Port swimmers finish perfect season

The Island Now

Port Washington Yacht Club Swim Coach Joe Lennon began the summer in an optimistic frame of mind. The swim team hadn’t lost a dual head-to-head meet in three years – running up an impressive 15-0 record in that time. 

The only blemish on the team’s record in the last three years was losing at the multi-club North Shore Swim League championship last August to Douglaston Club by the slimmest of margins. That proved especially tricky for Coach Lennon, as the general manager of Douglaston Club, John Veneziano happens to be the son of Port Washington Yacht Club’s general manager, Pasquale Veneziano. Familial relations have helped push the intense, but good-natured rivalry between the two clubs to new heights each season. Coach Lennon was intent on bringing the championship trophy back to PWYC and his boss this season.

Lennon and his coaching staff of Emily Tierney, Anne Johnson, Kade Kenlon and PWYC Pool Director Jill Kennedy spent their time teaching and training younger swimmers through the first weeks of the season.  Coach Johnson was working tirelessly teaching the future core of the team;  teaching body position and the proper techniques of all four strokes.  Her time and dedication paid off with some impressive swimmers contributing in the championship season.  

Coach Kenlon worked with the advanced younger swimmers, building off the work done in lane one by Johnson and began to increase the number of laps done in practice.  Coaches Tierney and Kennedy worked with the largest group, teaching 9- and 10-year-old swimmers proper stroke technique by using various drills.  This slow and deliberate method made PWYC swimmers more efficient in their swimming and group posted many finalist swims at champs. Lennon worked to both teach and train the older swimmers, including time spent working on starts, turns and finishes, learning new drills and sprinting. Coach Lennon believes the older swimmers are a huge reason why the entire team performed so well this summer. 

“Their presence on the deck, at practice and at meets, shows the younger swimmers that if they keep it up, success does follow,” he said.

The season began with PWYC hosting the North Shore Swim League relay carnival, a fun event that gets all the teams and swimmers excited about their swim seasons.  There was a great turnout and a tremendously energetic crowd (and team).  The team prepared for the first away contest at Strathmore-Vanderbilt and their endless 100-foot pool, and won handily by more than 100 points.  The team pressed on to meet Sea Cliff Yacht Club, always a tough competitor with many older swimmers.  Port swimmers dug in and were victorious by a 76-point margin.  

By then, the coaches and team began to think that another spotless dual meet season was possible and even probable. That is, of course, if they could come through against their fiercest rival and most difficult challenge: Douglaston Club, a meet with both athletic and personal rivalry.  The excellent and seasoned Douglaston team arrived at PWYC on a drizzly, humid Monday evening and the tension was thicker than the cloud cover. PWYC – Douglaston meets have been decided by single points over the past few years.  It was a fiercely competitive swim meet, again, and in the end after a back and forth meet, Port was again victorious, winning by 18 points. With that challenge met, Coach Lennon was able to give his boss Pasquale a relaxed and confident smile and handshake on the PWYC pool deck the following morning.

Next up was Nassau Country Club on a beautiful Saturday morning at home.  After taking the first five relays, the team knew victory was in the air.  As the meet progressed, Port Washington won each stroke and took a total of 40 first place finishes – out of a total of 50 – and an additional 27 second places to win the meet.  

PWYC then traveled down Plandome Road to Manhasset Bay Yacht Club, long-standing friendly rivals on the bay.  As always, it was a very spirited and competitive contest.  As the meet progressed and Port  swimmers continued to hit the wall first to seal the victory, raising the team’s unbeaten streak in dual meets to 20-0, making it a fourth consecutive undefeated dual meet season.

Finally, on Saturday, Aug. 3, the members of the league met by the pool at Manhasset Bay Yacht Club for the championship meet. Looking forward to the league championships, PWYC swimmers trained hard and got ready for time trials. After trials had ended, Port Washington had 56 swimmers in the finals, more than in years past. PWYC also had 10 highly competitive relay teams and took home gold in two of the five medley relays and three of the five freestyle relays.  Many athletes bettered their personal best times and more importantly, moved up in scoring places.   As the final places were announced, PWYC finished first in the 2013 North Shore Swim League Championships by just nine points ahead of Douglaston Club.  It is the team’s third title in the four-year streak.  

It was a closely fought battle all the way through.  The entire team earned high praise from the coaching staff, but they stressed the contributions of swimmers Annabelle Corcoran, Keller Jacobs, Daniel Jacobs, Cassie Scandalios, Eddie Lennon, Delia Rush, Jack McCusker, Lara McCusker, Kylee Colbert, Spencer Bleifeld, Joe Braunschweiger, Steven Braunschweiger, Paige Theodosopoulos and Will Feigin. 

“Each swimmer improved their endurance and their stroke technique with each practice they made,” Coach Lennon said. “Every week, times dropped with each race they swam.  We saw frequent and drastic movement along our top 10 lists.  We also saw many of our swim team records fall. It was an incredible season. Also, now that we have the championship trophy back from Pasquale’s son’s club, I can finally relax, but not for long.”

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