In Nassau, everyone's chasing Great Neck South
Great Neck South is long past the stage of being a surprise, or a contender or even the favorite among Nassau County's top boys swim teams. As one competing coach put it this winter, "nobody can touch them.''
And when your roster is stocked with talent like Sam Mo, statements like that might not just be hyperbole. Mo won the 200-yard individual medley (1 minute, 55.87 seconds) and 100-freestyle (48.08) at the county meet in 2009, and hopes to repeat in this, his junior season. But GNS is more than Sam Mo. Ben Ching was first in the 100-breaststroke (1:01.81) at counties, Patrick Yang finished fourth in the 50-free (22.76) and Dan Mo, Sam's brother, placed third in the county meet in the 200-IM (2:02.86) and second in the 100-back (57.06) as a freshman.
Nicholas Stoski was second in the 100-breaststroke (1:01.96) at counties and figures to lead a Long Beach team that was second in the 2009 Nassau finals, 32.5 points behind GNS.
"He's strong in almost anything I put him in," coach Woody Davis said. "In the breaststroke, he could be one of the best in the county."
Drew Cohen, Shane Alton and Ryan Murray help fill out a program that could get a head-turning infusion of youth at some point this season from the junior-high level.
Joseph Na placed fifth in the 50-free (22.98) for Jericho at the 2009 Nassau finals. Diver Jordan Bernstein placed third in the county (388.5 points) and just missed the state cut.
"Great Neck won by a little over 30 points last year, and 30 points in a championship meet is every one of your players moving up a spot," coach Richard Stern said. "It's not a huge margin. Are they unbeatable? It looks like it could be, but it's not impossible."
Austin Kowalsky returns for Bellmore-Merrickafter winning the 50-free (21.57) and 100-butterfly (53.42) at counties. Kowalsky also swam the anchor leg on the first place 200-freestyle relay (1:29.77) and the lead leg on the second place 200-medley relay (1:42.32).
Erik Heinemann was second in the 200-IM (2:00.99) and 500-free (4:46.28) at the Nassau finals for Cold Spring Harbor, but he may be a champion this year after his biggest competition in the 500-free graduated. In the IM, the battle between Heinemann and Mo will be one to watch.
The diving title seems to be Peter Magliulo's to lose after the Manhasset junior finished first with a 429 at the county finals. His next-closest still active competitor was 41 points behind him. Magliulo spent his off-season working with Long Island diving guru George Taylor on increasing his degree of difficulty and cleaning up some routine dives.
Manhasset boasts a young team, and Alex Huang might be the first seventh- grader to make the varsity squad in a decade, according to coach Matt McGrane.
"We feel that they should be on the middle school squad unless they can make a clear impact at the varsity level," McGrane said. "He had county qualifying times as a sixth-grader in nearly half the individual events. Physically, he seems up to the task."
