By Sean Farrell – Record Sports Department

LYNDHURST – One win was enough.

The attitude never changed after hours of watching opponents celebrate race after race. Not even a 102-degree fever to their leader could bring down Leonia/Palisades Park.

The program stuck to its old formula. Strength in numbers.

That’s how the Lions became NJIC champions for the fourth year in a row at Saturday’s conference meet in an exciting battle that came down to the ending.

“We encouraged the team to just keep working,” senior Gabby Cintron said. “It wasn’t just about us. It was about the team in general. It wouldn’t work if it was just us, just our faster people, just our club swimmers. It was the whole team together.”

The winning streak at Leonia/Palisades Park looked to be in jeopardy with sprinter Elle Morse not at 100 percent. Morse is one of the top swimmers in North Jersey and owns so many school records that coach Bill Eickelberg has joked that the record book should be named after her. After all, only two distance freestyle events separate Morse from completing her “bingo card” for a full sweep. She delivered her team’s only win on Saturday in the 50 freestyle, though it was about two seconds slower than her Bergen County-winning time. The Lions (9-0) were deep enough around her, something teammates attributed to having the early morning practices usually reserved to clubs. Their 134 points was just enough to eclipse Rutherford’s 124 and Secaucus’ 97.

“This group of senior girls and in particular the three captains, Gabby Cintron, Catalina Castellon and Sydney Keller, they are the driving force,” Eickelberg said. “They are the backbone of the team. It’s just a testament to all their hard work and dedication and believing in themselves and everybody on the team.”

Every winter brings a new look to the conference record book and this season will be no different. Six girls records went down on Saturday, with Secaucus junior Carlee Sanchez-Hegarty responsible for two and the Rutherford relays adding another pair. The young Bulldogs got one in the first event of the day and stayed in striking distance with Alexis Kidchob winning the backstroke.

The Lions actually trailed by six with one event left, leaving Castellon and many at Lyndhurst High School scrambling to calculate a winning formula. Getting second and fifth in the 400 freestyle relay eventually did the job.

“Our team is special because of the fact that there are so many people who can swim so many different events,” Castellon said. “That’s our key. Even though we have a great front line, we have those swimmers who are able to incorporate their skills into the top-eight. We can go 2-3-4. We don’t need first.”

“We knew it would come down to the last couple of events,” Eickelberg added. “We have great swimmers with Elle, but we’re very deep. The cool thing is since we only have three club swimmers, this team is made up of softball players and tennis players, soccer players who for three months of the year swim pretty fast.”