Patriots Swim Team Wins 19th County Championship

After an undefeated season, Ward Melville's girls' swim team won its 19th consecutive Suffolk County Championship on Saturday.

Four girls qualified individually, while another eight qualified in group races.  Altogether, 30 swimmers will be representing Suffolk County next Friday, Nov. 19 in Buffalo for the State Championship. 

In the first event of the day, the 200-yard medley, Ward Melville's team of Charlotte and Elenor Broadbent, Sara Buckley, and Hannah Carlino qualified for states with a time of 1:57.89. They were seconds behind the Connetquot team, who set a county record at 1:49.26. This Ward Melville squad also went on to win the final event of the day, the 400-yard freestyle.

Jessica Fabrizio later qualified in both the 200 and 500-yard freestyle races. 

Liyan Yao qualified in the 200-yard individual medley, as well as the 100-yard breaststroke.

Shannon Lampe qualified in the 50-yard freestyle, and her qualifying time in the 100-yard backstroke beat out the rest of the Suffolk swimmers on Saturday.

Taylor Dasilva will be moving on to states in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events. 

The team results at the end of the day's 12 events are as follows:

• Ward Melville (9-0): 422 points
• Connetquot (8-2): 359 points
• Half Hollow Hills (8-1): 252.5 points
• Harborfields (9-1): 251 points