Caption: The Rye combined team finished fourth in the league. They’re joined by coaches Katie Konopka and Kelly Johanson at the right.

 

Rye /Rye Neck/Blind Brook Boys’ Swimming

Garnets Take Sprint Relay, Finish Fourth Overall

By Mitch Silver

 

Head Coach Kelly Johanson brought the 11 boys on her combined Rye team (seven swimmers from Rye High, three from Rye Neck, and one from Blind Brook) to White Plains High School Saturday morning to decide the league title in what’s formally known as the Section 1 Conference 2 Championships.

 

Hampered by a short bench and the lack of a diver for most of the season, Rye acquitted itself well, coming in a close fourth overall with 250 points, well behind titleist Byram Hills but just five in back of the Lakeland/Panas/Putnam Valley team.

 

The locals took gold in the 200-yard freestyle relay, dropping their best time for the season by more than four seconds to finish in 1:32.57. Anchored by Blind Brook senior co-captain Jack Vecsey in 22.53 seconds, a swim that would have earned the team 16 points had it swum in the individual 50, the quartet—including the other senior co-captain, Will O’Connor, and sophomores Geoffrey Lien and Dylan Spencer—just touched out a Lakeland foursome by 35 hundredths of a second.

 

The same four Rye swimmers took bronze in the longer freestyle relay, covering 400 yards in 3:30.11, chopping six seconds off their pre-meet time. Lien and Vecsey finished third and fifth, respectively, in the individual 100 freestyle, with Lien coming back to grab fourth in the 200 free. Spencer came in fourth in the breaststroke and joined O’Connor, Lien, and Vecsey to touch seventh in the medley relay.

 

In addition to the above-named swimmers, senior Christian Lawrence has qualified for Monday’s Sectionals in the 50 free.

 

After the meet, Coach Johanson was already looking ahead to Sectionals. “We’ll have five boys in the pool. I think we’ll make a good showing.”