Mo leads Great Neck South swimming to county title
Great Neck South had a feeling it would be repeating as county champions come Saturday. The Rebels just didn't know the celebration would come a day early.
Because forecasts called for up to a half-foot of snow in the morning, Nassau postponed the county championship meet and decided to reschedule. The only problem was that the next time the Nassau Aquatic Center was available was the following week, when many swimmers would be on vacation. That left another option on the table: forego the qualifying trials Friday night and go full steam ahead with the championships in its place.
"My kids and I had talked on the bus during the day, so we went over what could happen when we got there," coach Andy Berlin said. "So they started to wrap their head around what kind of meet it could be. Most weren't thrilled with it, some had been practicing that day, which you normally wouldn't do the day of a championship. But my core of very strong swimmers have been there before, and they knew this was going to have to be an all-out max performance."
Thrilled or not, ready or not, the Rebels prevailed, posting a score of 425, beating second place Long Beach by 321/2 points. This is the second consecutive season Great Neck South is undefeated in dual meets, division championships and the county championship.
"It was certainly very exciting, certainly a hard-fought contest," Berlin said. "Long Beach swam fantastically and pushed us to the limit."
Sam Mo was named outstanding swimmer after winning the 200-yard individual medley (1:55.87) and 100 freestyle (48.08). He also participated in the winning 400 freestyle relay (3:20.93).
"He was absolutely outstanding all season," Berlin said. "He, more than any swimmer I've ever had, never backed down from a challenge. He was a wonderful leader for the guys. He was the guy there to pick a guy up or to give a guy a charge."
But it wasn't a cakewalk by any means for Great Neck South, and the team found itself trailing Long Beach by a few points after the 100 free.
"We had been up throughout, but then Long Beach came back and it was certainly a point of excitement there," Berlin said. "We said, 'look, this is possibly slipping away.' So certainly our next few events were big."
That's when the depth kicked in.
Sean Kim took fifth in the 500 free and Richard Pak seventh. Wesley Huang took fifth in the consolation heat, and suddenly, Great Neck South was back in business and never looked back.
One of the more exciting points of the day was Lowell Nickey's two winning races for Cold Spring Harbor. He won the 200 free (1:44.84) by just .01 seconds over standout Sewanhaka swimmer Nick Spinella and beat out teammate Erik Heinemann for first place in the 500 free (4:46.26) by just .02 seconds.
"All those kids swim on the same club team, so they're all good friends," Cold Spring Harbor coach Jim Frank said. "Lowell and the Spinella kid just went eyeball to eyeball and he just touched him out. They got out in front of everybody else and it became a two-man race . . . It's just a matter of whose fingernail gets to the wall first."
Hills four-peats. For the fourth straight season, Half Hollow Hills has gone undefeated in dual meet races and league championships, winning the League I title Thursday with a score of 309. Ward Melville was second with 237 points.
Half Hollow Hills won seven of the 12 events, with Matthew DeBlasio taking first in the 100-yard backstroke (55.75) and 200 IM (1:58.37). DeBlasio also swam the lead leg on the winning 200 medley relay (1:42.28) and the anchor leg on the first-place 400 freestyle relay (3:22.57).
But the work isn't done for Hills, which has won the past three county titles, as well. The Suffolk championship is Saturday at Brentwood.
Sayville/Bayport-BP wins. Sayville / Bayport-Blue Point won nine events on its way to 477 points and the League II title. Connetquot took second with 369. Chris Cremer led the way for Sayville / Bayport-Blue Point, winning the 50-yard free (22.86) and 100 free (49.13).
