Swimming and Diving heading to Nationals in Florida

The Sharks swim team, was on the attack this weekend at Monroe County Community College. The meet started off with a very nice swim on Friday morning from the men's team and a second place diving finish by Antonio Brillo on the 1 meter diving boards. He was able to set a new school record for the 11 dives on the 1 meter boards.The men and women were able to take second and third place respectively for the first relays in the final session on Friday evening.

John Weilert was seeded second in the consolations for the men's fashion and was able to finish first in the consolations by working really hard in the event posting his career best time at Suffolk. Then came the nailbiter! One of the most anticipated matchups for the weekend came in 200 IM. Alberto Catano and Yusuke Inami for Suffolk took the lead and the opponent had to  play catch-up the rest of the meet. In the end after a hard fought race it was Suffolk for first place. The men also took third, fourth and sixth place in that event. The men were well-positioned for the next event- the 50 free. Andrew took first place and a set a new school record of 21.99. Friday came to an end with the 400 medley where the men once again took 1st place. The women were able to take second place with a strong finish during Friday's competition.

Saturday evening's competitions began with the 200 Medley of which women took second place again and the men were able to take first place in this event. The men were able to do very well in the 400 IM with Nick coming in third and Eric coming fifth. All throughout the sharks kept up the attack coming in second in the 100 fly by Kevin Henry with a new personal best at Suffolk. Andrew was able to coast to a first place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time 1:01 .38. While Al was able to set a new northeast district record meet record and school record in the 100 yard backstroke with the time of 53.37.

 On Sunday once again the women swam very well in the 200 backstroke and Al was able to set a new meet record in the back stroke with a time of 156.06. Hannah had a great swim in the 100 free taking 1.2 seconds off her personal best time. Then to another highly anticipated race for the 100 yard freestyle Andrew took it out fast and followed through to finish in first place with a time of 49 seconds. There were more strong swims by the men and the women for the day and in the end the total scores revealed that Monroe was in 1st Place Suffolk was in second place and runner-up for the second year in a row. Suffolk earned the North East District Athlete of the Year  and the coaches selected Coach Simms to be the Men's Team Coach of the Year for a second consecutive year. We were tired but excited as we set our sights on the National Championships to be held in Florida two weeks.