East Hampton High’s golf team held an 8-shot lead over Ward Melville heading into the second round of the county tournament at the Smithtown Landing Country Club Tuesday, its coach, Rich King, said over the weekend.
“The second round was supposed to have been played on Oct. 26, but the nor’easter caused a postponement,” King said in an email, adding that James Bradley, East Hampton’s number-one, and the defending county champion, “was tied for second in the individual competition. . . . Five of our six players made the cut. The top nine will qualify for the state tournament in June.”
East Hampton’s team went undefeated in the league season, after which it won the conference championship.
The boys volleyball team, coached by Josh Brussell, seeded fourth in the Division II tournament, was to have played a first-round game here Tuesday with the fifth seed.
Though not quite as dominant as the golf team, East Hampton’s girls swimming team has done very well this fall, losing only to Sayville-Bayport in the regular season, and finishing as the runner-up to Say-Bay in the League III meet at West Islip High School on Oct. 27.
In so doing, “there were personal-best times in every event,” said the coach, Craig Brierley. And, as far as the meet went, “there were close races and tons of excitement right to the final event of the night. Our girls earned multiple second-place finishes and we had a league champion in Cami Hatch, who won the 100 backstroke, out-touching her closest competitor by .10, narrowly missing the state qualifying time by .80.”
The following were runners-up for the Bonackers: the 200 medley relay team of Hatch, Lily Griffin, Ava Castillo, and Emily Dyner; Hatch in the 200 individual medley; Alyssa Brabant in the 50 freestyle; Castillo in the 100 butterfly, and the 200 free relay team of Castillo, Maddie Elflein, Brabant, and Griffin.
The following have qualified to swim in the county meet, which is to take place Saturday and Sunday at the State University at Stony Brook: all three relay teams; Castillo and Hatch in the 200 individual medley; Hatch in the 50 freestyle; Castillo, Dyner, and Hatch in the 100 butterfly; Griffin and Hatch in the 100 freestyle; Hatch in the 100 backstroke, and Griffin and Hatch in the 100 breaststroke.
Ruby Tyrell, a sophomore backstroker, was named swimmer of the meet by the team’s captains following the league competition. “Ruby has come a long way in the backstroke this season,” said Brierley. “She was d.q.’d the first time she did it, but was determined to improve so she could help the team. In finishing sixth in the league meet, she scored 13 points and dropped 1.6 seconds from her previous-best time, and improved on her first attempt by 3 seconds.”
Boys Soccer
In other postseason action involving East Hampton teams, boys soccer suffered a 5-0 first-round playoff loss at Wyandanch on Oct. 25. Wyandanch, in turn, was trounced 8-0 by the top-seeded Class A team, Amityville, a result that surprised Don McGovern, East Hampton’s coach, who described Wyandanch as “a good, strong team that, in a word, outworked us. Our goal was to advance through the playoffs, not just get there, so, yes, the kids were disappointed. East Hampton teams have been to five county finals in 11 years.”
Eric Armijos, a junior striker who scored 12 goals this season, and who often drew double-team coverage, had two spot-on chances, McGovern said, but missed them. Ditto John Quizhpe, a senior striker.
McGovern will lose 16 players to graduation, seven of them starters. The junior varsity, coached by Mike Vitulli, “had a very good year,” McGovern said, “but varsity-level play is so much faster and more physical.”
“We have to get stronger,” he said. “We have to get into the weight room — we’re encouraging all our kids to do that. You need that nowadays.”
And his players, McGovern added, need to play year round. He’s doing his best, he said, to make sure they do.
Girls Tennis
In girls tennis, Sandrine Becht, a senior who was all-state last year and all-county this, won her first-round match in the county’s individual tournament last week, but lost in the second round, and Maya Molin, a ninth-grader who played number-two on Kevin McConville’s 12-2 team, lost in the first round.
The football team, minus seven starters owing largely to injuries, including its first-string quarterback, Charlie Corwin, finished its season at 2-6, losing 35-0 at Miller Place Friday night. Miller Place, “a big, powerful team,” according to the head coach, Joe McKee, finished at 6-2.
“Over all, it was a good year,” McKee said. “We got off to a great start,” with wins over Hampton Bays and Wyandanch, “but then ran into some very strong teams and were hurt by injuries. But the future is good. Our jayvee took a 3-1 record into their final game, at Mount Sinai [on Nov. 1]. We’ll have some good juniors next year, and some good players up from the jayvee, so it should be good.”
