Swimmers Third in League Meet

    The East Hampton High School girls swimming team placed third in the league meet at Hauppauge High School Friday, behind Sayville-Bayport-Blue Point and Harborfields, a result with which Bonac’s coach, John McGeehan, was not displeased, though absent the diving — an event in which East Hampton does not compete — the girls would have been in first place following the seventh event, the 100-yard freestyle.

    In the end, Say-Bay-Blue, which amassed 30 points in diving, was, as aforesaid, the winner, with 288 points; Harborfields was the runner-up, at 277, and East Hampton was third, at 232, ahead of Hauppauge (198), Huntington (188), and West Babylon (77).

    McGeehan will take seven competitors to the county meet on Saturday at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood — Marina Preiss, Maddie Minetree, Mikayla Mott, Carly Drew, Morgan German, Lilah Minetree, and Laura Gundersen.

    On Friday, Preiss, Mott, Drew, and German, who placed third, qualified to swim in the county meet’s 200 medley relay with a time of 1 minute and 57.69 seconds. Harborfields won that opening event in 1:57.60.

    Maddie Minetree won the league’s 200 free in 2:00.69, a time that qualified her for the county meet, and Mott, who placed third in the 200 individual medley in 2:22.15, also qualified for the counties.

    Preiss placed second in the 50 free, behind Hauppauge’s Alexandra Hemp, in 25.42 seconds, a county qualifying time, and Drew’s 1:03.12 in the 100 butterfly, good for third place, put her into the county meet in that event.

    Preiss and Maddie Minetree placed one-two in the 100 free, in 54.92 and 56.23. At that point, with seven of the 12 events having been contested, Sayville-Bayport-Blue Point held the lead with 160 points, followed by Harborfields, with 151, and East Hampton, with 133, leading to the conclusion that, if swimming had been the sole criterion, East Hampton would have been in the lead, by three points.

    The Bonackers, with Maddie Minetree, German, Drew, and Preiss, were to go on to win the 200 freestyle relay, in 1:44.62, though McGeehan said later in the week that Drew, Maddie Minetree, Preiss, and Mott would do that event in the counties.

    In the 500 free, although she was fourth in 5:50.28, Gundersen also became a county qualifier. Swimming a season-best 1:12.92 in the 100 breaststroke, Mott, who was the runner-up by five one-hundredths of a second, qualified too, as did the 400 freestyle relay team of German, Lilah Minetree, Drew, and Maddie Minetree, which placed second in 3:56.70.