A big finish for a big day: Fox Lane/John Jay wins League 3 swim meet title

(left to right) Andrew Acocella, Aidan Polese, Matija Novakovic, and Spencer Grayson had reason to smile after winning the final relay event to lead Fox Lane/John Jay to the League 3 championship. Jim MacLean photos

Henry Dauterman swims breaststroke.

Andrew Acocella leaps from the starting block on his way to victory in the 200-yard freestyle.

By JIM MACLEAN 

They saved the best for last, one final highlight to cap off a big day in the pool for the Fox Lane/John Jay combined swim squad as it pulled away to win the final event of the day in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

And then the team celebrated as the final team scores were announced and Fox Lane/John Jay was officially crowned as the Section 1 League 3 champions Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Ardsley Middle School pool.

In the 400-free relay, Andrew Acocella started it off and took the lead, followed by Aidan Polese and Matija Novakovic, with Spencer Grayson swimming the anchor leg and touching the wall in first place with a time of 3:19.4, a full 12 seconds ahead of the second-place finishers.

“We wanted it pretty bad, and we’re pretty happy with that time,” admitted Grayson after the race. “Our best time by almost nine seconds, so we feel pretty good going into sectionals and I think we can make the state cut, just missed it by a second.”

Ryan Loveless takes off for the start on his way to victory in the backstroke.

It wasn’t just the final relay coming up with a big swim, as the Fox Lane/John Jay team piled up a final score of 424 points overall, far ahead of second-place AHEDI (Ardsley, Hastings, Edgemont, Dobbs Ferry and Irvington) with 388 points, and the rest of the eight-team field.

“It was an amazing meet, we came in thinking we would get second, but the boys came up with great swims from a lot of kids and it all adds up,” said John Jay coach Suzanne Guziek. “The focus was just make the cut for sectionals, so this was an amazing surprise, and the team is so excited. The relays came up big and those points really add up.”

 Spencer Grayson competes in the Individual Medley

Fox Lane coach Laurie Kelleher agreed that it was a full team effort to get the job done against a strong AHEDI squad that had defeated them during the dual-meet season.

“I’m actually shocked, AHEDI beat us by a lot in our dual meet,” said Kelleher. “Spencer is our professional anchor, he has a way of bringing it home for everybody. That relay was a great finish, but it was a real team effort, kids getting points here and there, it was a great day.”

The relay wasn’t the only first-place finish for the FLJJ team as the team had a pair of individual champions. Senior Ryan Loveless was able to win the title in the backstroke finishing first with a time of 54.87.

“A great swim and I was very happy with the time, the backstroke was near the end of the meet, so I knew those points would be big to help us get first place,” said Loveless. “As a team, we’re super ecstatic, we were expecting to come in second, so winning the title by that much was just a great effort from everybody. We all put it on the line and performed great.”

The highlight of the meet for FLJJ was a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard freestyle event. Acocella led the way in first-place as the sophomore touched the wall first with a time of 1:47.65. Polese was right behind in second-place, and Loveless was third.

“I just took it out as hard as I could and held on to the end, didn’t think about the pain,” Acocella said of the 200-free victory. “We were pretty stoked for the relay, just missed the state cut, but we can get it at sectionals.”

FLJJ started off the meet with a second-place finish in the medley relay as Loveless, Henry Dauterman, Jack Tsai and Grayson teamed up for second with a time of 1:40.9. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Tsai, Novakovic, Dauterman and Polese also finished second.

Grayson was second in the 100-yard freestyle, leading a trio of FLJJ swimmers in the top 10 as Polese was fourth and Carlos Fonseca was eighth.

Acocella was second in the 500-yard freestyle with Ethan Sorial in sixth and Liam Bree in eighth. Bree was also 10th in the backstroke to earn points towards the team score.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Dauterman led a trio of FLJJ swimmers in the top ten as he finished third, with Andrew Cosetti in seventh and Sorial in eighth.

Jack Tsai was third in the 100-yard butterfly, with Novakovic in sixth, Kevin O’Donnell in 10th and Kyle Berk in 13th place.

In the 200-yard Individual Medley, Grayson was fifth, followed by Dauterman in seventh, Cosetti in 11th and O’Donnell in 12th place.

And in the 50-yard freestyle sprint race, Novakovic was fifth and Fonseca was eighth to earn points for FLJJ.

Now, the FLJJ team will be sending a lot of swimmers that qualified to compete in the Section 1 championships to be held on Feb. 9 and 10 at the Felix Festa Middle School pool in West Nyack.