East Hampton High’s boys swimming team, which recently placed fourth in the league meet, placed eighth, among 24 schools, in the county meet held Saturday at Stony Brook University.
“All nine of our entries scored,” Craig Brierley, the team’s coach, said afterward in an emailed report. “The boys again gave their best efforts. . . . This was another season where a group of wonderful boys grew into a family and held up the standards left from previous years.”
The 4-by-400 freestyle team of Tenzin Tamang, Luke Tarbet, Nicky Badilla, and Liam Knight had the day’s highest finish, capturing fourth place in that event in a season-best 3 minutes and 29.60 seconds. Connetquot-East Islip won it in 3:10.57, with Ward Melville second, in 3:18.02, and Sachem third, in 3:25.47.
East Hampton’s 200 medley relay team of Badilla, Rock Hamada, Tamang, and Knight placed sixth, as did Tamang in the 100 butterfly, just missing a state-qualifying time.
In placing seventh, the 200 freestyle relay team of Tamang, Emmet McCormac, Tarbet, and Badilla went a season-best 1:34.75.
Moreover, Badilla placed 10th in the 100 butterfly; Knight, a freshman, was 12th in the 100 backstroke and 16th in the 100 freestyle; Nicky Chavez, an eighth grader, placed 14th in the 200 individual medley, and Tarbet placed 14th in the 100 butterfly.
The torch was symbolically passed, Brierley said, in the day’s final and season-ending event, the 400 free relay, which Knight anchored, following legs by three seniors (Tamang, Tarbet, and Badilla). Knight and his 2023-24 teammates would be expected, said Brierley, to pick up the reins and carry on the program’s high expectations next season.
Brierley ended his report by thanking “all the student-athletes who chose to be part of our family this year. Thank you to our captains, Daniel Rossano and Luke Tarbet, and to the other seniors, Nicky Badilla, Ottavio Perocino, and Tenzin Tamang whose leadership benefited the team greatly. It is special for the coaches to observe the growth that is shown throughout the season.