Cougar Swimmers Make Strong Showing at Home in Conference Championships

January 20, 2026

Nicholas Mistretta

MHS ’79 Cougar Sports Correspondent

SKILLMAN — In one of the deepest meets of the season, the Montgomery High School boys and girls swim teams turned in solid performances at the conference championship meet Saturday, hosted at the MHS pool.

Against a loaded field of Skyland Conference powers, the Cougar boys finished fifth overall with 88 points, while the girls placed 12th with 36 points but came away with several top-10 individual and relay results.

Bridgewater-Raritan won the boys team title with 295 points, followed by Pingry (228), Hillsborough (219.5) and Ridge (144.5). On the girls side, Pingry (226) edged Hillsborough (220) for the championship, with Bridgewater-Raritan (167) and Ridge (109) rounding out the top four.

Boys: McWha, Qian and relays pace Montgomery

Liam McWha led the way for Montgomery’s boys with a pair of high-impact individual swims and strong relay legs.

McWha opened his individual program with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, touching in 1:48.47 in a fast heat won by Somerville’s Domingo Gatti (1:40.14). Later in the session, McWha returned to place fourth in the 100-yard butterfly, clocking 54.64 behind Bridgewater-Raritan standout Jaden Lee, who won the event in 49.00.

Montgomery’s sprint corps also contributed significantly to the scoring column. Eric Qian placed 12th in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.83, then came back with a 7th-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle at 50.59. Fellow sprinter Nicholas Paradizov added depth with a 14th-place result in the 50 free (24.07) and 12th in the 100 free (52.48), while Ryan La rounded out the Cougar presence in the 50 with a 25.65.

In the 200-yard individual medley, Kobe Solivan cracked the top 10, taking 8th in 2:09.59, with teammate Siddharth Parambath finishing 13th in 2:16.65 and Winston Shih 19th. Solivan later added a 9th-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke in 57.24, followed by Parambath in 12th (1:01.15) and Allen Qin in 20th (1:08.83).

Montgomery’s distance swimmers also contributed valuable points in the grueling 500-yard freestyle. Elves Huang finished 16th in 5:24.40, Greg Heden was 17th in 5:25.09, and Lars Harrison placed 18th in 5:33.27 in a race dominated by Somerville’s Gatti (4:33.61).

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Shih led the Cougar trio with a 16th-place finish in 1:10.67, followed by Yusuf Shaikh (20th, 1:12.33) and Saksham Prasad (21st, 1:16.60).

Relays were a bright spot for the Montgomery boys:

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the quartet of McWha, Qian, Paradizov and Heden placed 6th overall in 1:37.89, holding their own in a race won by Bridgewater-Raritan in 1:26.85.
In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Qian, Paradizov, McWha and Solivan combined for a 5th-place finish in 3:30.88, closing the meet on a high note for the home crowd.
The 200-yard medley relay of Solivan, Shih, Parambath and Jerry Qiu finished 8th in 1:50.54, adding early points to the team total.

Those collective efforts helped Montgomery secure fifth place in the 13-team boys field, ahead of Phillipsburg, Watchung Hills, Somerville, Bernards and others.

Girls: Bitterman, Boulos and Ristuccia lead scoring effort

On the girls side, the Cougars faced an equally strong field but produced several standout swims, particularly from Zoe Bitterman, Juliet Boulos and Eden Ristuccia.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Bitterman tied for 13th place in 2:04.93, scoring important early points in an event won by Raiders standout Emily Sudol (1:53.64). Later in the session, Bitterman delivered one of Montgomery’s top individual results of the meet in the 100-yard butterfly, placing 8th with a 1:01.43.

Freshmen Vedika Gupta and Yarin Zarzhitsky also swam the 100 fly, finishing 23rd (1:10.95) and 24th (1:11.75), respectively, gaining valuable championship-meet experience.

Sprinter Juliet Boulos placed 9th in the 50-yard freestyle with a 26.08, competing in a tightly packed final won by Pingry’s Maria Pontoriero (23.95). Boulos then turned to breaststroke, taking 9th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:12.42, just inside the top 10 in another loaded field.

Ristuccia provided one of Montgomery’s strongest distance swims of the day in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing 6th in 5:35.75. She also competed in the 100-yard backstroke, placing 20th in 1:09.82, and anchored multiple relays.

Breaststroke depth came from Nina Tadych and Averie Wu, who finished 15th (1:15.06) and 17th (1:15.64), respectively, behind Boulos in the 100 breast.

The Cougar girls’ relays contributed to the scoring as well:

The 200-yard medley relay of Ristuccia, Tadych, Bitterman and Boulos opened the meet with a 10th-place finish in 2:00.37.
In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Boulos, Ristuccia, Tadych and Bitterman combined to place 9th in 4:11.84, closing out the meet with another top-10 relay performance.
The 200-yard freestyle relay of Averie Wu, Gupta, Josephine Chen and Zarzhitsky finished 13th in 1:57.16.

Chen (26th, 2:25.47) and Katerina Kondratyev (15th, 6:21.00 in the 500 free) added depth in the mid-distance and distance events, while Leah Zong competed in the 200 IM and Zarzhitsky doubled back for the 100 backstroke (26th, 1:15.69).

Despite finishing 12th in the team standings, Montgomery’s girls showed balance across strokes and distances and placed multiple swimmers and relays in scoring positions against some of the strongest programs in the state.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Mistretta/headlinenewsmontgomery.com