The Dalers boys swim team qualified for finals in 8 of 12 events at the Nassau County Championships in February enroute to a sixth place finish. It was the team's best result at the meet in nearly five years.

"The team started a bit slow during the dual meet season," said Coach Bob Clark. "But, over the course of the year everyone improved and the team came together. This was one of the best championship performances we've had in quite a while."

Farmingdale was led by senior co-captain Ross Pye, who earned all-county honors with a third place finish in the 100-yard freestyle, and all-conference honors in the 50-yard freestyle. Pye also anchored the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay, leading both relays into the finals and top five finishes in both races.

"Ross has had a great career here," said Assistant Coach Ken Ilchuk. "He's been an all-division performer the past four years, all-conference the last three years and was named to the all-county team this year. He's won two conference championships and appeared in more than 10 county finals. He's been our captain the past two years and has done a great job. He'll be very hard to replace."

Another high point in the meet came in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Team co-captains Andrew Broten and Chris Padden, junior Rich Psillos and sophomore Nick Orofino finished in fifth place and broke the school record in the process. All four swimmers were instrumental throughout the meet. Broten was a member of the fourth place 400-yard freestyle relay, as were Padden and Orofino, and finished in the top 15 in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard breaststroke. Padden finished 19th in the 100-yard freestyle while Psillos finaled in the 200-yard medley relay and finished 10th in the one meter diving event. Orofino was a key member of both freestyle relays and also finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly.

Junior Ben Howell, a member of the medley relay, finished 16th in both the 200 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke, and sophomore Shawn Clarkson also swam the medley relay and placed 19th in the diving event and 20th in the 100-yard backstroke and also scored points in the Dalers effort.

Farmingdale finished 10th in the championships last season, and began this year as the number eight seed in Nassau County. So the sixth place finish was marked improvement and could be a sign of good things to come.

"We can build on this," said Clark. "It will be tough. We lost Pye, Padden and Broten, plus several other seniors. They were strong competitors and strong leaders. But we have a lot of talent returning. Nick Orofino, Ben Howell, Rich Psillos, Shawn Clarkson, those guys, along with a lot of the other young guys on the team will have to learn from this season and keep it going for next year. They've competed on a high level and succeeded. We know they can do it. We just have to keep improving."