It was a race until the last moment. The lead team changed seven times during the meet. The top three teams combined for nearly 1900 points with #2 Garden City, #5 Hewlett and #8 Farmingdale. Then, the final event of the meet, the 400-yard Free Relay, ended in a three-way tie for first place. Unfortunately for the Dalers, they didn't come out on top in that relay and fell 10 points short of their first Division title since 1996.

Garden City won the relay and the meet with 631 points, Hewlett finished second with 625 and Farmingdale finished 3rd with 621. Despite the boys' disappointment at such a close loss, it was a great effort by a young team that could be a force in the county in the very near future.

The Dalers turned in another boatload of personal bests, 30 in all on Saturday, with six additional season-best swims. Farmingdale opened the meet with a 2nd place finish in the 200 Medley Relay. The team of Dennis Peterson (Jr), Dom Boccio (Fr), Roy Seter (Sr) and Jim McCabe (Fr) earned all-division honors with a season-best 1:54.97. Peterson, Sal Risi (Sr), Chris Rogers (So) and Scott Bannon (Jr) finished 4th, 6th, 9th and 15th respectively in the 200 Freestyle to hold on to second place.

Then Farmingdale went on their run. Boccio earned more division honors with a 2nd place finish in the IM, followed by Seter (4th), 8th-grader Joe Reade (7th) and sophomore Brian Rossi (11th) to pull within 16 points of the lead. The Dalers placed another three in the top ten in the next event as junior Kyle Blyman (5th), sophomore Greg Padden (8th), senior Rich Cassar (9th) and McCabe (13th) totaled 56 points in the 50 Free to give their team the lead and a 19-point margin over 2nd place Garden City. Thursday's 56 diving points from all-division sophomore Charlie Psillos (2nd), sophomore Chris Camerlengo (8th), and freshmen Lou Alaimo (11th) and Travis Mazur (12th) extended the Dalers' lead over GC to 57 points, but Hewlett pulled within 16.

Despite personal best swims in the 100 Fly from senior Greg Camerlengo (9th), junior Keith Maca (11th), senior Mike Eckert (14th) and Rossi (15th), the Dalers fell six points behind Hewlett, but held on to second place. They dropped to 3rd after the 100 Free where Psillos was the Dalers' top finisher in 9th place. Farmingdale then mounted a comeback to get back in the meet, placing four swimmers in the top ten of the 500 Free; Risi (4th), Reade (6th), Maca (8th) and Rogers (9th), and finishing second in the 200 Free relay behind Hewlett, the team of Boccio, McCabe, Seter and Blyman earning all-division honors with a 1:37.87, one-tenth of a second off the school record.

Now within eight points of the co-leaders, GC and Hewlett, the Dalers scored another 54 points in the 100 Back on strong swims by Peterson (4th) and Eckert (8th), and personal bests by sophomores Tom Maca (11th) and Rob Kendrick (12th), but dropped 15 points off the lead with two events to go. But the team's four breaststrokers, all of them turning in best times, finished 4th (Boccio), 5th (Seter), 8th (Padden) and 9th (sophomore Dave Piesnikowski) with 66 points to pull into a share of the lead before the final relay.

There were many highlights for Farmingdale during the match. We had one swimmer drop 10 seconds in his 200 Free, another dropped nine seconds in his 100 back. One dropped five seconds in the IM, another shaved four seconds off his 100 breast, and these are times that had already plummeted during the season. The team's hard work and dedication to the program we've put into place has been nothing short of phenomenal. Congratulations to all.