Yeager, Mo, Cassell swim to state titles

BUFFALO -- Christian Yeager satisfied two cravings on Saturday , one for victory and the other for food. In the pool the St. Anthony's senior won the 200-yard individual medley as the State Swimming and Diving Championships drew to a close at the Erie Community College Flickinger Center. His time of 1 minute, 49.06 seconds was automatic All-American and was two-tenths of a second off the CHSAA record.

It may not have been his only victory of the day. "We're having a Buffalo wing eating contest at the Anchor Bar with the whole team. So I'll see if I can win that,'' he said. "There will be a lot of competition.''

To claim his title in the pool, the Harvard-bound Yeager had to touch out En-Wei Hu-Van Wright of Stuyvesant, who was close behind in 1:50.36. "My expertise is taking it out,'' said Yeager, who was also fourth in the 100 backstroke. "I knew when I made the turn in the breaststroke, I had enough room, but I knew I had to push it or else he [Van Wright] was going to catch me. He came back so hard. I remember yesterday [Friday's prelims] he came back a second and half faster than I did.''

Yeager was not alone at the top of the awards podium for Nassau/Suffolk. He was joined by Sam Mo of Great Neck South, who won the public school state title in the 200 IM and freshman phenom Gunther Cassell of Huntington, the state champion in the 100 breaststroke.

Cassell put together a gutsy swim to capture the breast in a career-best 57.20, winning by a margin of .35. He didn't let the fact he's a freshman shake his confidence.

"I just let the swimming speak for itself,'' he said. "This is probably the happiest day of my entire life. All swimming is the right kind of mental toughness. A lot of people think about their race and psych themselves out, and that's what causes them to mess up. What you have to do is go out there and swim your race.''

Mo said his IM was highlighted by his breaststroke, one of his stronger strokes. He was fourth in the same event last year. Mo is taking his swimming talents to West Point in the fall. He said he came into the state meet a little tired having just competed in the Senior Metropolitan winter Championships last week at Lehman College in the Bronx.

Finishing second in the state in the 100 freestyle was senior Austin Kowalsky of Bellmore Merrick, who went a school record 45.9. Kowalsky stayed with winner Drake Becksted for the first 50 yards, but could not overtake the eventual winner and MVP of the meet.

Junior James Donlevy of Sachem North established himself as the top sprinter in the area with his fourth-place finish in the 50 free of 20.99, breaking his own school record set in Friday's prelims.

"It felt pretty good. I'm sure there are small things I could have improved,'' he said. "The 50 is really hard to do if you mess up one thing. You mess up something and it's over, you can't do well.''

Diver Ryan Savit of Half Hollow Hills grabbed sixth place in what was his fourth trip to states. He will continue his career at Southern California. He said he scored big points on a new dive he added to his list, a back 1.5 with 2.5 twists. "I hit it well, I replaced it with a dive I was going to do. So I was happy with that,'' he said.

Grabbing third-place finishes were Justin Plaschka of Hauppauge in the 100 butterfly and Mike Lennon of Herricks in the 500 freestyle.

The meet came to an odd and memorable climax when the top teams in the 400 free relay tied for first place. Tappan Zee of Section I and Fordham Prep both finished in a state record 3:06.99 and were declared co-champions.