By TONY BELLISSIMO
Senior co-captain Andrew Mininsky won the 50-yard freestyle (23.75 seconds), placed second in the 100 free (53.19), and swam on the winning 200 medley (1:46.53) and 200 freestyle (1:36.42) relays, while senior co-captain Tim Salter won the 100 backstroke (58.20) and also swam on the 200 medley relay as the Marines capped a perfect 11-0 regular season.
The kids are very excited. They did a tremendous job, Coach Woody Davis said. We still have the counties to go and that's a whole different ballgame. But we're the conference champs and nobody can take that away.
Long Beach set the stage from the opening event of the meet, the 200 medley relay. The Trojans were favored, but the Marines pulled out the win to jump to a quick lead. Salter swam the first leg, followed by junior Todd Rubin, junior Trevor Hughes and then Mininsky.
They stacked the race and we stacked the race, Davis said. Normally I wouldn't do that. I'm usually more conservative. But I went for broke and it paid off.
Junior Victor Stoyanov won the 200-yard freestyle (1:52.68), 100 free (51.33), and swam the anchor legs on the 200 and 400 free relays, sophomore Mike Demerest took the 100 breaststroke (1:10.06) and senior Chris Griffin won the diving (194) for Long Beach, which won nine of 12 events.
We're still a young team, Davis said. We only have five seniors and while they all did a great job, the underclassmen really came through.
In addition to Mininsky and Stoyanov, Griffin and Demerest swam the 200 free relay and Hughes and senior Adam Alpren swam the 400 relay. Senior Miguel Ochoa came up big in the 200 free, placing second behind Stoyanov.
The Marines have come on especially strong as of late, and their late-season victories over Cold Spring Harbor, Hewlett and Garden City make them a solid contender for the county championship. Long Beach has captured four of the past six crowns.
In beating Hewlett on Jan. 25 by a convincing 121-65 margin, Stoyanov won the 200 free (1:55.14) and the 500 free (5:11.60), and Griffin scored a 234.90 to beat defending county champion David Edelstein by 3.85 points. Freshman Eric Gonzalez won the 50 free (24.42) and the 100 backstroke (1:02.44) in the Marines' 102-67 triumph over Cold Spring Harbor on Jan. 18.
Our toughest matches were these last few, so we're heading into the counties feeling pretty good about things, Davis said. The states are about a month away, so we still have a long way to go.
The next hurdle for Long Beach is the Nassau County team championships, Feb. 7-9, at the Nassau Aquatic Center in East Meadow. Great Neck North is the defending champion. The Marines last won the title in 2000.
