The Blue Devil girls’ swimming and diving team celebrated another great season with an awards dinner at the Halesite Fire Department last weekend.
Like most Suffolk high schools, Huntington has chosen to combine with a nearby high school and field a joint team. In this case, the Blue Devils and Walt Whitman have teamed up to form a very competitive squad coached by Christopher Helmke, Meg McConnell and Rufus Sheppard.
“While we strive to put W’s in the win column, what’s more important is the improvement to our personal best times and how we contribute to the team as a whole and we can honestly say that all of you have met with that success this year,” Helmke told the team. “We are all very proud of the accomplishments made by the team this year.”
Huntington junior Claire Conner was the team’s captain. There are many good, young swimmers on the roster and the Blue Devils hope even more will join the fun next fall.
“The combining of the Huntington girls’ varsity swimming team with Walt Whitman’s has created a cohesiveness among the girls’ which propelled us into league, county and state championship success,” Helmke said. “Our swimmers rose to the occasion at the league championships as our 400 freestyle relay fought hard to achieve All-League status. Our best team accomplishment was finishing ninth out of 25 teams at the county championships. This was an incredible accomplishment since we carried a team of only 19 this season.”
Many Huntington/Walt Whitman team swimmers turned in great performances. Highlights included:
All-League
200 Medley Relay: Caelan Clayton, Kathryn Montefusco, Emily Teplansky, Bianca Santaromana - 2:01.29
200 Individual Medley: Kathryn Montefusco - 2:12.51
50 Freestyle: Emily Teplansky - 26.26
100 Butterfly: Caelan Clayton - 1:02.55
100 Freestyle: Emily Teplansky - 56.12
100 Breaststroke: Kathryn Montefusco - 1:06.42
400 Freestyle Relay: Emily Teplansky, Dana Keogler, Caelan Clayton, Kathryn Montefusco - 3:58.04
All-County
100 Freestyle: Kathryn Montefusco - 52.70
500 Freestyle: Emily Teplansky - 5:24.88
100 Breaststroke: Kathryn Montefusco - 1:05.22
All-State
100 Freestyle: Kathryn Montefusco - 52.49 (13th place)
100 Breaststroke: Kathryn Montefusco – 1:06.26 (9th place)
“We are continuing to rebuild and recruit new swimmers and intend to add to our roster as we have no graduating seniors from Huntington this year,” Helmke said. “We expect our remaining athletes to return as we continue to advance and improve upon our speed and team depth. I am looking forward to next year.”
