Boy Swimmers Finish at 9-0, Records Set in Girls Track

As expected (though it was not a lead-pipe cinch), the East Hampton High School boys swimming team won at West Islip on Jan. 16 to cap an unprecedented undefeated league-championship season at 7-0 (9-0). It was the first such for boys swimming since the program began here under Jeff Thompson in 2010.

West Islip’s four-lane pool (the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter’s, where the Bonackers hold their home meets, has six) prevented the visitors from taking full advantage of their superior depth, and East Hampton, which has no divers, had to spot West Islip 7 points in that event, but East Hampton came out on top nevertheless. The reported score was 55-45, though Craig Brierley, Bonac’s coach, “exhibitioned” his runner-up 400 free relay team (Callum Menelaws, Joran Uribe, Will Midson, and Ramses Jimenez) in the last event.

East Hampton went one-two in the opening 200-yard medley relay, with Joey Badilla, Ryan Duryea, Ethan McCormac, and Fernando Menjura, and Luke Tyrell, Jack Duryea, Nicky Badilla, and Edward Hoff.

Aidan Forst won the 200 free, with Daniel Piver third. Ryan Duryea won the 200 individual medley, Owen McCormac, with Thor Botero as the runner-up, won the 50 free, and Joey Badilla and Colin Harrison went one-two in the 100 butterfly, by which time East Hampton led 32-16.

Going into the last two events, the 100 breaststroke and the 400 free relay, the Bonackers were up 50-33, thanks to a one-two finish in the 200 free relay, second and third-place finishes in the 100 free, a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke, and a third-place finish in the 500 free. Jack Duryea won the 100 breast, with Curran O’Donnell third, sending the teams into the final event, the 400 free relay, with East Hampton leading 55-36.

Brierley, in an emailed account afterward, said 15 “world records” were set by his charges that day, a group that comprised Ethan and Aidan McCormac, Ryan Duryea, Botero, Joey Badilla, Midson, Tenzin Tamang, Jimenez, Uribe, O’Donnell, Menelaws, Harrington, and Piver.

Menjura, who had missed most of the season because of a knee injury, and who anchored the winning 200 medley relay team, was named swimmer of the meet by the captains.

The League II championships are to be held at Hauppauge High School next Thursday.

In other sports action this past week, the girls indoor track team placed eighth among League IV’s 11 teams in the league championships held at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood Sunday. Westhampton Beach, with 125 points, won it. East Hampton, whose roster numbers 11, finished with 31.5 — “not bad,” Yani Cuesta, the team’s coach, said, “given the fact that we have such a small team. We couldn’t be prouder of them.”

East Hampton’s scorers were Ava Engstrom, who placed third in the 1,500 and 3,000; JiJi Kramer, who was third in the 1,500 meter racewalk; Mimi Fowkes, who was fourth in the walk; Grace Brosnan, who was fourth in the high jump; Juliana Barahona, who was fifth in the shot-put; Lillie Minskoff, who tied for fifth in the 300, and the fifth-place 4-by-200 relay team of Brosnan, Barahona, Bella Espinoza, and Minskoff.

Engstrom’s time of 10 minutes and 49.15 seconds in the 3,000 set a school record. Brosnan’s 9.81 in the 55-meter high hurdles, earning her seventh place, was also a school record. Her 4-10 in the high jump was a personal best, as was Barahona’s heave of 27 feet 71/2 inches  in the shot-put.

At the Jim Howard invitational, also at Suffolk Community-Brentwood, last 

Thursday, Brosnan’s 9.91 in the 55-meter high hurdles was a school record, said Cuesta, inasmuch as Maria Dayton’s 9.8 in 1999 was a hand-held time, not a fully automated one. Had Dayton’s been a fully automated time, it would have worked out to 10.04 seconds, Cuesta said.

Engstrom’s 5:01.06 in the 1,500, which earned her fourth place, was a personal best. Cuesta added that in doing so Engstrom “came very close to breaking another school record, the 5:00.20 Dana Cebulski ran in 2013.”

Also at the invitational, Kramer placed third in a personal-best 8:11.39 in the racewalk, with her teammate Fowkes in fifth at 8:46.30.