East Hampton YMCA Hurricanes Swim Team Wins The New York State Championships

“Fate Whispers: You Cannot Withstand The Storm … You Whisper Back: I Am The Storm.”

It’s a quote that poignantly appeared on a poster for the East Hampton YMCA Hurricanes swim team this season, which took it to heart, apparently. For the first time in their 19-year history as a club, the Hurricanes won the New York State YMCA Championships this past weekend, which were held at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. East Hampton head coach Tom Cohill said that it’s the first time in 30-plus years that the Flushing Y hasn’t won the state title.

The ’Canes had an even medal count at the two-day meet, garnering seven gold medals, eight silver and nine bronze to finish with a whopping 443.8 points. Comparatively, Huntington YMCA brought home 13 gold medals but finished with 363.9 points, followed by Auburn (339.7), Southeast Family Branch (384.2) and Cross Island (363.2).

Even though they had a somewhat long trip ahead of them, just about everyone on the East Hampton team stuck around to wait for the final points to be tallied into somewhat late Sunday evening. After celebrating their win, everyone got in their cars, made the 90-minute trip home and met at Main Beach, then were paraded through East Hampton Village by local emergency services vehicles. The latter of which was a pleasant surprise for Cohill, with such parades typically reserved for high school programs. But it goes to show how important and vital the Y program really is.

Cohill explained that he had confidence in his swimmers and had a feeling that they were going to perform well, but outside of that, he had no expectations of winning a state title.

“One of the things as the head coach that I try to not to do is really focus on the results and instead focus more on encouraging the athletes to really go out there and race and do the best that they can,” he said. “The interesting thing is I didn’t talk a lot about swimming,” Cohill added, with a laugh. “When the kids go on the blocks, I’m not telling them to do ‘X, Y, Z.’ I’m proud of them them for how hard they worked.”

There are six different age groups competed at Y states — 8-and-under, 9-10, 11-12, 12-13, 13-14 and 15-19 years old. Swimmers qualify for states by hitting certain standards throughout the season and can do so at any YMCA-sanctioned meet. Of the roughly 85 swimmers that make up the East Hampton team, 54 competed at states.

The 15-19 girls medley relay team of Cami Hatch (backstroke), Jane Brierley (breaststroke), Summer Jones (butterfly), Emily Dyner (freestyle) won in a new state record of 1:48.46, which bested the previous record of 1:49.58 set in 2018 by another Hurricane squad of Julia Brierley, Maggie Purcell, Sophia Swanson and Caroline Oakland. That time qualified the team for Y Nationals, which they will be attending this Sunday, March 27, through Friday, April 1, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Jones won individual golds in the 15-19 50-yard free (24.54 seconds), 100-yard free (53.98 seconds), 200-yard free (1:56.49), 500-yard free (5:14.31) and 100-yard fly (58.23 seconds).

Jane Brierley won individual golds in the 15-19 200-yard individual medley (2:10) and the 100-yard breast (1:04.60). Hatch won the 15-19 100-yard back in 59.76 seconds.

Daisy Pitches won the 13-14 50 free (24.83 seconds), the 100-yard free (54.08 seconds) the 200-yard IM (2:13.85), the 100-yard back (1:01.66) and 500-yard free (5:21.29). She also swam the backstroke on the 13-14 girls medley team that won in 1:57.86. Lily Griffin swam the breaststroke, Ava Castillo the butterfly and Lizzie Daniels the freestyle on that team.

Griffin won the 13-14 200-yard free in 2:02.05 and the 100-yard breast in 1:12.63. Ava Castillo won the 100-yard fly in 1:01.89. Liam Knight won the boys 200-yard free in 1:58.18. Nick Chavez won the 11-12 boys 50-yard back in 30.82 seconds.

Being that Nationals are really for 12-and-over swimmers, Jones, Hatch and Brierley all qualified in individual events along with the relay teams. Both Griffin and Pitches also qualified.

Molly Grande won the 9-10 girls 50 free, 50 fly, 200 free and 100 free. She also placed second in the 100 IM and was a part of the winning 200 free relay with Mia Milazzo, Heidi Rizzo and Avienne O’Shea.

Aidan Menu won the 9-10 boys 50 free, 50 fly, 100 IM and 100 free, took second in the 50 breast and helped the 200 medley relay win. He was joined on that team by Mason Curry (back), Oliver Early (breast) and Rishi Ortiz (free). Menu, Early, Curry and Rex Doerfler placed second in the 200 free relay.

Raegin Poitras won the 8-and-under girls 50 back and placed second in the 50 free. The 100 medley relay also won.

Cohill thanked all of his assistant coaches — Angelika Cruz, Sean Knight, Sean Crowley and Eugene Depasquale — for all of their hard work. He also thanked YMCA of Long Island Chief Operating Officer Eileen Knauer and East Hampton YMCA Aquatics Director Sondra Vecchio “for getting their team in the water quickly, post COVID.”

While Cohill doesn’t like to base success off of just pure results, it’s hard not to now when a lot of the results are so positive at such a big meet, and he agreed, the program has certainly reached a high point, but that’s not to say there isn’t more to come.

“I think it’s reached a pinnacle because we’ve been racing to it for a long time,” he said. “There have been a lot of amazing people involved in the racing program from the beginning to the end and I’ve been fortunate to have those people in my life. So it’s definitely a pinnacle, it’s something that took a lot of hard work for years and we did reach something that we’ve never done before.”