Bonac’s Swimmers Dunk HuHa
The East Hampton High School boys swimming team, which as of earlier this week had lost only one league meet this season, defeated the Huntington-Harborfields team 95-75 at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Jan. 10, thus improving its League II record to 3-1 and its overall record to 4-2.
Craig Brierley, the varsity team’s coach, said in an emailed report following the Y.M.C.A. Hurricanes youth swim team’s return from a large regional meet this past weekend at the University of Maryland that “the coaches were so proud of the boys — they continue to swim very well. . . . The score stayed very close right up to the ninth event, the 200 freestyle relay. We took first and third in that, and Huntington-Harborfields could not match us in the backstroke and breaststroke.”
East Hampton’s A team (Ethan McCormac, Thor Botero, Ryan Bahel, and Fernando Menjura) won the 200 free relay in 1 minute and 36.73 seconds. The visitors were second, in 1:41.24, after which came East Hampton’s B team (Will Midson, Jordan Uribe, Nick Sigua, and Aidan Forst), in 1:46.73. Midson’s lead-off leg of 27.65 was a personal best for him, as was Forst’s anchor leg of 24.53. Seventeen members of Brierley’s squad posted P.R.s that day, “world records,” Brierley calls them, “because in their world it’s a record.”
Going into Tuesday’s meet here with West Islip, Ethan McCormac was qualified to swim in six individual events at the county meet, which is to be contested at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood on Feb. 17, Menjura and Ryan Duryea were qualified to swim in five, Joey Badilla was qualified to swim in three, Forst and Owen McCormac were qualified to swim in two, and Colin Harrison was qualified to swim in one.
West Islip came into Tuesday’s meet with a 1-2 league record. It was 2-3 over all. Likewise, North Babylon, Monday’s opponent — it will be East Hampton’s final home meet of the season — was also 1-2 (2-3) as of Tuesday morning. East Hampton was to have made up a previously postponed meet at Sayville yesterday. Sayville-Bayport as of Tuesday morning was 2-1 (2-3).
“With two and a half weeks left until the league championship meet [at Hauppauge High School on Feb. 1], our boys are adjusting to heavier race-pace training loads,” Brierley said, adding that race- pace training “is the most efficient way to prepare for what this sport is all about — racing.”
Ethan McCormac, who won the 200 freestyle race in 1:46.29, a state-qualifying time, and the 100 butterfly in 57.08, meeting the state standard in that event as well, was named East Hampton’s swimmer of the meet, for the second time this season. “The captains didn’t hesitate in naming him swimmer of the meet for they know how hard he is working and how motivated he is to earn qualifying times,” the coach said.
Another qualifier (for the county meet) on the 10th was Ryan Duryea, in the 50 and 500 freestyle races. He placed third in the 50, in 24.44, an event that his teammate Owen McCormac won in 23.97. Duryea was a close second to the visitors’ Christopher Weber in the 500 free. Weber won it in 5:21.46. Duryea’s time was 5:22.91.
The meet began on a good note with Badilla, Ryan Duryea, Menjura, and Owen McCormac winning the 200 medley relay in 1:48.57, about three seconds ahead of Huntington-Harborfields’ A team. East Hampton’s B team of Luke Tyrell, Jack Duryea, Kevin Pineda, and Forst placed third.
Subsequently, East Hampton (Ethan McCormac) won the 200 free, with Conor Flanagan earning a point for finishing fifth; Jack Duryea and Menjura placed third and fourth in the 200 individual medley, Owen McCormac, as aforesaid, won the 50 free, with Ryan Duryea third, and Ethan McCormac won the 100 fly, with Badilla third and Pineda fourth.
Menjura won the 100 free, in 54.13, with Botero earning a point for his fifth-place finish; Ryan Duryea was second and Owen McCormac and Noah Gualtieri were fourth and fifth in the 500 free, East Hampton placed first and third in the 200 free relay, Badilla, with Pineda third and Tyrell fifth, won the 100 butterfly, in 1:00.72, Jack Duryea won the 100 breaststroke, in 1:08.33, with Flanagan fourth and Ryan Bahel fifth, and Ethan McCormac, Forst, Badilla, and Owen McCormac won the 400 free relay, the final event, in 3:42.21, besting Huntington-Harborfields’ A team by 13 seconds. Midson, Thomas Treadwell, Max Bahi, and Gualtieri were the third-place finishers in 4:08.30.