were pretty good too."