The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton Hurricanes left the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow Sunday night as the 2026 New York State champions, breaking record after record to swim their way into the top spot among 1,109 athletes from 28 teams, including Huntington, the defending state champs.
The Hurricanes returned home to a hero’s welcome that was so loud neighbors blocks away could hear the joyful celebration.
“I think every fire department from Montauk to Sag Harbor was there representing our team,” said Tom Cohill, the head coach. “It’s one of the really beautiful things about living in this community. I think one of the things that stands out from this year is what a real community event it was.”
A community effort, indeed — just a few weeks ago the Hurricanes couldn’t even use the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter pool because of a broken boiler. They were able to shift training to the pool at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center thanks to Lars Merseburg, the pool manager, whose son Oskar is a swimmer. Coach Cohill was so grateful. “It really represents everything that’s good about this community,” he said.
One of the highlights of the weekend — the 15-to-18 girls 200-yard medley relay set a new state meet record. Lizzie Daniels, Ginger Griffin, Daisy Pitches, and Vanessa Rizzo swam a 1:49.25, beating the previous record of 1:49.58, also set by East Hampton back in 2018.
“These kids have been on this team since they were so young,” Coach Cohill said. “To have been with them for this long just gives you special appreciation for how hard they work, how much effort they put in. It’s not easy.”
The 15-to-18 boys 400-yard freestyle relay was another incredible victory. The boys smashed their own team record in a thrilling race that came down to the last push. Nick Chavez, Jasiu Gredysa, Miles Menu, and Liam Knight swam a 3:14.00, taking down the 3:17.22 they set at last year’s meet, thanks to Knight’s stellar anchor leg.
“When Liam went in the water on Sunday, we were a little behind,” Coach Cohill said. “Against a very fast athlete from Huntington, he had to put in his best, and it wasn’t clear at the finish who the winner was. We were holding our breath until it came up on the scoreboard. We swam 3:14.00 and the Huntington team was 3:14.08. That’s eight one-hundredths of a second! We drill finishes from top to bottom on this team and to see them execute those skills in high-stress and high-risk situations was just awesome.”
That same foursome also beat their own team record in the 200-yard medley relay, replacing a 1:39.45 finish with a 1:36.52.
Chavez capped off the weekend winning the 100-yard breaststroke — the final event — in 1:01.12. Cohill called the victory “pretty amazing.” Miles Menu was right behind him, taking second in 1:01.74, with Gredysa in seventh. “We had three boys in the top heat in the last event,” Cohill said.
To understand how impressive this Hurricanes championship is, it’s important to know the team’s size. The Hurricanes took 76 athletes to the state meet. Huntington, the 2025 champs, had 168 swimmers competing. Flushing, also past state champs, had 110. Coach Cohill considers his kids “giant-slayers.”
Those giant-slayers not only had to take down bigger competitors, but they also had to overcome adversity of their own.
“On Saturday as we’re getting ready to start, one of my older boys comes over with a bloodied foot,” Cohill said. “He had cut the bottom of his foot on a door somehow and he was supposed to swim very soon. We’re looking at his foot and there’s skin flapping. We got him to first aid and his mom is a physician, so she came down to look at it and she said, ‘Do you still want to try?’ and without missing a beat he said, ‘Yeah, I’m swimming.’ ”
“I think that’s the personification — in a nutshell — of everyone’s efforts and performance over the weekend.”
From start to finish, it was a winning weekend. The Hurricanes led off the opening session on Friday night with a win in the mixed open 200-yard medley relay, thanks to a 1:59.40 finish from Rae Intonato, Lucy Knight, Sebastien Le Cartier, and Aidan Menu.
Pitches followed up with a Y national cut in the 200-yard individual medley, and a new team record. Her 2:09.71 finish beat Maggie Purcell’s record of 2:09.81 set back in March of 2016.
In the very next race, Chavez also took down a team record in the 200-yard individual medley. He swam a 1:59.71, breaking Ethan McCormac’s record of 2:01.01 set in March of 2019.
Vanessa Rizzo won the girls freestyle for the 15-to-18 age group, Heidi Rizzo won freestyle for the 13-14 age group, and Liam Knight took second in the boys freestyle for the 15-to-18 age group. And that was just day one.
“We could not have asked for a better opening session,” Angelika Cruz, the assistant coach, said. “There were fantastic swims by the whole team, and the coaches loved how they all stayed and cheered each other on.”
On Saturday morning, the Hurricanes set two more team records. Vanessa Rizzo swam the 100-yard backstroke in 57.8, breaking Cami Hatch’s team record of 57.9, set in 2023. That was a new Y national cut for Rizzo.
Liam Knight achieved another Y national cut with a 53.64 in the 100-yard backstroke.
Chavez broke his own record in the same race. His 52.31 surpassed the 52.49 he swam at the Holiday Invite in December, which already qualified him for nationals in the backstroke.
In addition to those achievements, Coach Cruz called out all of the top seeds who qualified for the finals on Saturday, plus all of the swimmers who were seeded outside the top 16 and pulled off massive time-drops to make the finals too.
“One of those swimmers who really stood out was Christian Von Hagn. He dropped times in all of his events to make finals, but perhaps the most impressive was a 15.31-second drop in the [11-12 age group] 200 free to make the A final. It is efforts like these from each and every swimmer that make a champion team. Every single point matters.”
In the 9-10 age group, Maya Saifullah had an exceptional day. Her 31.91 finish in the 50-yard backstroke easily set a new team record, taking down Julia Brierley’s 33.01, a record that had stood for 13 years.
Sunday morning was all about the relays. The 8-and-under boys — Thomas Cohill, Kiran Ortiz, Aaron O’Shea, and Zubair Saifullah — broke the team record in the 100-yard freestyle, swimming a 1:04.38, which beat the record of 1:05.88 set back in 2010.
The 11-12 girls 200-yard freestyle relay team — Novi Dunham, Evelyn Rizzo, Raegin Poitras, and Ellie Powers — finished in second place. The 13-14 girls — Mia Milazzo, O’Shea, Sydney Powers, and Heidi Rizzo — dominated their 200-yard freestyle relay. The 15-to-18 girls 400-yard freestyle relay team — Daniels, Griffin, Pitches, and Vanessa Rizzo — also took first handily.
In the individual races, Liam Knight and Vanessa Rizzo swam Y national cuts in the 100-yard freestyle. Aidan Menu broke his own team record of 56.65 in the 13-14 100-yard butterfly, with a new best time of 56.41, before lowering that even further to a 55.29. Pitches set a new team record in the 200-yard backstroke time trials. She bested her previous record of 2:08.11 with a 2:07.97, which is also a Y national cut. Pitches also lowered her own record in the 100-yard freestyle from 52.02 to 51.98.
“We said to them, ‘We got you here. You’ve got to lead to the finish.’ I put it in the hands of the athletes and they brought it home,” Cohill said.
Now that they’re home, there’s hardly time to rest. The team dinner is tomorrow night, and then, on Sunday, the Hurricanes’ national qualifiers fly to Greensboro, N.C., for nationals, which run from Monday through Friday, April 3.
