Swimmers And Bowlers In Second
The East Hampton High School boys swimming team continued its stellar season with a 60-41 win at West Islip last Thursday. It was the fourth win in a row for the second-place swimmers, who are coached by Craig Brierley and Brian Cunningham, and it improved their league record to 4-1.
The team, which is in only its fourth year of competition, was 4-2 over all as of Monday, though that mark would be 5-1 had the Bonackers not had to cede diving points in a nonleague meet earlier in the season at Sachem East. Sayville (5-0 league) is the sole team to have beaten East Hampton this winter.
East Hampton’s bowling team, coached by Pat Hand and Ed Bahns, is also a league runner-up. The bowlers lost 22-12 in a showdown with first-place Eastport-South Manor at the Shirley Bowl on Jan. 22.
Later in the week, Hand said her charges would have had to win 28 points from the Sharks to win the school’s first league championship since the 2005-6 season.
While it wasn’t to be, “we fought back,” said Hand, who added that “we barely had five minutes to practice after we arrived, and the kids were freezing.”
Eastport won the first game handily, though the Bonackers, with 201, 210, and 211 scores, totaled 930 pins in the second game to Eastport’s 947, and they hit for 996 in the third, the only game they were to win. Jackson Clark, a junior, led the way with a 228-622 series.
The bowlers enjoyed their second 1,000-plus-point game last Thursday as they trounced Westhampton Beach 30-3 in the final regular season match at the East Hampton Bowl. Chris Duran, the senior anchorman, paced the team with a 225-622 series.
Duran is one of three seniors who have started for Hand this winter — Gabby Green and Brianna Semb being the others. Victoria Nardo, who saw action against Westhampton, is also a senior, which leaves Jacob Grossman, a sophomore, who was the team’s top scorer — averaging 194.61 — and five juniors as the expected returnees.
Back to the swimming team, Thomas Brierley, when questioned before Monday’s practice, said of the squad’s exceptional showings, “Everyone’s been working hard, we’ve got a lot of depth, and everyone gets along.”
“Trevor and I hope to make it to the states, him in the 500 free and me in the 100 back. A bunch of others ought to qualify for the sectionals [the county meet].”
In addition, he said, “All our relay teams are doing really well — all of them hope to make it to the countys.”
Thomas’s father, Craig, said by way of e-mail that Tyler Menold had been picked by the captains as the swimmer of the meet with West Islip. “He was a steady force in the breaststroke, placing second to Trevor [Mott], and in the winning 200 free relay. He is a very important member of the team, always works hard, and has been steadily improving his times.”
The elder Brierley added that at West Islip the times of Alex Astilean in the 200 individual medley and of T.J. Paradiso in the 100 free had qualified them for the sectional meet.
Among the personal bests that day, he said, were Mott’s breaststroke leg in the 200 medley A relay; Joe Gengarelly’s breaststroke leg in the 200 medley B relay; Rob Rewinski’s freestyle legs in the 200 medley B relay and in the 400 free A relay; Andrew Winthrop in the 200 free; T.J. Paradiso in the 100 free; Cort Heneveld in the 200 freestyle B relay, and Claudio Figueroa in the 400 free B relay.
Winners at West Islip were the 200-yard medley relay team of Anthony McGorisk, Mott, Chris Kalbacher, and Shane McCann; Thomas Brierley in the 200 freestyle; Astilean in the 200 individual medley; Mott in the 500 free; the 200 freestyle relay team of Thomas Brierley, Menold, Paradiso, and McCann; Thomas Brierley in the 100 backstroke; Mott in the 100 breaststroke, and the 400 freestyle relay team of Astilean, Rewinski, Mott, and Thomas Brierley.