In its final appearance at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Jan. 19, the East Hampton High School boys swimming team easily defeated Lindenhurst 89-57 to finish third, at 4-2-1 and in a tie with Sayville, behind West Islip (7-0) and Hauppauge (6-1) in League II.
The team has only two seniors, Aidan McCormac and Dan Piver, who were honored before the meet began, and they did themselves proud during it, with McCormac winning the 100-yard freestyle race and anchoring the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams. Piver won the 500 freestyle, placed second in the 50 free, swam the second leg on the winning 200 medley relay team, and anchored the third-place 400 free relay team.
East Hampton won 10 of the 12 events, beginning with the 200 medley relay team (Nicky Badilla, Dan Piver, Tenzin Tamang, and Aidan McCormac). Other Bonac winners were Badilla, in the 200 individual medley; Luke Tarbet, in the 50 free; Tamang, in the 100 butterfly; the 200 freestyle relay team (Badilla, Owen Robins, Tarbet, and Aidan McCormac), and Tamang, in the 100 backstroke.
Ottavio Pettrocini, a Pierson junior, who swam a personal best leg in the 200 free relay and a near-best time in the 400 relay, was named swimmer of the meet.
Craig Brierley, the team’s coach, said in an email, “We’re entering the championship phase of the season now. Our next challenge will be the League II championship meet at Hauppauge High School on Feb. 3.”
In winter track, East Hampton’s girls team, coached by Yani Cuesta, finished seventh, with 18 points, among 10 teams in the league meet Saturday at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, and though the boys team only scored 4 points, Ben Turnbull, its coach, thinks that Brayan Rivera, Peter Ramundo, and Jackson Bakes may qualify for the small-schools championships that are to be held on Feb. 14, also in Brentwood.
As for the girls, Ryleigh O’Donnell, in the 1,500-meter race, and Dylan Cashin, in the 3,000, were third-place finishers; Melina Sarlo placed seventh in the shot-put, with a personal best heave of 26 feet 9 inches, and as for Riley Miles, in the 600, and Briana Chavez, in the 1,000 — each finished in eighth place. Cashin’s time of 11 minutes and 1.24 seconds in the 3,000 was a personal best.
Personal bests that day also included Sarlo’s 13-1 1⁄2 long jump; Sarah Kapon’s 12-3 long jump; Lyla Wilson’s 24-4 long jump; Kristina Baratta’s 23-2 triple jump; Chavez’s 3:34 in the 1,000; Miles’s 1:55.40 in the 600; Alexa Gomez’s 1:59.23 in the 600; Dalani Beavers’s 58.97 in the 300; Kapon’s 9.14 in the 55, and Kate McMillan’s 9.24 in the 55.
Rivera placed fifth in the boys’ 1,600, in a personal best 4:46.51, and Ramundo placed fifth in the 3,200, in 10:17.12, also a personal best. Their fifth-place finishes earned them medals. Bakes ran the 55-meter dash in 7.49 seconds, and the 300 in 41.98, a personal best.
Others who competed for Turnbull’s team that day and turned in personal-best performances were Anthony Castillo, in the 1,600; Jordan Reed, in the 300; Benson Edman, in the 1,000; Matthew Mattina, in the 600, and Carlos Quintana, in the shot-put.
The 4-by-800 relay team of Diego Rojas, Edman, Castillo, and Rivera placed 9th, in 10:07.24, and the 4-by-200 relay team of Bakes, Reed, Quintana, and Aranzazu placed 10th, in 2:06.98.