The Rye – Blind Brook Swim and Dive team earned a huge win over New Rochelle – Bronxville on Friday, January 23, capping the season with a 91-88 victory. The Garnet Trojans celebrated senior night at Hommocks pool with a clutch win in a tense rivalry meet.
“Today, prior to the start of the meet, we celebrated our 4 seniors: Henri Von Homeyer (Rye), Sami Jazbeh (Blind Brook), Austin Frankel (Blind Brook), and George Papaioannou (Blind Brook),” Head Coach Katie Konopka proudly told MyRye.com. “The win today was a full team effort.”
The festivities began with Finn Hansen placing second overall in the diving competition, and were highlighted by another instance of the three relay teams placing first. In such a close meet, every placement point mattered a little bit extra.
Charlie Thigpen continued a late season resurgence with two individual victories, once in the 100M butterfly and again in the 100 backstroke. Wilson Redd also won two short-distance events, the 50 and 100 free, swimming a personal best time in those heats. Nick Stocks won the longer 500 free, followed closely by Liam O’Byrne in second.
In terms of seniors, it seemed all four swam with extra motivation given the circumstances. Von Homeyer raced to two new PRs in the 200 individual medly and 100 breaststroke. Jazbeh notched a new best time in the 100 fly, and Frankel did so in the 200 free. Papaioannou placed second for crucial points in the 100 fly, only outpaced by Thigpen.
Other Garnet Trojan swimmers who established new personal best times were O’Byrne and Tipu Ghosh in the 50 free, Michael Hamlet in the 100 back, and Filip Glitterstam in the 200 IM. Overall, it was almost certainly the best team effort of the season for Konopka and her squad, especially on senior night against a challenging opponent.
Rye – Blind Brook finishes the 2026 regular season 4-4 and 4-3 in the new combined teams league. They will have the conference championship meet to look forward to in the near future, and will aim to send as many representatives to sectionals and potentially states pending future results.
