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Bonac Swimmers Bested Themselves at County Meet

Thu, 04/29/2021 - 12:06
All members of East Hampton High's swim team turned in season or lifetime-best times last weekend at the county meet at Stony Brook University. Shown above is the team at the 2020 county meet (missing: Ava Castillo).
Craig Brierly

The eight competitors Craig Brierley took with him to the county girls swimming meet at Stony Brook University last weekend finished ninth among the 26 teams entered.

All of them, the coach said in an emailed account Monday, turned in season-best or lifetime-best times, a fact all the more noteworthy, he said, given that they'd done the same in the League III meet the week before.

Summer Jones, an East Hampton sophomore, won the 50-yard freestyle in a state-qualifying time of 24.70 seconds, earning 20 points for Bonac's team, which finished with 108 points all told.

Jones also led off the runner-up 200 free relay, whose other legs were swum by Lily Griffin, an eighth grader from Springs, Catalina Badilla, a Pierson senior, and Jane Brierley, an East Hampton sophomore.

Moreover, Jones placed fourth in the 100 butterfly, an event in which Badilla placed 18th, Ava Castillo, a Springs eighth grader, placed 21st, and Emily Dyner, a Bonac junior, placed 23rd.

Camy Hatch, an East Hampton sophomore who was to be named by the captains as East Hampton's swimmer of the meet, dropped almost three seconds in placing third in the 100 freestyle. In addition, she placed 10th in the 100 backstroke, anchored the 10th-place 400 free relay team, and swam the opening (backstroke) leg in the 200 medley relay, an event from which East Hampton was ultimately disqualified owing to an alleged false start.

"Camy dropped time in all of her efforts, and was a major contributor to the team's ninth-place finish in the standings," Brierley said.

Other East Hampton point-winners were Griffin, by finishing 15th in the 200 free, and Ava Castillo, Dyner, and Kiara Bailey-Williams, a Pierson senior who teamed up with Hatch in the 400 free relay.

Jane Brierley, who could have been expected to score high in the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, the latter her specialty, did not swim in those events, Coach Brierley said, "because of breathing issues." Because the legs were shorter, she did compete in the 200 medley and 200 free relays.

"As we close out a fantastic 2020 varsity season," Brierley summed up, he and his son Thomas, his assistant, "are thrilled with how the team bonded and became a close-knit group very quickly. We are excited to see our seniors move on to their next chapter in life, and welcome them to our alumnae family. And we're excited for the underclass student-athletes to continue to grow into their roles as team leaders in the coming season. See you in August!"


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