County champs Smithtown-Hauppauge swim team dive in against Huntington
By Steven Zaitz
The Smithtown-Hauppauge boys swim team remained undefeated after beating the combined forces of Huntington, Harborfields, Walt Whitman and John Glenn high schools on Jan. 16 by a score of 94-86. The reigning Suffolk County champions are 5-0 as county and state meets are fast approaching.
Smithtown East sophomore Tyler Gallub set a personal-best in the 200-yard freestyle event with a blazing 1:46.39. This time qualifies him for the New York State Championships. Gallub also qualified for states with his winning time of 53.32 in the 100-yard butterfly. Gallub was also part of the first-place team in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Along with Alex Trzaskowski, Chris Sweeney and his brother Dylan Gallub, the foursome finished at 1:31.79, almost eight seconds ahead of the second-place team – also from Smithtown-Hauppauge.
East senior Dylan Gallub also scored a victories that qualified him for the state championship meet with a 21.63 in the 50-yard freestyle and 48.56 in the 100-yard freestyle.
The Huntington conglomerate also had success as Sophomore Evan Creter from John Glenn won the 200-yard individual medley. He was the only swimmer to dip under two minutes, as his 1:59.69 was fast enough to qualify for States. Huntington High School sophomore Maximilien Leroy won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:04.60 and was part of the foursome that took first place in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Creter, Liam O’Hanlon and Lucas Spagnolleti were also on the winning team.
Spagnolleti, a Huntington senior, was busy succeeding in other events. He won the 100-yard breaststroke with a county-qualifying time of 1:06.58. He also finished second to Tyler Gallub in the 100-yard butterfly.
In all, there were 34 New York State or Suffolk County qualifying times during this meet. The Huntington team is 2-2 in League I competition, good for a fourth place rank behind Smithtown-Hauppague, Half Hollow Hills-Kings Park and Connetquot-Islip.
