Blue Devil boys’ swimmers are on a proverbial high after helping to topple powerful Half Hollow Hills for the first time in 16 years, 98-85. The Huntington/Walt Whitman/Haborfields squad is undefeated and in first place in the Section XI League I standings.
The action played out before a large crowd of fans, including Blue Devil swimming alums, retired longtime coach Gil Smith, friends, family, Harborfields girls’ swimmers and other Suffolk coaches.
Fans were actively engaged, cheering on the Huntington swimmers and their Walt Whitman and Harborfields teammates. (The three schools combine to form one boys’ swimming and diving team as is common across Section XI.) It seemed as if everyone knew history was about to be made.
It’s been a superb season to date as numerous Blue Devil swimmers have already made the county and state championship cut times in their events. Head coach Meg McConnell is delighted with how her team has performed.
At Half Hollow Hills (East and West high schools combine to form one district team), Huntington swimmers dominated several events. Pierre Leroy won the 200 yard IM and 100 yard breaststroke. Evan Spagnoletti captured the 100 yard butterfly and was third in the 50 yard freestyle. Lucas Spagnoletti placed second in the 100 yard butterfly in a huge upset and fourth in the 100 yard breaststroke. Will Weber finished third in the 100 yard backstroke and fourth in the 200 yard IM. Jonathan Larice was third in the 100 yard freestyle and Max Leroy was third in the 500 yard freestyle.
Pierre Leroy, Evan Spagnoletti and Luca Spagnoletti swam on the winning 200 yard medley relay. Max Leroy and Will Weber were on the fourth place relay in the event.
Evan Spagnoletti, Jonathan Larice and Pierre Leroy also swam on the winning 400 yard freestyle relay. Will Weber and Max Leroy again swam on the fourth place finishing relay in the event.
“This is my sixth and final year on this team and it has been the most exciting of them all,” said Weber, who serves as Huntington’s captain along with Larice. “Beating Hills was unthinkable when I first joined in 2017 and now that we finally did and by a good amount, it blows my mind. Everyone fought hard.”
The second, third and fourth place finishes proved crucial to Huntington/Walt Whitman/Harborfields’ historic victory. Each of the three schools brings powerful competitors in specific events, including three time county diving champ Alex Zhang of Harborfields.
“In my six seasons, we have never seen any team beat Hills. It was a tough meet, but we really showed what we are capable of doing as a team,” Larice said. “This was a huge milestone for our team. I’m very proud of all the guys. They showed a lot of heart out there.”
