Blue Devil Swimmers Capture All-State Honors

Huntington junior Max Leroy and senior Lucas Spagnoletti swam to All-State honors at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association swimming and diving championships at Ithaca College last weekend.

Huntington is the host for what has been dubbed a “super team” in Section XI. The conglomeration includes Walt Whitman, Harborfields and John H. Glenn.

“The team had both our 200 yard medley relay and 400 yard free relays qualified for the meet as well as three individual swimmers in John H. Glenn’s Evan Creter (200 freestyle, 100 backstroke) Max Leroy (200 freestyle) and Lucas Spagnoletti (100 fly),” Huntington head coach Meg McConnell said. “As a team combining four districts, one might think it would be harder to succeed in relay events, yet this is where the boys really shined this past weekend.”

The medley relay of Creter, Spagnoletti and Harborfields’ Patrick O’Brien and Liam O’Hanlon were seeded No. 24 and narrowly missed their best time in prelims by .02 second, but found themselves seeded No. 17 heading into finals. “This allowed them to vie for All-State honors, which they achieved with their season best time of 1:38.98 while garnering 16th and NYSPHAA honors.”

The 400 yard freestyle relay of Spagnoletti, Leroy, O’Hanlon and Creter was seeded 23rd, but rose to the occasion during prelims and hit their season best time of 3:15.24 putting them into the Class A Final on Saturday seeded 10th. After an action packed final session Saturday, the 400 relay team gave it their all in the final heat of competition posting a season best of 3:13.95 and placing 9th in New York to claim All-State honors.

The Huntington “super team” finished among the top 20 in the final state team standings.

McConnell, who is assisted with the Blue Devil swimmers and divers by Christopher Helmke will be looking to keep up Huntington’s momentum in the pool next winter.