East Hampton High’s 12 entrants did themselves proud at Saturday’s Suffolk County girls swimming meet, their coach, Craig Brierley, said in an emailed report over the weekend.
Bonac’s young competitors — two eighth graders, four ninth graders, one sophomore, three juniors, and only two seniors — placed 10th among the 24 teams that vied at Stony Brook University. “The dedication and hard work that the girls put in throughout the season shined through in their efforts in the competition,” said their coach, who added that “many of the girls posted either a season-best or a lifetime-best time — very impressive results given the fact that they had posted best times just a week before in the league championship meet.”
Pierson Field Hockey Falls to Frogs
In other postseason action, Pierson (Sag Harbor) High’s field hockey team, which had on Oct. 30 defeated Greenport-Southold 2-1 in the county Class C championship game, thanks to goals by Eva McKelvey, a senior, and Lochlyn Craig, a ninth grader, lost 3-0 to Carle Place in Sunday’s Long Island championship. Paige Selhorn, likened by her coach to “a bulldozer going through a brick wall” in a Newsday article on the game, scored two of the goals. Grace D’Angelo, the Whalers’ junior goalie, played well, finishing with 11 saves, but the Frogs, Newsday said, outshot Pierson 18-3 and had 15 corner plays, while Pierson had seven.
Like East Hampton’s girls swimming team, Pierson’s hockey team, coached by Laura DeSario, is young, with six ninth graders, three sophomores, four juniors, and two seniors.
After defeating Greenport-Southold in a nail-biting 5-4 penalty kick shootout for the county Class C crown, Pierson’s boys soccer team, coached by Luis Aguilar, who played on the 2014 East Hampton team that went to the state Final Four, lost 2-0 to Evergreen Charter of Hempstead in the Long Island championship game on Oct. 31.
Highest Finish of the Day
Back to swimming, East Hampton’s 200-yard medley relay team of Vanessa Rizzo, an eighth grader, Lily Griffin, a junior, Ava Castillo, a junior, and Lizzy Daniels, a sophomore, placed sixth, “bettering their previous-best time by over two seconds,” in the meet’s opening event, the 200 medley relay. That was East Hampton’s highest finish of the day. The 200 freestyle relay team of Izzy Caplin, a senior, Maya Dias, a ninth grader, Ginger Griffin, a ninth grader, and Kate McMillan, a senior, placed ninth, and the 400 free relay team of Ashley Leon, a junior, Lucy Knight, an eighth grader, Lily Early, a ninth grader, and Cybelle Curry, a ninth grader, placed 10th.
“Sophomore Lizzy Daniels was the team’s top scorer with 13 points for her showings in the 200 IM (10th), in the 100 breaststroke (11th), and in the 200 medley relay which she anchored with a personal best 50-yard leg,” said Brierley.
The coach added that “Ginger Griffin, a first-timer in this meet, had a big time drop in her signature event, the 100 butterfly, finishing 18th in one minute and 5.64 seconds, more than two seconds lower than her previous best. She also dropped a half-second in her 50 split in the 200 free relay.”
“Ashley Leon,” he said, “was thrilled with her 1.1-second drop in the 100 freestyle, Pierson senior Izzy Caplin had an impressive drop in her 50 leg that led off the 200 free relay — her 27.82 was 2.6 seconds quicker than she’d ever done before.”
The day ended, said Brierley, with personal-best performances by other first-timers, namely Mia Luna in the 100 breaststroke, and Lucy Knight, Lily Early, and Cybelle Curry in the 400 free relay.
Caplin, the team’s captain, named Ginger Griffin as the swimmer of the meet, given her “outstanding efforts in her races. . . . She showed great poise and confidence in her events, and made sure to be on deck cheering for her teammates as they competed.”
Caplin also thanked Valeria Gutierrez, Evann Castillo, Lily Caplin, Lily Corcoran, Fiona Stisi, and Emma Kapon, team members who hadn’t qualified for the counties, for having come to cheer on the team and to help with the timing.”
“It was inspiring to watch this year’s group of student-athletes give all they had in every race throughout the fall,” said Brierley. “It’s always our hope that each individual ends the season a better person than she was at the beginning. Our alums will be happy to know that the 2023 Bonac girls left the team in a better place than when they got here.”
All three East Hampton relay teams were runners-up to Sayville-Bayport’s entries in the League III meet the week before. In individual events, Lily Griffin was the runner-up in the 50 freestyle and in the 100 breaststroke; third-place finishers were Daniels in the 200 individual medley and in the 500 free, Castillo in the 100 butterfly, and Luna in the 100 breaststroke.
Sayville-Bayport won the meet with 390 points; East Hampton was second, with 308.
Sayville Bayport’s team, with 276 points, was the runner-up to Hauppauge-Smithtown (441) in the county meet.