Five Fox Lane/John Jay swimmers earn a trip to state championships

Spencer Grayson leaps from the starting block for the 100-freestyle race. Ryan Loveless swims backstroke at Section 1 championships. Henry Dauterman swims breaststroke leg of medley relay event. Andrew Acocella competes in the 500-yard freestyle. Jim MacLean Photos

By JIM MACLEAN 

For the seniors on the combined Fox Lane/John Jay swim team, it was one last chance to compete in the Felix Festa Middle School pool in Clarkstown for the Section 1 championships, and they made the most of the opportunity.

Swimmers converged on the pool from all the Section 1 high schools for the two-day meet with the preliminaries on Monday, and the top 16 swimmers qualified to come back the next day for the finals on Feb. 10.

Fox Lane/John Jay had swimmers qualify for every event in the finals on Tuesday, and the team turned in a number of impressive swims to place in the top 10, and five swimmers earned a trip to the state meet.

“It was a good meet overall, the boys finished with some really fast times,” said John Jay coach Suzanne Guziec. “The relays were so powerful, a little heartbreaking that the medley relay just missed the state cut. For these seniors, this is kind of their last time swimming with their group. They’ve been together for four years, so it’s really kind of bittersweet.”

Three of those seniors will get a chance to swim again as they met the qualifying times to compete at the state meet. 

The team saved its best for the last event as Matija Novakovic, Andrew Acocella, Aidan Polese, and Spencer Grayson teamed up for second-place in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a personal best time of 3:15.19. The team had qualified for the state meet in the preliminaries on Monday with a time of 3:17.86, and they shaved off another two seconds in the finals to finish second.

“It feels great, states are always a fun meet and we’re excited to make it as a team,” Grayson said of the relay going to states. “It’s a great time all around, a great meet, great to be going with the boys. We were fired up and dropped another two seconds and hope we can go faster at states.”

Grayson also qualified for the state meet in the 100-yard freestyle with a fourth-place finish in a time of 48.26. He was also fourth in the 50-yard freestyle event.

Polese qualified for states in the 200-yard freestyle as he was fourth with a time of 1:45.15, and he was right behind Grayson in the 100-freestyle in fifth place.

“It was a good meet, I’m happy with what we did,” Polese said. “The relay, we just have more energy every time we swim it. It will be nice to end it together up at Ithaca for states, a really nice pool and a fun travel trip together, a fun time.”

Acocella will be competing in the relay and two events up at the state meet as he was fifth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:43.26 to qualify, and he was right behind Polese in fifth for the 200-yard freestyle meeting the state cut with a time of 1:47.15.

Senior Ryan Loveless also qualified for the state meet as he was fifth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.75.

“It was a hard meet with some good races, and we put together some good swims,” said Loveless. “It felt great to make the state cut in the 100 back, I didn’t make it in the prelims, so going out and getting it in the finals felt really great.”

Loveless was also part of the 200-yard medley relay team along with Henry Dauterman, Jack Tsai and Grayson that finished third with a time of 1:40.79, barely missing the state cut time of 1:40.67.

Fox Lane/John Jay also had an impressive swim in the other relay event as Tsai, Novakovic, Dauterman and Polese teamed up to finish fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:31.84.

Dauterman earned a pair of top 10 finishes in individual events as he was seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke race with a time of 1:03.58, and he was ninth in 200-yard Individual medley event with a time of 2:04.75.

Novakovic competed in two individual events as the freshman was 11th in the 100-yard butterfly and he was 16th in the Individual medley race.

Tsai was 14th in the 100-yard butterfly, and Loveless was 14th in the 200-yard freestyle event.

Swimmers that qualified will now move on to compete in the New York state championships to be held at Ithaca College starting on Friday, March 6 and finishing on Saturday, March 7.