Long Beach relays eye records

Though Long Beach settled for runner-up status to Garden City at the Nassau County boys’ swim championships, the Marines continued their dominance in the 200 freestyle relay with a title-winning performance.

Senior Matt Cannon, sophomore Ryan Aroesty, sophomore Aidan Kennedy and junior Troy Morris completed the relay in 1-minute, 29.15 seconds to earn the county championship in the event Feb. 11 at the Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park. 

Aroesty and Morris also placed second in individual events to help Long Beach rack up 349 points. Garden City, which lost to the Marines during the regular season, took home the team title with 407 points. Syosset finished third with 323.

“We had a nice regular season and county meet, and we’re still not done,” Long Beach coach John Skudin said. “We have all three relays headed to states.”

Cannon, Aroesty, Shane and Troy Morris comprise each of the relays (200 free, 200 medley and 400 free) and have their sights set on breaking the school records in each of them, set in 2008 by strangely enough, the same four kids (Tim Corrigan, Tim Cabasino, Kyle Swan and Matt Weis) at the Aquatic Center, the site of this year’s state meet on March 3-4.

“There are some similarities and the kids are aware of it,” Skudin said. “They’ve been focused on the relays for a year. All four of them are sacrificing an individual event to swim all three relays.”

While breaking all three school relay records isn’t farfetched, the coach said, the one most likely to be challenged is the 200 free which stands at 1:26.80. Cannon, Aroesty, Morris and Morris came within 1.5 seconds at the Eastern States meet on Jan. 21.

“Nothing is out of reach,” Skudin said. “The state meet is in a pool we’re very familiar with and we don’t have to travel.”

The 400 free relay placed third in the county meet in 3:15.62. In the 200 medley, Shane Morris, a senior, handles the opening leg (backstroke), Aroesty swims the breaststroke, Cannon works the butterfly, and Troy Morris is the freestyle anchor. Individually, Aroesty will swim the fly, and Shane and Troy Morris are in the 50 free.

In the county meet, Aroesty picked up second in the 200 Individual Medley and was fourth in the 100 fly, while Shane Morris was runner-up in the 100 backstroke and third in the 50 free, and senior Jack McDonnell finished fifth in diving. Earlier in the season, Morris matched the school record (21.29 seconds) in the 50 free.

Long Beach enjoyed an 8-1 dual meet record, including a 98-88 upset victory over Garden City at home on Jan. 17. The 100 backstroke proved the difference, with Shane Morris, junior Dylan Harrington and freshman Argun Gupta finishing 1-2-3. “It was really fun,” Skudin said. “We hadn’t beaten them in a really long time.”