Pennington’s swimming program is over 85 seasons old, making it one of the oldest programs in secondary schools in New Jersey. The varsity swimming team trains eight times a week in season, including morning and afternoon practices. In recent years the team has won 21 NJISAA state championships going back to 1996 (eleven straight state titles for the girls' team and ten state titles for the boys' team; boys have won recent back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019). 

In 2012, Pennington started an aquatics program that includes lessons, lap swimming, and an aquatics class that teaches swimming within its curriculum.  In addition, on-campus USS teams train any Pennington boarding or day student interested in USS swimming year-round, as well as swimmers in the community. Our swimming program also includes a middle school team. Numerous varsity swimmers have recently gone off to compete at Southern Methodist University, Drexel, Tufts, Amherst, Denison, University of Pennsylvania, Fairfield, Ithaca, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Occidental, Georgetown, Penn State, Michigan, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Kenyon, among others. The School’s aquatic center features an indoor, six-lane, twenty-five-yard pool with a Colorado Touch Pad timing system updated in 2009 and a combination swimming and water polo scoreboard. Underwater filming for stroke analysis and winter break training to Coconut Grove, Florida, has also been a part of the swimming program. The team competes against Prep A and B teams as well as Group III and IV public schools in New Jersey as well in the regular season and concludes with the Mercer County Tournament, NJISAA State Tournament, and Easterns held at Franklin and Marshall College each year. 

In the last two years, Pennington Swimming has had five All-American performances, two National Records, five Boys Mercer County records, three Boys' and one Girls' NJISAA State Record, nine All-State performances, numerous pool records including Germantown Academy, Lawrenceville, F&M University, Blair, and Perkiomen, and currently has the fastest male high school 50-meter free swimmer in the country (David Curtiss '21)  who will attend the US Olympic Trials in 2020 and is a current member of the USA National Team. Curtiss currently holds the record for the fastest 50-yard freestyle in national high school history. 

George Ward '88 has been coaching since 1994 and Scott Doughty since 2003.  Head Coach Ward is also the aquatics director at The Pennington School, and Pennington is an authorized provider of American Red Cross lessons. 

Pennington School Swimming Records: 

View the top times from 2019-2024.