Hauppauge-Smithtown relay team: Rinse and repeat!

The 200-yard medley relay has become Hauppauge-Smithtown's “specialty,” girls swimming coach Sean Montalvo said.

The team made up of Julia Lucca, Sofia Burns, Sarah Lucca and anchor Mary Grace Waring earned first place with an All-American consideration time of 1:44.71 at the state championships on Nov. 18 at the Webster Aquatic Center. The win helped Hauppauge-Smithtown secure second place overall at the meet.

“The medley relay has kind of been our thing,” Montalvo said. “This is the second consecutive year we’ve won it.”

For Sofia Burns and Sarah Lucca, it was a familiar feeling. They both were members of last season's team,which was the first to win a state championship in relay for Hauppauge-Smithtown. Their All-American consideration time was 1:45.33. 

“We lost one of our seniors who helped us a lot last year,” said Sarah Lucca, Julia's twin sister. "So this season we worked especially hard on training for the relay, and I’m so glad we were able to win it again.”

Hauppauge-Smithtown finished the regular season undefeated, and so did the medley relay team. Although this relay team has competed together almost a dozen times this season, there was one thing about the state championship relay that was different from the rest. “Believe it or not, that Saturday was the only time we used that order of swimmers,” Montalvo said.

Throughout the season, Montalvo experimented with the order of his swimmers in the medley, using different swimmers on different strokes. “We’ve tried different variations all season, and we were still able to win every time,” Burns said. “This helped us figure out who was the fastest at which stroke and put everyone in the right order. ”

With Burns and Waring graduating, both Julia and Sarah Lucca are hoping to continue the winning streak.

"We're really going to miss our seniors," Sarah Lucca said. "Hopefully we'll be able to make them proud and win it again next year."