East Hampton High School’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Jane Brierley, Darcy McFarland, Julia Brierley, and Sophia Swanson qualified for the state meet by placing second to Northport-Commack’s team in Saturday’s county meet by two seconds.
The same group had already qualified for the state meet in the 200 medley relay.
In reporting the county meet’s results — a 26-team meet in which the Bonackers placed sixth — Craig Brierley, East Hampton’s coach, said, “The dedication and hard work that the girls put in throughout the season shined through in their efforts. . . . They either posted season-best or lifetime-best times, which was very impressive given that most of them had posted best times [in the league meet] just a week prior.”
Moreover, Swanson, the Old Montauk Athletic Club’s designee as its high school female athlete of the year, finished third in the 200 and 100 freestyle races, posting a state-qualifying time of 53.78 seconds in the 100 free. She is to compete in three events at the state meet — in the aforementioned 100 free, the 100 butterfly, and, with Julia Brierley, Jane Brierley, and McFarland, in the 200 medley relay.
“In the 200 individual medley, East Hampton freshman Jane Brierley, who finished fifth, dropped 1.8 seconds from her previous-best time,” Brierley said, adding that “Kiara Bailey-Williams, a Pierson junior, dropped over two seconds from her previous season best with a 14th-place finish in that same race.”
Further, the coach said, “Julia Brierley, an East Hampton senior, went a season-best 25.96 in the 50 free, earning her a seventh-place finish; Darcy McFarland went a personal-best 1:06.46 in placing 23rd in the 100 fly; Jane Brierley shaved 1.4 seconds off her previous-best 100 freestyle time, finishing 15th in 57.14; Julia Brierley took more than two seconds off her season best, and .4 off her personal best, in placing seventh in the 100 backstroke, and, in the same event, Emily Dyner, an East Hampton sophomore, erased 1.6 seconds from her lifetime best in finishing 18th, and Bailey-Williams bettered her lifetime best by 2.3 in finishing 21st.”
Jane Brierley placed fifth in the 200 individual medley in 2:15.52, a season best by 1.8 seconds. Also in that race, Bailey-Williams pared more than two seconds from her season best in finishing 14th.
The 200 medley relay team of Dyner, Bailey-Williams, McFarland, and Caroline Brown got East Hampton off to a good start, all of them posting season-best times on the way to an 11th-place finish in 1:59.16.
“In the 400 free relay, Jane Brierley, Catalina Badilla, Julia Brierley, and Sophia Swanson faced a big task in attempting to cut 17 seconds from their previous best so that they could qualify in that event for the state meet. They came close, dropping almost 15 seconds on their way to a fifth-place finish.”
Swanson, who also anchored the runner-up 400 free relay team “in a lifetime best leg,” was named as swimmer of the meet by the team’s captains. “Always a tough competitor and a consistently hard worker in practice, Sophia has earned her successes in the pool,” said Coach Brierley.