Central swimmers set sights on Jericho

They might not know it, but members of the Jericho boys’ swim team have targets on their backs. The Bellmore-Merrick Sharks tied Jericho last season, and fell to the squad by two points in a meet this year. The Sharks now say they’re hoping for a different outcome the next time the two teams meet, at the county championships in February. They want to win.

The Bellmore-Merrick swim team is 6-2, having lost only to Great Neck South and Jericho. The squad faces Garden City on Friday in a meet that head coach Rob Kaefer said he anticipates winning. The confidence to beat Garden City to end the season comes from a handful of upperclassmen who have led the team for the past few years. The older swimmers are confident they’ll have a good chance of beating Jericho next time.

Mepham junior Austin Kowalsky has long been a standout for the Sharks, winning nearly every event he swims. “He just dominates in all strokes except breaststroke,” Kaefer said. Kowalsky has already qualified for the state championships in the backstroke and butterfly and holds the records in those events for the Sharks.

Kowalsky, who has set a number of Nassau County records, will be back for one more season, but Bellmore-Merrick has a group of seniors who will be missed next year. Dan Elliot, a Calhoun senior, is the team’s strongest breaststroker and individual medley swimmer. Max Krakow, a Kennedy senior, is a strong sprinter, dominating in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. Krakow is also Kennedy’s valedictorian.

Anthony Arana, a Calhoun senior, rounds out the group of upperclassmen who frequently swim the 200-yard freestyle relay. Kowalsky, Krakow and Elliot swam the event last year at the state championships, and they said they hope the addition of Arana can get them back to the states. But they are focused on beating Jericho in the county championships first.

Krakow spoke about how the team was focusing on putting together strong 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays to take down Jericho, rather than relying on just one strong relay team. “We’re going to try to come back in county championships and get that second place in counties that we’ve been striving to get,” he said.