Hurricanes Swim in Maryland, Tracksters Vie on Staten Island
Among the first things probably to catch the eyes of the 34 Y.M.C.A. East Hampton Hurricane swimmers on arriving at the University of Maryland’s pool the evening of Jan. 18 were the myriad records that Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky had set there when swimming with Baltimore (in his case) and Washington, D.C. (in hers), club teams.
Tom Cohill, the Hurricanes’ head coach, said during a practice session at East Hampton’s Y Monday that the team, which made the eight-hour trip on a chartered bus, had done “really, really well” at the Severna Park Y’s three-day Winterfest, a meet that drew Y.M.C.A. competitors ranging in age from 9 through 18 from all over the Northeast.
Cohill, who oversaw the East Hampton group with Craig Brierley, Angelika Cruz, and Sean Knight, could boast of seven top-16 finishers in Jasiu Gredysa, Liam Knight, Daisy Pitches, Jane Brierley, Julia Brierley, Ethan McCormac, and Sophia Swanson, who qualified for the Y nationals in the 100-yard butterfly.
Moreover, there were 25 personal bests, among them Ethan McCormac’s team record times of 21.23 seconds in the 50 freestyle, 46.89 in the 100 free, and 1:43.78 in the 200 free, Swanson’s team record time of 58.50 in the 100 fly, and Jane Brierley’s team record 2:25.33 in the 100 breaststroke.
Rounding out the personal-best list were Nicholas Chavez, Elizabeth Daniels, Ben Kriegsman, Lylah Metz, Patrick O’Donnell, Nick Badilla, Margaret Breen, Cami Hatch, Summer Jones, Aidan McCormac, Curran O’Donnell, Daniel Piver, Tenzin Tamang, Joey Badilla, Kiara Bailey-Williams, Jack Duryea, Ryan Duryea, Linda Pomiranceva, and Bella Tarbet.
As of now, Cohill is to take four girls and four boys with him to the Y national meet in Greensboro, N.C., in April — Jane and Julia Brierley, Oona Foulser, and Swanson, and Owen and Ethan McCormac, Aidan Forst, and Ryan Duryea. “We’re hoping that we’ll also have a girls 200 relay team and a boys 200 medley relay team qualify,” he said.
There was no action this past week insofar as East Hampton High School’s undefeated boys swimming team went, “enabling the boys,” said their coach, Craig Brierley, “to get in some solid training in preparation for the League II championship meet” at Hauppauge High School today.
During Monday’s practice, Brierley said it would be tough, but possible, for the team, which has no divers, to win the league meet on the strength of its showing in the swimming events alone.
Turning to winter track, Ben Turnbull, who coaches East Hampton’s boys team, said in an email that Ryan Fowkes had run a personal-best 4:27.81 mile in the Ocean Breeze invitational on Staten Island Saturday. “He placed third in his heat and 16th over all, among just under 300 kids,” Turnbull said. “Ryan met the state-qualifying cutoff time at Ocean Breeze, which means that if he finishes third in the state qualifier that’s coming up in about a couple of weeks he’ll go to states.”
Matt Maya, who also competed on Staten Island, “ran a personal-best 53.19 in the 400, winning the Blue division, which had about 80 in it, and ran the 55-meter high hurdles in 8.57, which was not a personal best, but not far from it. . . . He may have set a school record in the 400, but we’ll have to look into that deeper.”
The invitational drew “the best high school athletes from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut,” Turnbull said.
Some of East Hampton’s girls were at the Ocean Breeze meet too, namely Ava Engstrom, whose time in the 2-mile race was 12:11.60; Mimi Fowkes and JiJi Kramer, whose times in the 1,500-meter racewalk were 8:21.77 and 8:24.91; Grace Brosnan, whose time in the freshman 55 hurdles was 10.34; Lillie Minskoff, whose time in the varsity 200 was 28.22; Penelope Greene, whose time in the mile was 5:49.35, and Bella Espinoza, whose height of 8 feet 6 inches was a personal best for her in the varsity pole vault.