Clockwise from top left, Jesse Agor comes up for a breath in freestyle event. Andrew Cosetti competes in the 200-yard Individual Medley race. Thomas Brown on his way to victory in the backstroke at Conference 1 swim finals. Patrick Polese gets ready for the start of the backstroke race.
By JIM MACLEAN
It was a day to remember for the Fox Lane/John Jay combined boys swim team at the League 1 Championship meet Feb. 1, at Felix Festa Middle School pool in Clarkstown, especially senior Thomas Brown.
Brown was expected to win the butterfly race entering as the top-seed and he lived up to his billing and cruised to victory. However, he wasn’t done for the night. He entered the backstroke race just to compete in a second individual event, and he shocked the field, including himself. Coming in seeded 10th, Brown was not even in the final heat of the top eight qualifiers, but he took more than two seconds off his personal best time and touched the wall at 54.12 to finish first overall.
He also was part of two winning relays for Fox Lane/John Jay that both qualified for the New York state meet as Brown qualified in all four events for states.
“I saw the time and was like, What just happened?” Brown said of his backstroke race. “I was definitely surprised, my best time before that was a 56, so dropping that much time out of the blue was a surprise. The butterfly I was pretty relaxed going into it and did what I had to do. In the relays, we knew we could make states in the medley and we hammered at it today and got it. Then the four free relay was a culmination of the meet bringing it home.”
Fox Lane started and ended the meet with a bang, winning the first event, the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:39.62. Patrick Polese, Henry Dauterman, Brown and Spencer Grayson teamed up to make the state qualifying time cut to earn a chance to compete in the race at the upcoming state championships.
“The boys were so excited to make the medley relay cut, adding another athlete to our state meet roster,” explained coach Sue Guziec. “The 400 free relay was excited to get the top-seed for sectionals. Thomas Brown had an amazing meet, everybody was solid, they were really amped up for it today and I’m super proud of them.”
Brown cruised to victory in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.16, more than two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Jack Tsai was 11th, Patrick Polese was 15th, and Finn Egan was 27th in the butterfly for Fox Lane/John Jay.
The backstroke race was the highlight of the meet not just for Brown as Fox Lane/John Jay had four swimmers finish in the top 10. In addition to Brown taking first, Ryan Loveless was fourth, followed by Patrick Polese in sixth, and Aidan Polese in eighth place.
Fox Lane/John Jay finished the meet like it began as the team of Tsai, Aidan Polese, Brown and Grayson swam to victory in the 4x100 freestyle relay with a time of 3:16.59.
Spencer Grayson finished with a pair of top five individual finishes. Grayson was third in the 50-yard freestyle race with a time of 22.4, and he was fourth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.68 to meet the state qualifying time in that event. Carlos Fonseca was 20th in the 100 and 23rd in the 50 free.
Dauterman had a pair of top 10 finishes in individual events as he was fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:02.84, and ninth in the 50-yard freestyle.
The 200-yard freestyle was another big individual event for Fox Lane/John Jay with four swimmers in the top ten, led by Loveless in fifth with a time of 1:48.41, followed by Jesse Agor in seventh, Andrew Acocella in eighth, and Tsai in ninth place.
In the 500-yard freestyle, Aidan Polese finished fourth with a time of 4:50.72, with Acocella right behind in fifth and Agor in ninth place and Kev O’Donnell in 19th place.
Andrew Cosetti led Fox Lane/John Jay in the 200-yard Individual medley with a 14th place finish, while teammate Liam Bree was 23rd and Jake Zissu was 25th. Cosetti was also 12th in the breaststroke, with Kyle Berk in 30th and O’Donnell in 31st.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Dauterman, Tsai, Aidan Polese and Agor teamed up to finish third.
As a combined team, Fox Lane/John Jay was not able to compete for the team title under the new rules this year, but the team was far ahead of the field in overall points to highlight a very good day in the pool.
“The kids did great, some of them did back-to-back races and everybody swam great,” said coach Laurie Kelleher. “Thomas entered the backstroke just to swim a second event and he turned around and won it. The butterfly — he did what he always does, and the relays were so happy to make states, a really good meet for them.”
Fox Lane/John Jay will look to finish strong back in the pool at Felix Festa for the Section 1 championships on Feb. 10-11.