Conference crown for Hewlett swimmers

The Hewlett High School varsity girls’ swimming and diving squad came together as a team in an individual sport to capture the program’s first conference championship in 10 years with an overall record of 8-1.

This Conference III crown was won with a combination of the entire team (36 swimmers) buying into coach Cary Epstein and assistant coach Betsy Tilin’s philosophy that second and third place finishes are just as important as first place due to the points system used in meets.

Combining senior leadership by three captains, strong performances in meets, especially against East Meadow and having the luxury of two divers, the team surpassed its expectations to earn a No. 4 seed in this week’s Division B swimming competition.

“Once Cary and I started to see that we had a championship team we started getting jazzed up and experimenting with the lineup,” said Tilin, a Woodmere Middle School teacher’s assistant, who has coached the team for nine years. “Our girls started to not only think about first place, but that second and third do matter equally and they really believed it.”

Epstein, a former Hewlett swimmer who now teaches at the high school, and Tilin pushed the girls and the team responded as senior captains, Sydney Elder, Ramsha Ansari and Rachel Verderosa took what the coaches said and echoed it in the locker room.

“It is different when you hear (what the coaches say) from your own peers,” said Ansari, who swims the 400 and 500 freestyle. “They take what we say to heart.”

Elder and Verderosa, who both swim the 100 backstroke and 400 freestyle relay, agreed that everyone got involved and cheered everyone on. Elder also swims the 200 and 400 freestyle relay.

Points in their meets came in waves from a crop of strong swimmers, including juniors and three-year varsity swimmers Melissa Usdan, Rita Redko and Jenni Rogoff.

Usdan, who swims the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle, also pointed to winning the East Meadow meet as the season’s turning point for the team. “We didn’t know we would have such a good team, but we talked about this big meet and we were so excited when we beat them, it was such a rush, then we took Port Washington and Oceanside.”

Doing what Redko called the “dry land workout,” lifting weights three times a week and in the “insanity” of the cardio workout, she said is what has also lifted the team to those second and third place finishes.

“We are working really hard and right after the East Meadow meet it was motivating and we saw our dream was attainable,” said Redko, who swims the 50 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay.

The coaches’ ethos was burned into the team and Rogoff, who swims the 200 and 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay, noted that it was a mental battle as well as a physical fight during the races. “You had to really get your head into the race to help your team and get those points,” she said.

Diving sisters, junior Jenna Kurz and freshman Jessie Kurz, helped the team by taking events (meets are comprised of 12 events) and winning the occasional forfeit, when other teams didn’t have a diver. Tilin credited junior boys’ diver Michael Frost with improving the siblings’ technique.

Beyond the winning will be the memory of accomplishing this goal, said Epstein, a former Hewlett swim captain, who was part of a conference champion team. “When you win a conference championship the banner is up there for life and that is something that is very special,” he said.