Garden City the favorite heading toward Nassau championship

Garden City, Long Beach and Jericho came in first place in their respective swimming divisions at the Nassau County Division Championships last Saturday.

In Division A, Garden City took home the crown.

Connor Brown finished first for Garden City in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle, and was among the winners in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays.

Garden City finished the season undefeated at 9-0 and is considered the biggest threat at the county swimming championship on Saturday at Eisenhower Park.

Long Beach clinched Division B, where the Marines finished first in the 200-yard medley relay, 200-freestyle, 200-individual medley, 500-freestyle, 100-breastroke and 100-butterfly.

"That was a great thing for our team," coach Woody Davis, who has been coaching the squad at Long Beach for 50 years, said. "We have a great bunch of kids."

One of their standout swimmers, Max Willard, received a first-place finish in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events. Willard, David Mejia, Shane Morris and Michael McCarthy won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:44.79.

"He does a great job and has been very successful," Davis said.

Davis believes Garden City is the favorite in the county championship, but he's hoping to stay close.

"It's going to be a challenge," Davis said. "But we're hoping to finish in second place to Garden City."

Jericho came out on top in Division C.

Joshua Han, Richard Li, Tyler Javitz and Christopher Chen finished first in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Han won the 200-yard freestyle and was also part of the first-place 400-yard freestyle relay, along with Jackson Sugarman, Nicholas Mu and Richard Law. Sugarman also won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:11.18.

Jericho coach Richard Stern agrees with Davis that Garden City will be the toughest competition.

"They're the team to beat," Stern said. "It's going to take a very amazing weekend for someone to dethrone Garden City."

Jericho may be able to complete the task. This win was their seventh consecutive division championship.

"Our goal is to win the counties, but I have to be a realist," Stern said. "We've been playing the underdog card. I just want my team to swim well."