Eight Records Set at the Y State Meet
The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter youth swim team, the Hurricanes, placed third among 39 entries — and in runner-up positions in the separate boys and girls divisions — in the state Y meet in Buffalo this past weekend, a showing that convinced the coach, Tom Cohill, that this was the most balanced team he’s ever taken to the states.
His charges — there were 58 of them — broke eight state records (six of them in relays, three on Saturday alone) and registered numerous first-place finishes. His relay teams’ dominance underlined his claim that this year’s team has been his most balanced one, Cohill agreed.
Just as pleasing as the results was the fact that “all of our older kids were cheering the younger ones on, which is just what you want when you have a team of younger and older kids. In the past two or three weeks of practice we’ve been asking them to look around and see what great things their teammates are doing.”
Cohill and his assistants (a group that includes Craig Brierley, Angelika Cruz, Andrey Trigubovich, Sean Crowley, Sean Knight, and Hank Oppenheimer) will take seven competitors (Maggie Purcell, Sophia Swanson, Caroline Oakland, Julia Brierley, Jane Brierley, Oona Foulser, and Ethan McCormac) to the national Y meet in Greensboro, N.C., in the first week in April.
The Flushing and Southeast (Rochester) Y teams — much larger ones than East Hampton’s — were the only ones to outdo the Hurricanes, and not by much.
Setting state records for the Hurricanes were: the girls open 200 free relay team of Purcell, Foulser, Oakland, and Swanson; the girls open 200 medley relay team of Oakland (back), Jane Brierley (breast), Sophia Swanson (fly), and Purcell (free); the girls 11-12-year-old 200 medley relay team of Cami Hatch (back), Jane Brierley (breast), Summer Jones (fly), and Margaret Breen (free).
The boys 13-14 medley relay team of Joey Badilla (back), Jack Duryea (breast), Fernando Menjura (fly), and Owen McCormac (free); the girls 15-19 200 medley relay team of Julia Brierley (back), Purcell (breast), Sophia Swanson (fly), and Oakland (free), and the girls 15-19 400 free relay team of Sophia Swanson, Oakland, Foulser, and Purcell. Purcell also set state records in two individual events, the 100 breaststroke and the 200 breaststroke.
Turning to other East Hampton Y.M.C.A. news, town junior lifeguard training sessions for 9-through-15-year-olds overseen by John Ryan Sr. and Jr. on Sundays are underway at the Y’s pool.
New trainees, whose sessions are from 2 to 2:45 p.m., are required as a prerequisite to swim 50 yards (two lengths of the pool) using the freestyle stroke, to tread water in the deep end for at least five minutes, and to swim underwater for 10 to 15 yards in the deep end.
Trainees are being evaluated as to their freestyle, sidestroke, and breaststroke abilities. “Some may need additional instruction, which is available at the Y,” the Ryans have said in a flier.
“If all aspects of a stroke have a successful rating of 2 (‘good’) or higher, we ask that the stroke be practiced for at least four laps to build up the trainee’s conditioning.”
Nine-through-12-year-olds, after having improved their strokes and conditioning, will be asked to swim four laps (100 yards) of freestyle in good form in less than 2 minutes and 15 seconds, with “no stopping or resting at the walls.” They will also be asked to swim eight laps (200 yards) using the three above-mentioned strokes. This test, the Ryans have said, “will not be timed, but good form must be maintained.”
The older trainees, whose sessions are from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m., will be asked to swim six laps (150 yards) freestyle in good form, with no stopping or resting at the walls, and 12 untimed laps (300 yards) using the freestyle, side, and breaststrokes in good form.
Participants, who are to be accompanied by a parent, can sign up at the Y’s pool any Sunday at 1:30 p.m. “Returning junior lifeguards are to be tested only in the 2:45-3:30 session.”
The training sessions began March 11 and are to continue through June 17. The summer junior lifeguard program is to begin Saturday, June 23.
The flier adds that “once a trainee has passed the swim test he or she need not come to training. Trainees will have until the end of June to qualify for the summer junior lifeguard program, which is to be run this year at East Hampton’s Main Beach, Indian Wells in Amagansett, and at Ditch Plain in Montauk.”