By RICH FISHER
Contributing Editor
Winning a gold medal in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions swim meet is pretty impressive. Accomplishing it as a freshman is like an “Oh wow!” moment. And doing it while struggling health-wise elevates it to “Are you kidding me?” status.
That is what Notre Dame High, Lawrenceville, 9th-grader Bridget Lowery achieved at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology in Sewell, when she broke her own school record with a time of 4:55.16 to win the 500 meters title. She entered the MOC seeded sixth and beat her seeding time by 7.97 seconds.
Other MOC place winners were St. Rose, Belmar’s Molly Cullen (third, 50 free, 23.57; fourth, 100 back, 55.96); and Notre Dame’s Gavin Bossio (100 breast, 57.32).
Lowery edged out long-time rival Maddeline Brennan of Robbinsville by 6/100ths of a second.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” Lowery said three days after the race. “I was shocked. Madeline is one of my toughest competitors and I always know she works so hard, so I’m always a little nervous when racing her.”
Fresh from receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, Notre Dame freshman Bridget Lowery displays the first-place medal she won in the 500 meters at the March 2 Meet of Champions. Joy Ann Lowery photo
Not to mention, Bridget fought a cold the entire week leading up the meet and “had a rough swim” in the preliminary round.
“That resulted in me just wanting to swim the race, with no thoughts of winning, just placing towards the top,” she said. “I paced myself the way I would normally for the first three-quarters. I could see that Madeline was in my reach so on the last 50 I went for it. My coach nicknamed me ‘the closer’ at an early age because I have demonstrated the ability to find another gear late in races and come back when trailing.”
When Lowery touched out, she was unsure if she had surpassed Brennan until she looked up at the scoreboard and saw the times. She ranks it as her biggest win to date, surpassing the high point awards she won twice in club swimming at the Greater Tampa Swimming Association Spring Championships in Florida.
“The competition was not nearly as tough there as the competition at MOC,” she said.
The gold medal capped an impressive season in which Lowery won all 14 of her individual events during dual meets and earned gold in the 400 freestyle at the Colonial Valley Conference Championships. And yet she was quoted in a story after the race as saying, “I’ve had a rough season.”
Again, health came into play. She dealt with a respiratory infection through January that aggravated her asthma, which affected her times. Heading into the CVC meet her scapula was out of line and created pain from her shoulder down the arm that forced her into rest.
“My times were much slower than normal, and I was unhappy with my performances,” Lowery said. “While I was winning races, it was not the way I typically perform.”
Through it all, the Lawrenceville resident and member of St. Paul Parish, Princeton, kept in touch with God.
“I lean on my faith a lot in swimming and in life,” said the St. Paul’s School graduate. “I look to God for guidance in my races. I pray before every race without fail. It is a part of my pre-race routine. I love going to Mass and am always looking for new ways to get involved in my faith.”
Bridget can’t recall her first dip in a pool but remembers her grandparents making their hot tub cooler in the summer so she could play in it.
“The water has always been like another home for me,” she said. “It’s very calming to be under water as it’s so quiet.”
Lowery began swimming at age 6 with the Lawrence Swim Association (where she still swims in the summer). She moved to the Lawrence Lightning for two years before joining Eastern Express, a team she helped take to second place at Buffalo Zones last summer. It was with EEX she began to build her resilience.
One of Bridget’s biggest adjustments entering ND was trying to balance club swimming with the high school team, as well as a high school course load.
“I hate missing club practice so that was the biggest challenge for me,” she said. “It also was very tiring, especially with doing doubles (practice and a meet). This created long days and late nights to finish homework after meets and/or practice.”
She managed it pretty well though, and leading into her MOC finals race, she talked to her club coach who told her not to put any undue pressure on herself and just shoot for a top three finish.
“That took away my nerves and made the race seem a lot more exciting,” Lowery said. “I did go in with a ‘nothing-to-lose’ attitude. I have this superstition that if my goggles are clear, my mind is clear, which means I will have a good race. I put my goggles on before my race and they were crystal clear. It gave me a big boost of confidence.”