By Steven Zaitz

The Hauppauge-Smithtown girls swimming and diving team, who are the defending New York State champions, defeated the combined forces of Huntington, Harborfields, Walt Whitman and John Glenn high schools last Thursday. The final score was 105-73, and it was Hauppauge-Smithtown’s 19th consecutive victory in Suffolk County swim meets, a streak that dates back to March 25, 2021.

The HASM team set the tone in the very first event, the 200-yard medley relay, as the senior twin sisters and team captains Makayla and Morgan Lee, senior captain Madison Dominger and eighth grader Julia Lucca finished the race in 1:57.92. They were the only quartet to swim this event in less than two minutes. It was the first of an 11-event sweep of non-diving events for the girls who are from Smithtown East and West as well as Hauppauge.

Makayla Lee would go on to win the 200-yard individual medley, and Morgan Lee won the 100-yard butterfly. Sarah Lucca, only 13 years old, was victorious in the 50-yard freestyle, and senior teammate Sofia Burns won the 100-yard freestyle. Makayla would notch another win with Sarah Lucca, Olivia Chiofolo and Grace Bruder in the 200-yard freestyle relay, besting her sister Morgan, who was on the second-place foursome with Burns, junior Mary Schroeder and freshman Avery Wilcox. The margin of victory was barely more than one second.

“As a twin, it is always a competition with Morgan,” Makayla Lee said. “I beat her in that relay, but she is faster than me in other events. We are always pushing each other to be the best we can be.”

The Huntington-based team, which competed as HHWJ and is also known as HESHH (Huntington, Elwood, South Huntington and Harborfields), is now 2-2 in county meets and gave the state champs a push as well. They took the diving event, with Walt Whitman senior Venusmarlu Stewart taking home first place with 196.28 points; Ava Vandor, a sophomore from Harborfields, was second and HASM sophomore Caitlin Fleece finished third.

Between the two teams, there were 26 Suffolk County qualifying times — 21 of which were earned by HASM. The Lee twins, who attend Smithtown High School East, earned five of those. However, Makayla is not satisfied with just Suffolk County qualifiers.

“For me, I did not perform as well as I could, but I’m hoping to improve and qualify for states in our upcoming meets,” she said.

HHWJ got a strong performance in the 200-yard medley relay, finishing second with the foursome of Maria Petkovits, Catherine Muller, Julia Somers and Anna Knutson. Their time of 2:08.20 beat the county-qualifying time by three seconds. 

Sophomore Samantha Williamson snuck in just under the one-minute mark in the 100-yard freestyle to qualify for counties with a time of 59.88. After she was done on the diving board, Vandor along with Williamson, Knutson and Angelina Cuthbertson swam a 1:52.57 in the 200-yard freestyle relay which was good for fourth, earning them the right to go compete at Stony Brook University, where the Suffolk County championships will take place later this fall.

Vandor loves every aspect of competitive swim meets.

“The whole environment of these swim meets is like no other,” Vandor said. “It is truly the best feeling to cheer on your teammates, push each other and race our hardest in the pool. Great teams like Hauppauge-Smithtown drive our competitiveness, and many of us had personal bests at this meet. We did great, and I’m so proud of my teammates.”

HHWJ had another chance to compete, against William Floyd, Oct. 3 (results too late for press time) and HASM will battle the combined forces of Half Hollow Hills and Kings Park Oct. 5.