Claiming a share of the Shore Conference A North Division public school championship highlighted the finest season ever put together by the Howell High School boys swim team.

The Rebels were 7-6 in dual meets, and their 4-2 mark in A North made them trichampions of the public school division with Freehold Township and Marlboro.

Christian Brothers Academy of Lincroft, a private school, won the overall A North title.

In A North competition, Howell opened the season with a win over Freehold Township and then lost to Marlboro. Freehold Township defeated Marlboro later in the season. All three teams lost to CBA in the division.

During the season, Howell had its finest performance ever at the Monmouth County Championships, placing seventh in the team standings. The Rebels had more swimmers qualify for the Shore Conference Championships than ever before: nine.

Robert Taber, Dean Pavlik, Greg McEvoy, Eric Gillies, Pat Enright, Frank Turpio, Carlos Johnson, Brandon Wheeler and Dustin Pavlik were the swimmers who qualified to compete at the conference championships. They were also the Rebels’ top scorers during the dual meet season.

Gillies, a junior, was Howell’s top swimmer at the conference championships, placing 10th in the 500-yard freestyle.

Howell coach Michael Ward called the 2009-10 campaign the program’s best allaround season. He credited a plethora of young, talented swimmers with making the team a winner.

“We had great depth this season with nine juniors, five sophomores and five freshmen,” he said. “That has been the key to our success this season.”

Ward explained that he keeps a lot of swimmers on the boys and girls teams, 25 swimmers on each. The goal is to give the underclassmen time to develop so they are ready to contribute as upperclassmen like this year’s seniors did.

Matt Goldzman, Dean Pavlik and Robert Traber, whom Ward called “the heart and soul of the team,” were four-year letter winners for the Rebels. Mike Stevens, a three-year letter winner, and Dan Smith round out the team’s outstanding senior class.

By keeping so many swimmers on the team, Ward believes he can find swimmers who will become dedicated to the sport and start to compete year-round. It is a win-win situation, he noted, with the swimmer bettering himself or herself and the team benefiting from their improvement.

The Howell girls also had their best season, going 5-7 in dual meets. Had it not been for a two-point loss to Brick Memorial High School, the girls would have had their first non-losing season.

Ward said he saw great improvement over the course of the season and expects that the Rebels will have a winning record next season.

The Rebels sent five swimmers to the Shore Conference Championships — junior captain Gina Perrotto, Ilona Supczynski, Paige Truax, Naomi Barnett and Monet Masters. Perrotto placed in two events — she was ninth in the 100 freestyle and 10th in the 50 freestyle.

All five swimmers are expected to return next year, which is another reason why Ward believes his team can finish over .500 in dual meets.