The March-April season has thus far gone swimmingly, at least as far as most of East Hampton High's teams are concerned, for the girls teams especially.
Field hockey last week shut out three opponents, by 4-0, 6-0, and 5-0 scores, the girls swimming team won twice, the girls cross-country team left Islip and Miller Place in the dust here Friday, the girls tennis team, despite the absence of one of its top two players, Juliana Barahona, went into Monday's match at William Floyd with a 2-1 record, and the girls volleyball team, playing with poise, evened its record at 3-3 as it swept Hampton Bays here Saturday afternoon.
Only girls soccer, which is playing some of the best teams in the county, had a losing record going into Monday's matchup with Westhampton Beach, another team that had as of that day yet to win a game.
The field hockey team, keyed largely by Anna Hugo, who takes the free hits, has become a scoring machine, with numerous players getting in on the act, including Chloe Coleman, Molly Cangiolosi, Arabella Kuplins, Hanna Medler, Rorey Murphy, Delilah Desmond, and Casey Stumpf. East Hampton's victims last week were Babylon, Hampton Bays, and Port Jefferson. Lilia Schaefer, the first-year senior goalie, didn't let one get by her in that span.
Harborfields, which led Division II with a 5-0 record as of Monday, according to the Section XI website, is to play here today at 4:30.
Swimming Strong
Girls swimming, which habitually is strong, proved in its season-opener on March 16 that it is so again by defeating Sachem East, a mandatory nonleague opponent, 94-81.
The home team led 35-33 in the early going, "but then the team settled in and went to work," Craig Brierley, East Hampton's coach, said in an emailed account.
East Hampton's winners that day included Summer Jones in the 200-yard freestyle, the 500 freestyle, and in the 400 free relay, which she led off; Jane Brierley in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke; Lily Griffin in the 50 free, and Camy Hatch in the 100 backstroke and as a member of the winning 400 relay team, with Summer Jones, Caroline Jones, and Catalina Badilla.
Griffin, a Springs School eighth grader, and Izzy Caplin, an East Hampton High School ninth grader, were named swimmers of the meet by the captains, Caplin for having finished fourth in the 500 after volunteering to fill in and for her personal best times in the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
"Lily, in her first-ever varsity meet, took first in the 50 free, second in the 500, and helped the 400 B relay team to a second-place finish," Coach Brierley said.
Last Thursday, East Hampton was at home against West Islip, a league opponent, at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, and went on to win handily, exhibitioning in the final three events — the 100 backstroke, the 100 breaststroke, and the 400 freestyle relay.
East Hampton went one-two in the opening event, the 200 medley relay, jumping out to a 12-0 lead — a lead it would build on on the way to a lopsided win.
Bonac swept the 200 individual medley with Kiara Bailey-Williams, Hatch, and Griffin; swept the 50 free with Brierley, Ava Castillo, and Badilla; swept the 100 butterfly with Summer Jones, Emily Dyner, and Nicole Gutierrez, and swept the 100 free with Brierley, Hatch, and Badilla.
Coach Brierley already has a number of swimmers who have swum county-meet qualifying times, namely Summer Jones in the 200 free; Bailey-Williams, Brierley, and Castillo in the 200 I.M.; Brierley and Summer Jones in the 50 free; Badilla, Castillo, and Hatch in the 100 fly; Brierley, Hatch, and Summer Jones in the 100 free; Summer Jones in the 500 free; Bailey-Williams and Hatch in the 100 back, and Brierley and Griffin in the 100 breast.
Moreover, Brierley, in the 100 breaststroke, and Summer Jones, in the 100 butterfly, have swum state-qualifying times, though the coach added that "unfortunately there will be no state meet this season."
East Hampton was to have gone up against Northport, another nonleague opponent, here Monday, and was to have swum against North Babylon at Deer Park High School yesterday.
Runners Looking Good
Diane O'Donnell, who coaches the girls cross-country team, agreed that her charges -- Dylan Cashin, who won the tri-meet with Islip and Miller Place, Ryleigh O'Donnell, who place third, Ava Engstrom, who was fourth, Emma Hren, who was fifth, and Bella Tarbet, who was sixth -- looked good in their season-opener Friday on a 2.5-mile course laid out behind the high school.
Those finishes enabled the Bonackers to shut out Islip 15-40 and to defeat Miller Place, one of whose runners finished second, 19-36.
"The girls have improved so much," O'Donnell said, "especially the young ones."
Cashin and O'Donnell are ninth graders, Hren is a junior, and Engstrom and Tarbet are seniors. (Tarbet was to have been cited as a News 12 scholar-athlete Tuesday, a rare honor.)
"Ava, Ryleigh, and Dylan have been going at it step-for-step in training . . . they've been at each other's heels," said the coach. It was the first cross-country win for Cashin, who was smiling as she crossed the finish line. O'Donnell said she had a feeling Cashin could win Friday's race, if she tried. "Freshmen are hungrier." Tarbet, O'Donnell added, has been "working out a lot -- she swims with the Hurricanes, she's a lifeguard. . . ."
Covid-caused quarantines, first at Islip, and then at Miller Place, where the entire school had been affected, O'Donnell said, led to the three-way meet here. It had indeed been a terrific way to begin the season, the coach added.
East Hampton is to run in a meet "with three or four teams" at Sag Harbor's Mashashimuet Park tomorrow at 4:30.
Volleyball Report
And, finally, the girls volleyball team, with Hannah Hartsough, a senior outside hitter, and Brooke Wittmer, the junior libero, leading the way, swept Hampton Bays in three games here Saturday, improving to 3-3.
Julia Erickson, a junior outside hitter, finished off the first one at 25-19 with a kill. Hartsough, after siding out, served a string of aces to put the Bonackers up 20-18 in the second, which East Hampton went on to win 25-23, and her kill, with the score 24-20 in the third game, assured East Hampton of the win.
"The girls are talking a lot on the court, which is the key to volleyball," Alex Choi, the coach, said in an email. "Hannah has been a great asset, taking charge on most every play. Faith Fenelon, who's a junior, is looking better every day at setter, and Brooke is an excellent libero. The rest of the team" — Erickson, Nora Conlon, Madeleine Brown, Natalia Flores, Sarah Morgan, Kayla Kearney, Scout Lynch, Sorrel Miller, Katrina Osterberg, and Brylinn Bushman — "have been phenomenal. They all give me 100 percent."