While East Hampton’s girls swim team waged two hard-fought battles last week, it lost in both a home opener and away at Half Hollow Hills.
In their home opener at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Sept. 22, the girls scored 80 points, while Connetquot scored 88. “The value of racing and the takeaways learned are invaluable, which leads to their growth in the sport and as internal motivators,” Bonac’s head coach, Craig Brierley, said.
All was not lost though: A number of the girls qualified for the championship meet several weeks from now.
After trailing Connetquot in the relay by four seconds, East Hampton struck back, taking first place in the next three races. Avienne O’Shea, a freshman, placed first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:07.32. Heidi Rizzo won the 200-yard individual medley at 2:22.74, and her sister Vanessa Rizzo outswam Connetquot’s Amanda Tedesco in the 50-yard freestyle in 26.06.
Vanessa Rizzo came in first in the 100-yard backstroke, earning six points for the Bonackers for a personal best of 1:01.80. Both Rizzo sisters qualified for the Section XI championship meet. Heidi for the 200-yard individual medley and Vanessa for the 50-yard freestyle.
Ten more girls raced personal bests.
Connetquot won six of the next eight races, but Bonac kept the races tight, with Sydney Powers coming in second in the 100-yard freestyle. Molly Grande, a sophomore, placed second in the 500-yard freestyle.
Nadia Binozi, who is a first-year swimmer, was chosen as the swimmer of the meet by captains, who remarked on her support of her teammates.
Later in the week, Heidi qualified again for a Section XI championship meet in the 500-yard freestyle (a race in which she placed second) against Half Hollow Hills/Kings Park. She was also named swimmer of the meet. “Heidi battled the entire way in the 500-free and finished a very close second, just 0.15 behind,” Coach Brierley said.
In a tough matchup, Half Hollow Hills/Kings Park came out on top, 94-84.
East Hampton has no answer to the Half Hollow Hills divers, so that team swept the event with all 13 points.
East Hampton had a strong showing to start last Thursday, with Vanessa Rizzo, O’Shea, Ginger Griffin, and Sydney Powers coming in first and winning eight points in the 220-yard medley relay in 1:55.53.
Heidi followed the relay with a win of her own in the 200-yard freestyle, scoring six points for Bonac. Powers placed first in the 100-yard freestyle in 58.46 seconds and swam a personal best in the 50-yard freestyle relay and the 50-yard freestyle.
Three Bonackers dominated and took the top positions in the 100-yard breaststroke: O’Shea at 1:15.57, Olivia Robertson in 1:21.92, and Sierra Metz in 1:30.79. In the 100-yard butterfly races, Griffin, O’Shea, and Grande took second, third, and fourth places, respectively, winning the event over all.
O’Shea qualified for the Section IX championship meet with her performance in the 100-yard breaststroke.
The 400-yard freestyle relay saw Bonac taking the two top spots with the Rizzo sisters, Grande, and Mia Milazzo taking first place and 8 points for a personal best at 4:03.95 and second place with Sabina Piecyk, Kate Deleski, Evann Castillo, and Lucy Knight at 4:52.26.
But once Half Hollow Hills took the 200-yard freestyle relay in the ninth event, “from that point it was difficult for the team to close the gap,” Coach Brierley said.
As of last Thursday, the team stood at 0-3 in League 1 and 1-3 overall.
Bonac will face off against Huntington/Walt Whitman/Harborfields/John Glenn on Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the RECenter pool.
