By SEAN McCANN
Courier-Post Staff

Moments after the Vineland High School girls' swimming team won the South Jersey Public A championship at Rowan University last week, the victorious Fighting Clan paraded past their fans and family in a smiling, waving line.

That night, junior Tiffany Malatesta walked at the end, the ultimate cog in an unstoppable dual-meet-winning machine that would claim a fifth consecutive state title just five days later.

This weekend, however, Malatesta may well step out of that line, or at least take her place as the first among equals, at the NSIAA Meet of Champions.

The defending 100-yard freestyle state champion and 2004 Courier-Post Girls' Swimmer of the Year is the reluctant heiress to a legacy first etched in the early 1980s by Lisa Iori and continued 15 years later by Heather DeHainaut.

Though she shies from the comparisons to Vineland's all-time girls' swimming greats, Malatesta embraces the tradition as a force in her athletic life.

"I know Heather and Lisa and a lot of the swimmers that came before us, and we're lucky because they talk to us and support us," Malatesta said. "I'd like to be like them. Sabrina (Warren) and I would like to accomplish what they have."

If Malatesta seems comfortable with her role in the Fighting Clan's history, it's because she's been preparing for it practically her whole life.

As a swimmer for Vineland girls' coach John Casadia at Dolphin Swim Club during her summers, she continually breaks team and Suburban Swim League records, calmly anchoring the most powerful group of girls the league has ever seen.

That same age group that has rewritten the record books on its way up through the summer-league age groups includes Warren - a close second to Malatesta's 2004 100 free state title - Victoria Bonifield and Stevi Anderson of this Vineland team.

Iori, now Lisa Iori-Trabuchi, still owns the state record in the 100 butterfly, and has watched Malatesta grow up. She says Malatesta, whom she has known for five years, shares at least one vital trait with herself and DeHainaut.

"It's definitely the work ethic," Iori-Trabuchi said. "My first impression, of course, was that she was a very sweet and respectful girl, and then I noticed how hard she worked. None of us succeeded on talent alone."

But where summer swimming is fun, the high school season is serious business in Vineland. The Fighting Clan take the concept of swimming as a team sport to its most fervent conclusion, to glorious recent result.

On any other team in South Jersey, Malatesta might seem to walk on water, as she has collecting high point awards at the summer-ending Suburban League Championship Meet. But any sense of self dissipates along with the warm weather.

Generations of Vineland swimmers may look back on her as the program's most successful leader, especially if the her senior-year squad graduates undefeated with four championships. But in the moment, she's one of many putting in the work that maintains a dynasty.

The state championship trophy was still wet on Saturday when the Vineland coaches and swimmers started thinking about getting back to work.

"We'll go back up for a couple of days to maybe five or six-thousand (meters), and then we'll come back down and find out how much gas is left in the tank," Casadia said. "But you can't do it without the tank. The tank is practice all season."

In other years, the Meet of Champions has been little more than an afterthought for the Fighting Clan, a reward for a long season of selfless sacrifice.

But largely because of the incredible talents of Malatesta and Warren, Vineland has found something more to prove. Like 2004, the team's top swimmers will swim just one individual event, choosing to focus on all three relays.

The Fighting Clan won all three a year ago, setting the meet record in the 200 free relay. Now they're going for the other two marks.

"Now it's pride," Casadia said. "We'd like to go 1:49 in the medley, 1:37 in the 200 free. In the 400, if we're all clicking, it'll be incredible."

Malatesta will again swim the 100 free, hoping to hold off the likes of Egg Harbor Township junior Sarah Czar and Rebecca Kane from Mount St. Dominic Academy for a second straight state title.

"I know it's going to be a lot harder because there are going to be faster girls there," Malatesta said. "Last year, some girls were training for Olympic Trials or just not swimming high school, but a lot of them are back. It's a challenge I'm really looking forward to."