Thursday, October 1, 2026
Four-event qualifier Shane Morris headlines a group of six Long Beach swimmers headed to the New York State boys’ championships in Buffalo on March 4-5.
Morris, a state qualifier last winter, helped the Marines’ 200 freestyle relay to the Nassau County title earlier this month while finishing runner-up in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke. “He’s a very talented swimmer and a great athlete,” Long Beach coach John Skudin said of Morris, a junior who leads off a relay anchored by his younger brother, Troy, a sophomore, and includes junior Matt Cannon and senior Thomas Ryan. “Shane’s first sport is lacrosse, so to be doing what he’s doing in the pool is great,” he added.
The relay is ranked No. 13 in the state, Skudin said, and he’d like to see it stay in that position through the preliminaries. “Starting off with Shane, he gives us some open water,” he said. “We have a strong history in the 200 free relay. Over the last 10 years, we’ve won a state title and also finished second and in the top five. The margin for error is very small. Only two seconds separates the top 24 schools. We can’t do anything about the other teams, we can only worry about ourselves.”
Shane Morris is ranked No. 12 in the state in the 100 backstroke and has a personal best of 52.48 seconds, set in the county meet with limited recovery time from the 200 free relay. He’s ranked 17th in the 50 freestyle (21.67).
In the 200 medley relay, which also met the state qualifying time and placed third in the county meet, Morris will swim the backstroke leg. He’s followed by freshman Ryan Aroesty (breaststroke), senior Michael McCarthy (butterfly) and Troy Morris (freestyle). Troy is also Long Beach’s top diver.
“Troy did a nice job for us on the board,” Skudin said. “He finished fifth in the county in diving.”
The medley relay is ranked No. 24 in the state and has a chance to break the school record, Skudin said. “We’ve flip-flopped personnel a little bit,” he said. “It’s an event where we really started to jell towards the end.”
Aroesty enjoyed a strong county meet with fifth-place finishes in the 100 fly and 200 individual medley. “He’s only going to get better and better as he learns to channel that youthful energy,” Skudin said. “He’s had a big year.”
Cannon has been a consistent scorer in freestyle events, and Skudin believes his time can drop at the state meet. “He has a lot of speed,” the coach said.
Long Beach (371 points) finished third in the county meet, held Feb. 3 and 6 at the Aquatic Center in Eisenhower Park, behind Garden City (433) and Syosset. “We were fired up,” Skudin said. “With three events to go, it was a four-point meet. We just weren’t as deep as Garden City or Syosset in the end, but it was pretty exciting. Everyone swam personal bests.”
