Cami Hatch, a junior who anchors East Hampton High’s girls swimming team, qualified for the state meet in two events, the 100-yard backstroke and the 100 freestyle, at last weekend’s Suffolk County meet at Stony Brook University.
Hatch, who also was a member of East Hampton’s fifth-place 200 medley relay team, along with Lily Griffin, Ava Castillo, and Emily Dyner, dropped more than 5 seconds from her seeding time in placing fourth in the county 100 freestyle in 54.05 seconds, besting 15 others who had entered the meet with better seeding times than hers. Seeded sixth in the 100 backstroke, she placed second, beating out four others who had had lower seeding times. Her time in that event of 58.95 seconds was her best by 2.3 seconds, East Hampton’s coach, Craig Brierley, said in an email.
Brierley said that “the girls all swam season-best or lifetime-best times. . . . They were very impressive given the fact that they had posted best times just a week prior in the league championship meet.”
Other scorers for East Hampton in the county meet were its eighth-place 400 free relay team of Lizzy Daniels, Alyssa Brabant, Dyner, and Hatch; its seventh-place 200 free relay team of Ava Castillo, Maddie Elflein, Brabant, and Griffin; Castillo, who was 14th in the 200 individual medley and 17th in the 100 butterfly; Griffin, who was 20th in the 100 breaststroke, and Dyner, who was 22nd in the 100 fly.
The state championship meet will be at Ithaca College over the Nov. 19-20 weekend.