The East Hampton High School wrestling team enjoyed a lopsided win over Deer Park in its league-opener here on Dec. 14, the boys swimming team last Thursday evened its league record by defeating Sayville-Bayport 91-74, and, on Saturday, the girls winter track 4-by-400-meter relay team of Leslie Samuel, Melina Sarlo, Meredith Spolarich, and Ryleigh O’Donnell set a school record in that event by almost 10 seconds at a crossover meet at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood.
Yani Cuesta, the girls’ coach, said the record had been set despite the fact that Samuels was thrown off-stride by a competitor “who ended up falling down. . . . I would love to see what these girls can do in a relay without any such issues.”
Spolarich, a Pierson (Sag Harbor) High school senior who is an all-around athlete, has been named to Newsday’s all-Long Island field hockey team. Two East Hamptoners, Jane Brierley, who recently became a state champion — the school’s first in swimming — in the 100-yard breaststroke, and Eric Armijos, who led the boys soccer team with 16 goals and 15 assists this fall, were named by the newspaper to all-Long Island teams as well.
In addition, Armijos (along with Michael Figueroa, a fellow forward) was named to the Suffolk County Soccer Coaches Association all-county team, was named to the all-state team by the United Soccer Coaches of New York, and was named by those coaches to the all-Region (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) team.
Not since Nick West, who was a two-time all-state player in high school and went on to become a collegiate all-American at Messiah University, has an East Hampton soccer player been so honored. Armijos also was to have received the Ray Perez scholarship at the County Soccer Coaches Association’s awards dinner Monday, said East Hampton’s coach, Don McGovern. He added that Eric, as had West, “put the team’s success over any individual achievement. Both Nick and Eric have given younger players here something to shoot for.”
As for which college he’ll attend, McGovern said Armijos “has been in contact with many schools that want him to play for their soccer programs.”
In the swim meet, Cristian Sigua, Owen Robins, Emmet McCormac, Liam Knight, Abe Stillman, Jack O’Sullivan, Nick Chavez, Jayden Greene, Jack Zeimer, and Rock Hamada set personal records. Among East Hampton’s winners last Thursday were the 200-yard medley relay team of Knight, Sigua, Luke Tarbet, and Robins; Robins in the 200 individual medley and in the 500 freestyle; Knight in the 100 butterfly, and Stillman in the 100 breaststroke.
Moreover, East Hampton swept the 200 individual medley with Robins, Tarbet, and Sigua; won, with Tarbet, Robins, Chavez, and Sigua, the 400 free relay; went one-two in the 100 fly with Knight and Tarbet, and one-two in the 100 breaststroke with Stillman and McCormac, and, with Knight, Wyat Smith, Chavez, and McCormac, finished second — and third, with Cameron Mitchell, Greene, Stillman, and O’Sullivan — in the 200 free relay.
In matches wrestled here versus Deer Park, which had to forfeit at 110, 118, 126, and 152 pounds — shades of East Hampton in the past — Bronco Campsey at 102, Luke Castillo at 138, Cooper Ceva at 145, Adam Beckwith at 160, Richie Maio at 215, and Frank Palumbino at 285 were winners. The final score was 59-16, a margin of victory not seen here in some time.
Dan White’s boys basketball team went 2-1 on the week, defeating Sayville, its first league opponent, 65-48 on Dec. 13. At a tournament at Southampton over the weekend, it beat an Archbishop Molloy squad by 51-43 before losing, for the second time this season, and by another lopsided margin, to Southampton.
White said he didn’t have his guards, Luke Reese and Mike Locascio, available for the game with the Mariners, which, he recalled, wound up at 80-45 in Southampton’s favor. Reese led the Bonackers in scoring at Sayville with 21 points, followed by Locascio, who knocked down five 3-pointers, with 15, and Jack Dickinson with 12.
Reese and Locascio, White added, would suit up for East Hampton’s second league game, with Rocky Point, here Monday.
As of Monday, the Pierson (Sag Harbor) Whalers, coached by Will Fujita, and the Bridgehampton Killer Bees, coached by Ron White, were each 2-0 in league play.
Back to girls winter track, other notable performances, aside from the 4-by-4 relay team’s record-setting second-place finish, included Samuels’s win in the long jump and her second-place finish in the 55-meter dash, O’Donnell’s personal best runner-up effort in the 1,000-meter race, and Dylan Cashin’s third-place finish in the 3,000.
In addition, Sara O’Brien placed fifth in the 3,000, O’Donnell placed sixth in the 55-meter high hurdles, Spolarich placed seventh in the long jump, Sarlo placed eighth in the shot-put, and Clio McCarty placed eighth in the high jump.
