Lighty wins medal at All-County Meet

West Milford High School junior Ben Lighty has been a standout on the West Milford/Lakeland co-op swim team this season.

He holds West Milford records for all but one individual swim event.

Lighty said he grew up in Pennsylvania, where he took swimming lessons. The family moved to West Milford in 2015, but it wasn’t until his freshman year when he joined the team that he began to swim competitively.

“He’s a strong swimmer, a back-stroker for us, but he is willing to do anything the team needs,” said Patricia Kerdle, Lakeland Regional High School’s swim coach.

Lighty has a recorded time at least once in every of the 11 boys swim team events during his three years of competition.

“He’s the strongest male swimmer for West Milford High School in the individual medley,” Kerdle said. “He’s the first male swimmer to receive a medal for West Milford at the All-County Meet on Jan. 20 at the Passaic County Coaches Association Meet. It’s how kids receive all-county recognition.”

She explained that he received his medal for being part of a four-member relay team. The top three teams receive a medal.

“He’s quite the versatile swimmer,” said Matthew Kane, who started coaching swimmers for West Milford last school year. He and Kerdle work together.

Lighty’s mother, Holly, said, “Kane has been a great part of the program.”

This is the fourth year of the West Milford/Lakeland co-op swim team. Lakeland Regional High School created a swim team in 2016 but it did not have enough boys. At the time, West Milford High School didn’t have a swim team so the two schools formed the co-op team.

Students from both schools compete together in a conference in the county, Kerdle said. There are a total of 36 students on the swim team, with 12 from West Milford. Only 13 are boys.

Leadership role

The swim team captains are high school seniors.

Because the current captain for West Milford is on a leave of absence, Lighty is a team leader for West Milford with teammate Molly Kane. Lakeland Regional captains are Chris Ranft, Ashton Moses and Steven Bracken.

Kerdle explainined that some of Lighty’s leadership responsibilities are to help get West Milford athletes to practice and activities and to help organize community events promoting the team, such as the Spooktacular Trick or Trunk event held in October at the high school.

“He’s a strong swimmer, a back-stroker for us, but he is willing to do anything the team needs,” she said.

Holly Lighty said the team aims to recruit more boys next year. This year, each swimmer is only able to do two individual races and two relay races per swim meet.

Lighty said he practices for one hour after school weekdays and sometimes has dry-land practices Saturdays during the school season. Swim meets are held once or twice a week.

In the summer, he works as a lifeguard and swim coach at the Awosting private lake community in Hewitt. Last year was his first at Awosting and he plans to work there again this summer.

He also is involved in the Boy Scouts and recently submitted the paperwork to gain approval of his Eagle Scout project, which is refurbishing the West Milford High School Green Team Garden. The project took eight to nine months of planning and building, he said.

Lighty also enjoys playing Airsoft with his friends, hiking, camping and building things, such as a catapult, as he did recently.

He would like to be an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he could use his swimming skills. If he does not go directly into the Coast Guard after high school, he plans to attend Norwich University or Massachusetts Maritime University and study engineering.