Everyone’s In As Swim Meets Begin
Craig Brierley has a dozen freshmen on the East Hampton High School boys swimming team he coaches, but you’d never know it the way the Bonackers have been performing. As of earlier this week, they were 2-1 over all and 1-0 in League II.
In last week’s meets, the boys lost 92-78 to Northport, a nonleague opponent from League 1, but there was no shame in that inasmuch as Northport was the fifth-place finisher in last year’s county meet.
It went down to the wire. A one-two finish in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, would have given East Hampton the victory, but Northport won it, with East Hampton (Aidan Forst, Owen McCormac, Joey Badilla, and Ethan McCormac) second and fourth (Kevin Pineda, Thomas Treadwell, Will Midson, and Ryan Bahel).
The Bonackers took second and third in the leadoff 200 medley relay, with an A team comprising Badilla, Ryan Duryea, Fernando Menjura, and Owen McCormac, and a B team comprising Forst, Jack Duryea, Colin Harrison, and Thor Botero.
Badilla, Jack Duryea, Harrison, Owen McCormac, and Menjura are freshmen.
Ethan McCormac, a junior, won the 200 free, in 1 minute and 47.81 seconds, well ahead of the runner-up, Aidan Greenfield of Northport.
A fellow junior, Ryan Duryea, was second, and Badilla was third in the 200 individual medley.
Menjura and Owen McCormac, both freshmen, as aforementioned, were third and fourth in the 50 free. With Menjura, Harrison, and Pineda, a sophomore, the Bonackers placed second, third, and fifth in the 100 butterfly, before Ethan McCormac returned to win his second event of the day, the 100 freestyle.
Northport’s Greenfield swam away with the 500, though Forst was second. East Hampton (Menjura, Harrison, Ryan Duryea, and Ethan McCormac) won the 200 free relay, and its B team of Pineda, Jordan Uribe, a junior, Treadwell, a senior, and Thor Botero, a junior, placed third.
Badilla was second in the 100 backstroke, and Ryan Duryea was the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke, with his younger brother, Jack, third.
In his recount of the meet, Brierley said 18 of his swimmers — he has 30 on the roster — had turned in “world record” times.
The team got back on track by defeating Stony Brook 93-69 at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter last Thursday. It was the Bonackers’ league opener.
Among East Hampton’s winners were the 200 medley relay team of Pineda, Ryan Duryea, and Ethan and Owen McCormac; Forst, in the 200 free and 100 back; Ryan Duryea, in the 200 individual medley; Ethan McCormac, in the 100 fly; Pineda, in the 500 free; the 200 free relay team of Ethan McCormac, Badilla, Owen McCormac, and Menjura, and, if truth be told, the 400 relay team of Ethan McCormac, Owen McCormac, Ryan Duryea, and Forst, which was “exhibitioned,” which is to say East Hampton forwent the 8 points.
East Hampton, with Ethan McCormac, Badilla, and Owen McCormac, swept the 100 fly, and placed one-two in the 500, the 200 I.M., and in the 200 free relay.
Treadwell, for his come-from-behind fourth-place finish in the 500, was named swimmer of the meet last Thursday. Cris Criollo, a first-year swimmer, earned the designation in the Northport meet for doing his best in preparing himself to lead off Bonac’s C team entry in the 400 relay.
As of earlier this week, the following had qualified for the county meet in various events: Forst, Ethan and Owen McCormac, Badilla, Menjura, Harrison, and Jack and Ryan Duryea.
The team’s captains — elected by their teammates — are Noah Gualtieri, Nick Sigua, and John Pinos, all seniors.
Max Bahi, a first-year junior, was picked as the Smithtown meet’s swimmer of the meet for having filled in for an ill teammate after having swum the two events he’d been scheduled to do.