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The Lineup: 02.07.13

The Lineup: 02.07.13

Local sports schedule
By
Star Staff

Thursday, February 7

 BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Bayport-Blue Point, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, February 8

BOYS SWIMMING, League II championships, Hauppauge High School, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Bayport-Blue Point at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Bridgehampton at Ross, 4:30 p.m., and Stony Brook at Pierson, 6:15.

Sunday, February 10

WINTER TRACK, East Hampton boys and girls at state qualifier meets, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 11 a.m.

Tuesday, February 12

BOYS BASKETBALL, Class C and D outbracket games at sites of higher seeds, times to be announced.

Thursday, February 14

BOYS BASKETBALL, Class D and C championship games, 3 and 5:30 p.m., William Floyd High School.

Sports Briefs 02.07.13

Sports Briefs 02.07.13

Local sports notes
By
Star Staff

Heine Qualifies

    Kevin Heine, a 185-pound Pierson senior who competes at 220 pounds for the East Hampton High School wrestling team, qualified for the county tournament as the result of his third-place finish in the league tourney at Westhampton Beach High School Saturday.

    Heine, who plans to attend the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Cape Cod in the fall, pinned his consolation-round opponent, Amityville’s Joseph Torres, midway through the second period.

    Rocky Point won the league tourney with 314.5 points; East Hampton was last among the eight teams with 19.9.

Cebulski May Qualify

    Shani Cuesta, who coaches East Hampton High’s girls winter track team, will learn today if Dana Cebulski, who finished fifth in last weekend’s small schools 1,000-meter race in a personal-best time of 3:06.10, has met the cutoff for this weekend’s state qualifier meet.

    “I’m happy Dana came out for the small schools meet inasmuch as she had been sick and really wasn’t up to running,” said Cuesta, adding that the sophomore long-distance runner had run the 1,500 in 5:12.90. “If she hadn’t run in the 1,500, our 4-by-800 relay team would have been scratched.”

    Cuesta’s 4-by-200 relay team of Kathryn Wood, Alexa Berti, Ana Toledo, and Gabbie McKay turned in a personal-best 2:05.62. The 4-by-8 team of Devon Brown, Elena Skerys, Alyssa Bahel, and Cebulski ran a 10:53.66.

    “While Dana will probably be the only one who will compete in the state qualifier,” Cuesta said, “I’m really happy that many of our girls had personal records this winter. It was a real accomplishment on their part.”

BASKETBALL: King Magisterial in Overtime Win

BASKETBALL: King Magisterial in Overtime Win

Thomas King, lofting a jump shot above, took the game over in the final minutes.
Thomas King, lofting a jump shot above, took the game over in the final minutes.
Jack Graves
King, whose calm demeanor and sound decisions in crunch time — preferring drives in the lane to 3-point attempts — won the day for Bonac
By
Jack Graves

    Leaving East Hampton High School’s gym the night of Jan. 29 following Bonac’s exciting 64-62 win in overtime over Shoreham-Wading River, Keith McMahon said, “Wow, what an exciting game . . . almost too exciting. Shoreham got hot there — they must have had ten 3s.”

    Nine actually, most of them in the second half, which went down to the wire. A drive to the hoop by Thomas King in the final seconds of regulation enabled East Hampton to tie the score at 59-59, but Shoreham took the last shot, which, thanks to Thomas Nelson, who had been switched over to guard the Wildcats’ extremely shifty point guard, Kevin Turano, rimmed out.

    The Bonackers fell behind 62-59 in the opening minutes of O.T., but Rolando Garces, after drawing a foul, made the first of his two free throws to pull the home team to within two, and in the subsequent scramble for the rebound of a missed shot by Turano, Nelson, who was stretched out on his back, managed to get the ball to Garces, and Garces fed King, whose driving layup tied the count at 62-62.

    Shoreham missed on its next trip downcourt, and Nelson, who was to finish with 17 boards, a career-high, came down with the rebound, prompting Bill McKee, East Hampton’s coach, to call a timeout, with 38.3 seconds left.

    When play resumed, King was fouled on another drive to the basket and made both of his foul shots for a 64-62 lead. With the “Bleacher Creatures” cheering loudly in the stands, McKee called another timeout, this one with 27.3 seconds to go.

    Turano, who wound up leading Shoreham in the scoring column with 18 points, was to get one last chance, though Nelson, whom McKee had assigned to defend the hot-shooting guard at the end of the game, did so well that Turano threw up an air ball from the foul line and King gathered in the all-important rebound. He was to be fouled at the other end, enabling him to go to the line for two. He missed both, but no matter; the game, with a half-second remaining, was over by then.

    King, whose calm demeanor and sound decisions in crunch time — preferring drives in the lane to 3-point attempts — won the day for Bonac, finished with a game-high 29 points. Garces, who frequently drove the baseline, and Brandon Neff, Bonac’s version of Steve Novak, who went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and made another basket to boot, had 11.

    Noting that Turano had a chance to win it for the visitors in regulation, only to see his shot, taken in the lane, rim off, McKee said, “I’ve been on the other end of that a few times this season — Thomas Nelson did a fantastic job in guarding him.” King, he said, had not only scored 29 points, but also had 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.

    “We’ve had so many games like this,” the coach continued. “It was a win we needed to have — it was important.”

    McKee’s charges were to have played at Elwood-John Glenn last Thursday. A win that night would have assured them of a playoff spot.

    “With the exception of Amityville and Bayport, everyone’s scrambling for a playoff spot,” he said during a conversation the day after the Shoreham game. “The only team that’s been eliminated so far has been Miller Place.”

Fifteen Bonac Swimmers Are Going to the County Meet

Fifteen Bonac Swimmers Are Going to the County Meet

The seniors Andrew Winthrop, Sergio Betancur, Christian Figueroa, and Adam Heller (not pictured) were honored before East Hampton’s last home meet at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter last Thursday.
The seniors Andrew Winthrop, Sergio Betancur, Christian Figueroa, and Adam Heller (not pictured) were honored before East Hampton’s last home meet at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter last Thursday.
Laura Mott
"There were a lot of personal bests”
By
Jack Graves

   The East Hampton High School boys swimming team, which easily bested League II’s least successful teams, Deer Park and North Babylon, this past week to finish in second place, at 6-1, behind 7-0 Sayville-Bayport, will have 15 of its 33 competitors in the county swim meet on Feb. 16.

    “That’s far more than we’ve ever had before,” said Craig Brierley, the fourth-year program’s coach, before Monday’s practice session at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter.

    The qualifiers are Trevor Mott, a junior who in the Deer Park meet on Jan. 29 qualified for the state meet as the result of his 4:52.52 time in the 500-yard freestyle; Thomas Brierley, a junior who has a chance to qualify for the states in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke in tomorrow’s league meet at Hauppauge High School; Alex Astilean, a freshman; Rob Rewinski, a sophomore; Shane McMann, a junior; Robert Anderson, a sophomore; Thomas Paradiso, a freshman; Andrew Winthrop, a senior; Christian Brierley, an eighth grader; Nick Pucci, a freshman; Anthony McGorisk, a junior; Tyler Menold, a sophomore; Joe Genyarelly, a junior; Kyle Sturmann, a junior, and Chris Kalbacher, a sophomore.

    Brierley and Brian Cunningham’s squad only has four seniors — Winthrop, Adam Heller, Sergio Betancur, and Christian Figueroa. They were honored before last Thursday’s home meet — the last of the season — with North Babylon.

Because the visitors were winless, East Hampton’s coaches were able to get just about everyone in. “Some of the boys were motivated because they were placed in events they would not normally swim, some were motivated to make sectional [county] cuts, and some were motivated to improve their times. . . . There were a lot of personal bests.”

Among them were McCann’s 54.69 in the 100 free; Rewinski’s 1:00.08 in the 100 fly; Thomas Brierley’s 1:06.00 in the 100 breast, and Anderson’s 2:17.14 in the 200 individual medley and his 54.64 in the 100 free.

   All of the above were sectional qualifying times. Moreover, the following also enjoyed “pr’s:” Christian Brierley, in the 100 and 50 back (the latter as part of the 200 B medley relay team); Betancur in the 50 fly and 100 free; Cort Heneveld in the 50 free; Henry Whitney in the 50 free; Menold in the 200 free; Mott in the 50 free; Henry Uihlein in the 50 free; Kalbacher in the 100 fly; Tyler Shaw in the 100 free; Charles Bourie in the 500 free; Parker Fenelon in the 50 free; Genyarelly in the 100 breast, and Thomas Dayton in the 100 free.

    “On Friday,” the elder Brierley continued, “the team, in lieu of training, spent time cleaning and polishing up the Y’s pool area. The boys washed the floors and windows, cleaned the tiles around the edge of the pool, polished the railings and the lifeguard stands and starting blocks, among other things they were asked to do. It was a perfect opportunity to give back to the Y, which hosts our practices and our meets.”

    Regarding the meet at Deer Park on the 29th, the team placed 1, 3 in the 200 medley relay; 2, 3, 5 in the 200 free; 1, 3, 5 in the 200 individual medley; 2, 3, 4 in the 50 free; 1, 2, 3 in the 100 butterfly; 1, 2, 3 in the 100 free; 2, 3, 5 in the 500 free (the event in which Mott qualified for the state meet); 1, 2 in the 200 freestyle relay; 2, 3, 4 in the 100 back; 1, 2, 3 in the 100 breast, and 2, 3 in the 400 freestyle relay.

    “Trevor is the first athlete from our young program to qualify for the states,” Brierley said. “It was very exciting and a privilege to see him do it.”

 

Boys Make Playoffs

Boys Make Playoffs

Rolando Garces, in action against Shoreham-Wading River above, went on to score a career-high 33 points at Elwood-John Glenn two days later.
Rolando Garces, in action against Shoreham-Wading River above, went on to score a career-high 33 points at Elwood-John Glenn two days later.
Jack Graves
Career night for Garces
By
Jack Graves

   A small group gathered around L.C. Nelson during the girls basketball game here last Thursday night as he received on his iPhone periodic updates of the boys’ score from Elwood-John Glenn High School — a game that, unlike the girls’ contest, which Glenn was to win 64-21, went down to the wire.

    “It was a big game for both teams,” Bill McKee, the boys’ coach, said following the 80-75 victory. “By winning we earned a playoff spot and knocked them out of contention.”

    Going into it, Glenn had won two straight, over Mount Sinai and Bayport-Blue Point, teams that had wins over the Bonackers.

    Bonac’s boys were to have finished the regular season this week. Amityville, undefeated in league play, was to have played here Tuesday, and McKee’s charges are to play the regular-season finale at Bayport tonight. The last time out, in a game played here, East Hampton lost 74-69 to Bayport in overtime.

    “We’ve played four overtime games this season,” said McKee, “and won three of them.”

    Things were going well for the Bonackers at John Glenn until, with two minutes left in regulation, the home team, thanks to some poor foul shooting by East Hampton and to a 3-point shot at the buzzer, rallied to tie the score at 65-65.

    “It shouldn’t have come to that — we had a 61-48 lead with two minutes left,” said McKee. “But I was impressed by how we came back; a lot of teams would have folded at that point.”

    East Hampton outscored Bayport 15-10 in the four-minute O.T. “Thomas Nelson, Thomas King, and Danny [McKee’s son] all hit tough shots in traffic, which gave us the lead again, and we went 7-for-9 from the foul line to keep it. . . . For the course of the game we made 30 of our 47 free throws, which is pretty good.”

    Rolando Garces, an upperclassman who is especially effective driving the baseline, enjoyed a career night with 33 points, 6 steals, and 8 rebounds. Thomas King and McKee each had 18, and Brendan Hughes “had his usual steady game, with 10 points and 6 rebounds.” King had 9 boards.

    While Amityville came in with a 73-53 win over his squad, McKee, during a conversation Monday, was not about to concede anything. “They’re undefeated, but they’re not unbeatable. If we shoot well, we could do it.”

    As for the playoffs, “nothing’s going to be decided until after Thursday. Shoreham will play that night to see if it gets in . . . we could have five teams from our league in the Class A bracket.”

The Lineup: 02.14.13

The Lineup: 02.14.13

Local sports schedule
By
Star Staff

Thursday, February 14

BOYS BASKETBALL, county Class A playoffs, first round, East Hampton at Islip, 5 p.m.; county Class D championship game, Bridgehampton vs. Shelter Island, 4 p.m., and county Class C championship game, 6, Westhampton Beach High School.

Friday, February 15

GIRLS BASKETBALL, county Class A playoffs, first round, East Hampton at Islip, 5 p.m.

Saturday, February 16

WRESTLING, Division II county championships, Center Moriches High School,  9:30 a.m.

BOYS SWIMMING, county championships, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 10 a.m.

Tuesday, February 19

BOYS BASKETBALL, county Class A playoffs, East Hampton-Islip winner vs. seventh vs. second seed winner, site and time yet to be determined.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, county Class A playoffs, East Hampton-Islip winner at top-seeded Harborfields, 5 p.m.

Wednesday, February 20

BOYS BASKETBALL, county C-D game, 2:30 p.m., site yet to be determined.

Sportime Hire Was on His Way to Florida When the Call Came

Sportime Hire Was on His Way to Florida When the Call Came

Mike Ritsi’s working in his field and happy to be doing so.
Mike Ritsi’s working in his field and happy to be doing so.
Jack Graves
The 28-year-old Montauk resident was hired as the director of Sportime’s well-appointed multisport arena in Amagansett
By
Jack Graves

   Mike Ritsi was almost in Delaware in December on his way to Florida, where he hoped he would find work, when a call came in from Sportime’s general manager, Sue de Lara, whose help wanted ad in The Star he’d answered.

    He turned right around, the 28-year-old Montauk resident said during a conversation Friday, was interviewed, and was hired as the director of Sportime’s well-appointed multisport arena in Amagansett.

    He’s been on the job since last month, and while he’s been putting in long hours — from 1 to 9 or 10 p.m. on weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays — he said he loves what he’s doing.

    Though he might not refer to it in his résumé — if he hasn’t, he should, for it is testimony to his grit — Ritsi was credited by Mark Mensch, East Hampton High’s former trainer, with having made an astounding recovery after having torn all the ligaments in one of his knees in a football scrimmage in his senior year. Thanks to Mensch’s oversight and Ritsi’s determination, he was playing baseball that spring and went on to quarterback Endicott College’s football team.

    From Endicott he went to the University of North Florida, in Jacksonville, where he received a teaching degree, and subsequently earned a master’s degree in sports management at the State University at Cortland.

    Ritsi said that he’s surprised so few apparently know of Sportime’s multiple offerings, which include men’s, women’s, and youth soccer leagues, adult and youth roller hockey leagues, a basketball league for third through sixth graders, East End Waves travel team volleyball, flag football, yoga, and “play date” sports for toddlers.

   The play date sessions for 9-month-old to 4-year-old children under parental supervision are to be held Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon. A flier advertising the new $10-per-child offering says age-appropriate foam play equipment will be used so that the kids can be safe while having fun.

   Eight-week-long winter youth sport classes for children from 4 to 14 years old are to begin Feb. 25 — multisport classes on Fridays from 4 to 5 p.m. for 4 through 6-year-olds; flag football on Thursdays from 4 to 5 p.m. for 9 through 13-year-olds; roller hockey Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. for 6 through 11-year-olds; inline skating on Tuesdays from 5 to 6 p.m. for 4 through 9-year-olds, and teen soccer training on Mondays from 5 to 6 p.m. for 12 through 14-year-olds.

   A flier says that the multisport activities will “feature soccer, baseball, track and field, basketball, and hockey.”

   Another flier urges parents to bring their sons and daughters to Sportime for Presidents Day sports (4 through 12-year-olds) camp and hockey (6 through 12-year-olds) camp during the Feb. 18-22 winter break. There is also open youth hockey “for all ages” every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

   “It’s a terrific facility which we’re trying to make more popular,” said Ritsi, who, besides his work at Sportime, plans to continue as East Hampton High’s junior varsity baseball coach and as an assistant to the jayvee football coach, Pete Deleski. In addition, as Little League baseball’s umpire coordinator he’s responsible for scheduling all the games. “There will be one more Little League clinic here,” he said, “on March 3.”

   As Sportime promised the town, the multisport arena now has lavatories, locker rooms, air-conditioning, and soon will have a cafe run by a Sportime concessionaire.

   “I’m definitely very happy,” said the young sports director. “This place has so much potential.”

Playoffs Begin For Basketball Teams

Playoffs Begin For Basketball Teams

Courtney Dess, one of the girls team’s two seniors, scored 7 of her 9 points in the all-important fourth quarter.
Courtney Dess, one of the girls team’s two seniors, scored 7 of her 9 points in the all-important fourth quarter.
Jack Graves
The regular season ended on up notes for both
By
Jack Graves

   East Hampton High School’s boys and girls basketball teams are to begin the playoffs this week, with the sixth-seeded boys playing at third-seeded Islip at 5 p.m. today, and with the fifth-seeded girls playing at fourth-seeded Islip tomorrow at the same time.

    There are eight teams in the boys’ Class A bracket, six in the girls’ bracket. Top-seeded Amityville lies in wait for the boys’ four-versus-five winner. Should the Bonackers win today, they would probably be paired with the second seed, Harborfields, Tuesday. The winner of tomorrow’s girls game would play at the top A seed’s gym Tuesday.

    Both the boys and the girls finished the regular season with 7-5 league records. The boys wound up tied with Bayport-Blue Point for second place behind 12-0 Amityville; the girls finished third, behind Shoreham-Wading River and Elwood-John Glenn, which both went 11-1.

    The Class A boys final is to be played at Longwood High School on Saturday, Feb. 23, at 2:30 p.m. The A girls final is to be played Friday, Feb. 22, at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue at 7 p.m.

    The Class D boys final is to be contested today at 4 p.m. at Westhampton Beach High School. A Class C boys outbracket game was to have been played at Pierson Tuesday, with the winner advancing to the final at Westhampton Beach today at 6:30 p.m.

    The boys C-D game is to be played Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at a site yet to be determined.

    Bonac’s teams ended the season this past week on up notes as the boys, coached by Bill McKee, edged Bayport-Blue Point by 1 point, and as the girls, matched against their Bayport-Blue Point peers here, won out 40-33 after an early 19-10 lead vanished.

    While happy with the final outcome — “you always want momentum going into the playoffs” — Howard Wood, the girls’ coach, continues to lament the fact that “they’re not listening. We tell them in a timeout not to foul, and they go out and foul. We tell them to take time off the clock, and they throw it up. I don’t know what it is. . . .”

    That the girls had entered the game knowing they’d already qualified for the postseason, thanks to a win at Amityville, may have had something to do with their second-quarter swoon, during which the Phantoms went on an 11-0 run and grabbed the lead, but in the second half they were to revive, especially Courtney Dess, one of the team’s two seniors, who, said Wood, scored 7 of her 9 points in the fourth quarter. “Courtney’s clutch shooting and our defense, which held them to 1 point, put us over the top.”

    Kaelyn Ward, the other senior, whom Wood has coached five years on the varsity, finished with 19 points, Jackie Messemer had 10, and Carley Seekamp gathered in 15 rebounds.

    As for Ward, who going into this week had 1,135 career points, Wood, who totaled 1,232 in his career here in the 1970s, said, “She’ll catch me if we go to the states.”

    Ward scored 32 points in the game at Amityville on Feb. 5, a game that East Hampton won 63-55. “A couple more free throws,” Wood said, “and she would have broken East Hampton’s single-game record of 35” set some years ago by Amanda Brown.

    Bill McKee, the boys’ coach, said, “We played a really good first half at Bayport. We were up 25-15 at the break, and to hold them to 15 was really pretty good. They’ve been averaging 60 points a game. So, over all, we did very well defensively.”

    “We had trouble scoring in the second half, however, but a nice backdoor pass from Brendan Hughes to Thomas Nelson, who made a layup in the final eight seconds that put us up 46-45, clinched it. Bayport came down the court, but they didn’t get a good shot off.”

    “It was a game that was typical of our season. We’ve had eight close ones, four that went to overtime and four that have been decided by 4 or fewer points.”

    As for the playoffs, said McKee, “Anything can happen! There should be some more close games.”

Girls Soared to 64, Though Wood Would Have Liked 80

Girls Soared to 64, Though Wood Would Have Liked 80

Kaelyn Ward, with the ball above, led East Hampton with 18 points in 64-51 win here over Miller Place.
Kaelyn Ward, with the ball above, led East Hampton with 18 points in 64-51 win here over Miller Place.
Jack Graves
It was, all in all, a good night for Wood’s charges
By
Jack Graves

   The East Hampton High School girls basketball team scored a season-high 64 points in Friday’s game here with Miller Place, a feisty opponent whose post players impressed Bonac’s coach, Howard Wood, with their grit.

    “Those girls play hard,” the former professional power forward said of the Panthers’ big girls following the 64-51 decision. “They were posting our girls up hard — that’s what you should do.”

    Meanwhile, Wood said of Bonac’s defenders, “We don’t move our feet, and then we reach in. That’s what you shouldn’t do.”

    Nevertheless, it was, all in all, a good night for Wood’s charges, who as a result needed to win only one of their remaining four games to make the playoffs.

    East Hampton finished with three players — Kaelyn Ward, Carley Seekamp, and Emma Newburger — in double figures, Ward with 18, and Seekamp and Newburger each with 12, and with one — Courtney Dess, who had 9 — just shy of double digits.

    By halftime, the home team led 33-20, though one of its post players, Ryann Ward, had three fouls, and Seekamp, another “big,” who was to foul out midway through the fourth quarter, had two.

    East Hampton tallied 21 points in the second quarter and also in the all-important third.

    A follow by Ryann Ward of a Kaelyn Ward miss made it 35-20 as the third period began. The visitors fought back to 37-26, but they were to come no closer. A nice move to the hoop by Seekamp made it 39-26, but a moment later, with 5:30 left in the period, her fourth foul forced her temporarily to the sidelines.

    Miller Place pressed full-court the entire second half, but, despite some turnovers, the Bonackers, with Kaelyn Ward inbounding the ball and sometimes passing over the defense to either Jackie Messemer or Newburger for easy layups, managed to overcome it.

    Ryann Ward’s fourth foul in the final minutes of the third returned her to the bench as Ashley Rojas subbed in. Soon after, Rojas converted both ends of a 1-and-1, for a 51-35 lead, and, following a Miller Place basket, Kaelyn Ward sank a 3-pointer off the dribble for 54-37, though a basket by the visitors with four seconds left on the clock didn’t improve Wood’s mood.

    “No silly fouls. Move your feet. Don’t reach!” he was heard to say during the huddle that preceded the fourth frame, which began with Seekamp, Ryann Ward, Kaelyn Ward, Messemer, and Rojas on the floor.

    A Seekamp putback of a Kaelyn Ward miss got the final quarter going, though, following a Panther basket and Kaelyn Ward’s overthrown pass, which had been intended for Seekamp, Wood was prompted to call another timeout.

    Somewhat later in the period, after Miller Place, down at the time by 12, had called for a timeout, Wood reminded his players that “the game is not over — we’ve got five to six minutes to go.”

    Subsequently, Kaelyn Ward made good on both ends of a 1-and-1 for 58-44, and she parlayed a midcourt steal a moment later into another trip to the foul line, where she made good on her second attempt for 59-44.

    Seekamp fouled out soon after, which returned Newburger to the floor, and though East Hampton went 2-for-7 from the field and 1-for-5 from the foul line down the stretch, it finished up winning by the same 13-point margin it had enjoyed at halftime.

    A 3-point play by Messemer in the final minute brightened an otherwise pedestrian endgame.

    “I can’t even count how many free throws we missed,” Wood said afterward as he scanned the scorebook in the adjacent coaches’ office. (In the second half, the team went 4-for-13 from the foul line.)

    When told by this writer that he ­didn’t remember the last time a girls basketball team here had scored 64 points, Wood smiled and said, “We should have had 80!”

    As for the near future, he said, in parting, “We need to win one with four left to make the playoffs, but I want us to win four of four. That would give us good momentum.”

Swimmers And Bowlers In Second

Swimmers And Bowlers In Second

Andrew Winthrop, one of the team’s captains, recorded a personal best time in the 200 freestyle at West Islip.
Andrew Winthrop, one of the team’s captains, recorded a personal best time in the 200 freestyle at West Islip.
Ricci Paradiso
“Everyone’s been working hard, we’ve got a lot of depth, and everyone gets along.”
By
Jack Graves

   The East Hampton High School boys swimming team continued its stellar season with a 60-41 win at West Islip last Thursday. It was the fourth win in a row for the second-place swimmers, who are coached by Craig Brierley and Brian Cunningham, and it improved their league record to 4-1.

    The team, which is in only its fourth year of competition, was 4-2 over all as of Monday, though that mark would be 5-1 had the Bonackers not had to cede diving points in a nonleague meet earlier in the season at Sachem East. Sayville (5-0 league) is the sole team to have beaten East Hampton this winter.

    East Hampton’s bowling team, coached by Pat Hand and Ed Bahns, is also a league runner-up. The bowlers lost 22-12 in a showdown with first-place Eastport-South Manor at the Shirley Bowl on Jan. 22.

    Later in the week, Hand said her charges would have had to win 28 points from the Sharks to win the school’s first league championship since the 2005-6 season.

    While it wasn’t to be, “we fought back,” said Hand, who added that “we barely had five minutes to practice after we arrived, and the kids were freezing.”

    Eastport won the first game handily, though the Bonackers, with 201, 210, and 211 scores, totaled 930 pins in the second game to Eastport’s 947, and they hit for 996 in the third, the only game they were to win. Jackson Clark, a junior, led the way with a 228-622 series.

    The bowlers enjoyed their second 1,000-plus-point game last Thursday as they trounced Westhampton Beach 30-3 in the final regular season match at the East Hampton Bowl. Chris Duran, the senior anchorman, paced the team with a 225-622 series.

    Duran is one of three seniors who have started for Hand this winter — Gabby Green and Brianna Semb being the others. Victoria Nardo, who saw action against Westhampton, is also a senior, which leaves Jacob Grossman, a sophomore, who was the team’s top scorer — averaging 194.61 — and five juniors as the expected returnees.

    Back to the swimming team, Thomas Brierley, when questioned before Monday’s practice, said of the squad’s exceptional showings, “Everyone’s been working hard, we’ve got a lot of depth, and everyone gets along.”

    “Trevor and I hope to make it to the states, him in the 500 free and me in the 100 back. A bunch of others ought to qualify for the sectionals [the county meet].”

    In addition, he said, “All our relay teams are doing really well — all of them hope to make it to the countys.”

    Thomas’s father, Craig, said by way of e-mail that Tyler Menold had been picked by the captains as the swimmer of the meet with West Islip. “He was a steady force in the breaststroke, placing second to Trevor [Mott], and in the winning 200 free relay. He is a very important member of the team, always works hard, and has been steadily improving his times.”

    The elder Brierley added that at West Islip the times of Alex Astilean in the 200 individual medley and of T.J. Paradiso in the 100 free had qualified them for the sectional meet.

    Among the personal bests that day, he said, were Mott’s breaststroke leg in the 200 medley A relay; Joe Gengarelly’s breaststroke leg in the 200 medley B relay; Rob Rewinski’s freestyle legs in the 200 medley B relay and in the 400 free A relay; Andrew Winthrop in the 200 free; T.J. Paradiso in the 100 free; Cort Heneveld in the 200 freestyle B relay, and Claudio Figueroa in the 400 free B relay.

    Winners at West Islip were the 200-yard medley relay team of Anthony McGorisk, Mott, Chris Kalbacher, and Shane McCann; Thomas Brierley in the 200 freestyle; Astilean in the 200 individual medley; Mott in the 500 free; the 200 freestyle relay team of Thomas Brierley, Menold, Paradiso, and McCann; Thomas Brierley in the 100 backstroke; Mott in the 100 breaststroke, and the 400 freestyle relay team of Astilean, Rewinski, Mott, and Thomas Brierley.