Cougars Dominate Dual Meet, Sweep North Hunterdon in Pool

January 21, 2026

Nicholas Mistretta

MHS ’79 Cougar Sports Correspondent

SKILLMAN — The Montgomery High School swim program turned in a commanding performance in its latest dual meet, with both the girls’ and boys’ teams cruising past North Hunterdon in a sweep at the Cougar pool.

Montgomery’s girls defeated North Hunterdon 108–62 to move to 4–4 on the season, while the boys rolled to a 119–48 victory, evening their record at 3–4.

Girls: Depth and Relays Lead the Way in 108–62 Win

From the opening relay, Montgomery’s girls established control and never looked back.

The Cougars opened the meet with a strong swim in the 200-yard medley relay, as Eden Ristuccia, Nina Tadych, Zoe Bitterman and Angela Liu combined for a 2:03.86. Montgomery’s depth was evident immediately, with two additional medley relays — the quartets of Zoey Alessandro, Leah Zong, Vedika Gupta, Katerina Kondratyev (2:16.28) and Catherine Morris, Jessica Wang, Samidha Parambath, Rashi Gandhi (2:29.10) — also scoring valuable points.

Individually, several Cougars delivered standout efforts across multiple events:

Zoe Bitterman anchored the middle of the lineup, posting a 2:08.01 in the 200 freestyle and a 1:02.17 in the 100 butterfly, then returning to swim on the 400 free relay.
Nina Tadych powered through a 2:26.28 in the 200 individual medley and a 1:14.50 in the 100 breaststroke, and also contributed on both the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
Juliet Boulos paced Montgomery in the sprints, clocking 26.23 in the 50 freestyle and 58.34 in the 100 freestyle before joining relay duty.
Eden Ristuccia controlled the distance and backstroke events, touching in 5:56.27 in the 500 freestyle and 1:12.45 in the 100 backstroke and opening and closing multiple relays.

Montgomery’s sprinters and mid-distance swimmers stacked up points in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Behind Boulos’ 50 free, Angela Liu (26.91) and Zoey Alessandro (29.26) added to the scoring. In the 100 free, Liu (1:03.17) and Catherine Morris (1:09.45) rounded out a strong trio.

The Cougars’ distance corps also delivered, with Josephine Chen (6:29.47) and Katerina Kondratyev (6:34.39) backing up Ristuccia in the 500 free.

Montgomery closed the meet with a flourish, stacking the 200 and 400 free relays with speed and depth:

In the 200 free relay, Boulos, Alessandro, Yarin Zarzhitsky and Liu combined for a 1:56.01, with a second Cougar quartet — Gupta, Zong, Chen and Averie Wu — touching in 1:58.20.
In the 400 free relay, Bitterman, Boulos, Ristuccia and Tadych posted a 4:01.08, backed by two additional Cougar quartets that finished in 4:37.82 and 4:56.22.

Across the lineup, Montgomery’s girls consistently placed multiple swimmers in scoring positions, turning depth in every event into a comfortable team victory.

Boys: Sprint Speed and Relay Strength Fuel 119–48 Rout

On the boys’ side, Montgomery was equally dominant, posting fast times from the opening medley relay through the final 400 free.

The Cougars started with a strong statement in the 200-yard medley relay, as Kobe Solivan, Winston Shih, Monit Jain and Eric Qian combined for a 1:50.71. They were followed by two more Cougar quartets — Saksham Prasad, Yusuf Shaikh, Allen Qin, Greg Heden(2:00.50) and Advait Dambe, Vihaan Nidhruva, Aashman Chalukya, Jason Lu (2:07.74) — as Montgomery’s depth quickly put pressure on North Hunterdon.

Montgomery then stacked points in event after event:

In the 200 freestyle, Liam McWha led the way in 1:56.66, followed by Lars Harrison (2:02.89) and Sriram Reddy (2:11.45).
In the 200 IM, Solivan (2:16.55), Siddharth Parambath (2:25.62) and Shih (2:26.08) swept the Cougar entries.

The sprint freestyles belonged to Qian and company. Qian posted 23.46 in the 50 free and 52.02 in the 100 free, with Nicholas Paradizov(25.06 and 53.87) and Ryan La (25.83) adding more sprint depth in the 50, and Jerry Qiu (57.45) contributing in the 100.

In the 100 butterfly, McWha (57.07), Arhan Kondala (1:02.56) and Jain (1:14.14) kept the Cougars in front. The distance crew then delivered a sweep in the 500 free, with Elves Huang (5:29.03), Harrison (5:35.04) and Heden (5:35.34) all turning in strong swims.

Montgomery’s backstroke and breaststroke groups closed out the individual events with authority:

In the 100 backstroke, Solivan touched in 1:01.72, followed by Prasad (1:07.87) and Kondala (1:08.87).
In the 100 breaststroke, Shih (1:12.91), Nidhruva (1:14.22) and Shaikh (1:14.56) completed another Cougar sweep of the scoring positions.

The meet ended much as it began — with Cougars out front in the relays. In the 400 free relay, Paradizov, McWha, Qiu and Solivan combined for a 3:43.95, backed by two more Montgomery quartets that finished in 4:00.92 and 4:34.78, respectively.

Over the course of the dual, Montgomery’s boys consistently placed three swimmers in nearly every event and fielded three full relays at each distance.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Mistretta/headlinenewsmontgomery.com