The Dalers Swimming and Diving team opened the postseason with a second place finish at the Division A Swimming and Diving Championships at Eisenhower Park last weekend. Bested only by Great Neck South, currently ranked as one of the top two teams on Long Island, the Dalers beat Massapequa, Herricks, Westbury, and Conference I seed Syosset.
After a fourth place finish by the Medley Relay team of Joe Scaglione, Kris Harris, Paul Giglio, and Joe McCabe, Greg Carman turned in a third place finish in the 200 Free with a personal best of 1:53.66. James Farrington took ninth and Conor Burke took tenth, rounding out the top 10, with Victor Quijano finishing 11th overall. Freshman Vlad Surmenko was the team’s top finisher in the 200 IM with a ninth place win, followed by Steve Makropoulos in tenth, Mike Zelazny in 14th, and Justin Burtis in 15th. In the 50 Free, senior Joe McCabe turned in a second place finish, followed by juniors Scaglione and Tom Gehlbach in ninth and tenth. Giglio finished 14th and qualified for the county championships with a personal best of 25.57.
On last Friday night, Gary Alaimo finished first in the diving competition, and Kyle Young, Billy Specht, and James Mangione took fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively.
After the break, Giglio turned in another personal best in the 100 Fly, finishing tenth at 1:04.47. Fellow senior Chris Capozzoli was close behind in 11th place with another personal best of 1:08.11. Kris Harris rounded out the Farmingdale scoring, finishing 16th. Scaglione took fourth and McCabe took eighth, both finishing in the top ten in the 100 Free, while Burketook 12th and Gehlbach took 14th.
Carman added another third place finish in the 500 with a personal best of 5:12.24, a three second drop from his swim in the recent Eastern States Invitational, which was a four second improvement from his previous best. Farrington was seventh, followed by Makropoulos in 11th, a personal best at 5:55, and Quijano in 12th.
The 200 Free Relay Team of McCabe, Carman, Gehlbach, and Scaglione finished third and then Zelazny turned in a personal best of 1:09 in the 100 Back to finish eighth. Bobby Zeno, Surmenko, and Murphy finished 11th, 12th, and 13th. In the 100 Breaststroke, Harris was fifth overall, followed by Mike McDanel in ninth place, Chris Prechtl took 12th, a personal best, and Justin Burtis took 13th. A fourth place finish by the 400 Free Relay of Burke, Farrington, Quijano, and Carman was enough to seal the second place finish for the Dalers, their best finish in three years.
Carman, McCabe, Alaimo, Scaglione, and Gehlbach earned All-Division honors, and will be honored at the Nassau Coaches Awards Dinner in March.
The team will have also competed in the Nassau County Championships this week. The diving competition will have taken place on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The preliminary heats of the swimming competition will have taken place Friday night at 7 p.m., and the championship finals to follow on Saturday at 1 p.m. All three events will take place at Eisenhower Park. Please come out and support the Dalers this Saturday!
