Farmingdale High School’s Boys Varsity Swim Team Finishes Strong: A Recap of this Weekend's County Prelims and Championships
County Prelims--Friday, February 26th, 2021 The Dalers added to their already impressive season with a strong showing in the preliminary heats of the County Championships on Friday, February 26th. The team qualified in seven events. The night started with a season-best swim by the medley relay of Jason Subillaga, Nick Mahan, Tom O'Neill, and Dom Cottone. All four turned in personal best splits, and moved up three spots from their pre-meet seed to qualify 15th for the County Championships. Sophomore Zach Carle kicked off his stellar night by singing the National Anthem. After, in the 200 IM he dropped nearly two seconds from his personal best swim and qualified 15th in a 2:10.
Connor Maloney swam a personal best of 22.52 in the 50 Free and qualified 6th overall. He will compete in Country Championships, entering the race just 3-tenths of a second off the leader. Maloney came back with a season best 51.7 in the 100 Free and is 12th in that event heading into the finals.. Zach Carle’s second event was the 500 Free. He took it out incredibly fast (:56 at the 100 and 2:01 at the 200) and swam a 5:23, just tenths off his best time, qualifying 21st overall. He is the 1st alternate for the County Finals.
The 200 Free Relay of Connor Maloney, Zach Carle, Mike Ponzio, and George Chen dropped two seconds off the team's season best and are 12th in today's finals. Carle and Ponzio both turned in personal best split times. The team of Connor Maloney, Zach Carle, Jason Subillaga, and Jackson Vignona return today in the 400 Free Relay in 16th place. Sublilaga and Vigona both turned in best times in the race.
County Championships--Sunday, February 28th, 2021 Another strong showing by the Farmingdale Boy’s swim team. The Dalers finished 14th overall (they were seeded 19th in the preseason), just 9 points short of 12th place and ahead of five Conference II teams.
The Medley Relay team of Jason Subillaga, Nick Mahan, Tom O'Neill, and Dom Cottone swam over half a second faster than Friday night and finished 15th overall. Subillaga and O'Neill turned in personal best split times, while Mahan and Cottone were mere tenths off their own PB's set on Friday. Zach Carle swam to a 15th place finish in the 200 IM thanks to a fantastic freestyle leg and textbook finish that moved him past two other competitors at the very end of the race.
Connor Maloney finished 8th in the 50 Free in 22.6, just a tenth of a second off Friday's PB. In an unbelievable race that saw 1st place and 10th place separated by just 6-tenths, Connor was at the first wall in 10.4 seconds! Maloney followed that up with a personal-best 50.3 in the 100 Free, moving up a spot in the standings to 11th place and winning the consolation final. His time was nearly a second and a half faster than Friday night's swim. The 200 Free Relay of Connor Maloney, Zach Carle, Mike Ponzio, and George Chen dropped a second and a half to finish 2nd in the consolation final and 12th overall. Ponzio and Chen finished their high school swimming careers with best times at 24.50 and 24.80, respectively.
Maloney and Carle returned for the 400 Free Relay, this time with Jason Subillaga and Jackson Vignona. Once again, the Dalers raised the bar, dropping nearly five seconds from Friday night's swim and moving from 18th place to 14th place. The effort also vaulted the Dalers past Oceanside and Wantagh in the final team standings. Subilaga (56.8) and Vigona (57.1) both dropped more than a second off their personal bests.
Congratulations to Coach Ken Ilchuk and his team. #dalerpride