DeBlasio leads HHH to fourth straight county title
Half Hollow Hill's Matthew DeBlasio on his way to winning the boys 200 Yard IM, during the Suffolk County Boys Championships State Qualification Meet. (February 13, 2010) Credit: Photo by Richard Slattery
Going into the last event, Half Hollow Hills had a 55-point lead and it looked as if the boys swimming team would soon be crowned Suffolk champion again. Hills had led practically all Saturday at Suffolk CC-Brentwood in the county meet that seemed more like a formality, and that worried Jason Wiedersum. The Hills coach likes his swimmers to go into every event feeling the same intensity, never sniffing an air of complacency.
So while everyone else at the pool was relaxed, Wiedersum put his group on edge.
"On the last relay, I told the guys that if we didn't win the relay, we were gonna lose the meet," he said with a grin. "They had no idea of the score."
The team's star swimmer took the warning to heart.
"We all truly thought we were going to lose the meet unless we won that race," Matt DeBlasio said. "I put it in my head that if it wasn't for this race, we would lose. We wouldn't get that fourth title."
DeBlasio tore through the water like a cheetah chasing prey, finishing his anchor leg in first place to put the finishing touches on Half Hollow Hills' fourth-consecutive county championship.
Hills, undefeated in dual meets, league and county championships for four seasons, scored 373. Ward Melville (304) took second with Sayville/Bayport-Blue Point (285) third.
DeBlasio won the 200-yard individual medley (1:55.9) and 100 backstroke (53.99), in addition to swimming the lead leg of the first-place 200 medley relay (1:39.86) and the anchor leg of the winning 400 free relay (3:16.30). The only events that Hills took first in were events that DeBlasio swam in.
"I'm obviously very pleased, and winning four events on a stage like this is obviously very fun - it's really a great feeling to win all these events," he said. "But it's a better feeling to have the team win. For me, this meet is about the team. At states, that's when I start focusing on myself a bit."
Actually, DeBlasio's 100 backstroke win should probably come with an asterisk, as he tied Patchogue-Medford's Everett Vasquez in the event, a rarity even in a setting that produces close results.
"I don't think he was in the lane next to me, and I saw him on the second wall, but after that, I had no visibility," DeBlasio said. "I had just seen he was about a half-length ahead of me. So I just turned it on."
DeBlasio "turned it on" for the final event, as well, and not just because he thought the team would lose if he didn't.
As the anchor leg of the 400 free relay, he was pitted against Sayville/Bayport-Blue Point standout Christian Cremer, who ended up winning outstanding swimmer.
"We both swim on different club teams, and obviously our two high school teams are two of the best high school teams in the county, so you know, we do butt heads a little bit," said DeBlasio, a junior. "But he's the best in his events, and I'm the best in my events. We swim different things. But when we do get the opportunity to come head-to-head like that at the end of the 400 free relay, it's fun."
Enjoy the fun, Matt. Next year, if you're lucky, you'll be back on edge.
