Long Beach swimmer Vivienne Zangaro defends her 200 & 500 freestyle crowns

The Nassau County 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle championship medals will not be changing hands this year, as Long Beach sophomore Vivienne Zangaro has taken them home for the second straight year. The only difference between this year’s medals and last year’s is that these required a box of tissues, some cold medicine and lots of fluids to earn.

At the Nassau girls swimming and diving championships on Saturday, Zangaro battled through an irritating cold that has plagued her for the past two weeks. That did not stop her from lighting up the Nassau Aquatic Center, as she defended her individual county titles while also helping Long Beach win a pair of championship relay races.

In the 200 freestyle, Zangaro finished in 1 minute and 49.33 seconds to secure All-American consideration. Later, Zangaro swam a 4:53.33 in the 500 freestyle to double her hardware collection. Despite a pounding headache and some congestion, she fell just 0.17 seconds shy of clinching an automatic All-American honor.

“I’m definitely very happy, and it hasn’t been easy, either,” Zangaro said. “After my 500, I had to go outside because my head just hurt so bad. I’m still very stuffy and everything, so it’s hard. But I’m happy.”

The meet bookended with Zangaro dominating in a team setting, as she was the third leg of Long Beach’s 200-yard medley relay — the day’s first event — and she anchored the squad’s 400-yard freestyle relay, which was the final race. With Zangaro’s help, the Marines won both relays, finishing with times of 1:47.39 and 3:32.43, respectively.

Zangaro was not the only Long Beach underclassman to claim a county championship, as freshman teammate Una Diaz won the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:04.88.

The five total county championship victories was a wonderful gift for Long Beach head coach Lynn Volosevich, as Saturday was her birthday. Right before the 400 freestyle relay, the team  came out wearing cone-shaped party hats and put one onto Volosevich’s head.

“They bring it no matter what,” Volosevich said. “Just when you think they’ve gotten as good as they can, they exceed that. They’re happy and having fun, which is the most important thing to me, and I’m just always so proud of them. I’ve known them since they were little girls, so this is really special for me.”

Herricks junior Natalie Wu won the 50-yard freestyle (24.69) for the second consecutive year, and also added to her career trophy case by taking the 100-yard butterfly (56.09). In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Wu swam the anchor leg for Herricks and led it to a county title, as the team finished in 1:39.39.

“This year, there’s a lot of competition, and I’ve known a lot of these girls the past few years, so it felt good to race next to them,” Wu said. “I think I did pretty good, but it was great to swim with everyone around me and have a great environment. They definitely pushed me.”

In regards to team competition, Syosset captured the championship by scoring a 420.5.

Other individual champions include Manhasset juniors Samantha Anderson and Victoria Wang, Bellmore-Merrick junior Calista Chen and Herricks sophomore Kayra Patan. Anderson won the 100-yard freestyle with a 52.3, while Wang scored a 563.7 in the one-meter diving competition. Chen swam a 55.46 in the 100-yard backstroke to earn All-American consideration. Patan finished with a 1:03.00 in the 100-yard breaststroke to also garner All-American consideration.