SYRACUSE – When its 64-meet win streak was snapped by Liverpool in September, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls swim team absorbed the blow, then proceeded to win the rest of its regular-season meets.
Now the Hornets went after something more important – namely, maintaining its streak of Section III Class A titles, which it managed to accomplish with the Warriors having to settle for the runner-up spot.
During Wednesday’s sectional meet at Nottingham High School, F-M steadily made its way to first place and stayed there, ultimately picking up 379 points. Liverpool finished with 330 points, barely ahead of Cicero-North Syracuse (324) for second.
And it began right away when the Hornets’ 200-yard medley relay team of Kate Milson, Elise Wratney, Cecilia Cao and Georgia Langan went one minute, 52.73 seconds to beat out C-NS (1:55.42) for the top spot.
That was just the start for Langan, who in the 50 freestyle would qualify for the Nov. 18-19 state championship meet at Webster with her winning time of 24.81 second as Cao finished third in 25.86.
Then, in the 100 freestyle, Langan won a close battle with West Genesee’s Maddie Owczarzak, her time of 55.32 seconds just ahead of Owczarzak’s 55.66, with Samantha Roddy fifth in 59.41.
Wratney would prevail in the 100 breaststroke, her 1:07.26 part of a decisive 1-2-3 Hornets sweep as Cao got to second place in 1:12.41 and Lillian Fowler was third in 1:14.09.
Also, Wratney took second in the 200 freestyle in 2:00.02, behind the 1:57.42 from Baldwinsville’s Eva Smith as Samantha Roddy (2:05.49) got seventh place.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Wratney, Langan, Cao and Reyna paired up, finishing in 1:43.56 to get second place behind Oswego-Mexico’s 1:42.37.
Milson finished third in the 200 individual medley in 2:24.49, while Gabby Dardis (2:29.42) gained eighth place before she took fourth in the 100 backstroke in a season-best 1:05.41.
Grace Reyna, in 5:47.21, edged out Milson (5:47.46) for sixth place in the 500 freestyle as Reyna, Roddy, Milson and Kelly Liu were fourth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:58.50.
About the only thing F-M could not quite accomplish was adding the George Falwell Cup handed out to the winner of the sectional state qualifier that took place on Friday night at Nottingham.
In a battle not decided until the final race, F-M, with 268.5 points, finished behind New Hartford’s winning 277 as the Spartans claimed this meet for the first time since 2005.
Still, Langan won the 50 freestyle in 24.96 seconds over the 25.37 from Skaneateles’ Elizabeth Springer as Cao got fourth place in 25.87. In the 100 freestyle, Langan went 55.26, second to the 52.85 from New Hartford’s Katie Lester.
Wratney, who was second in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.47 to Smith’s 1:55.06, would finish in front in the 100 breaststroke, her 1:06.65 qualifying for the state meet and beating the 1:08.12 from Jamesville-DeWitt’s Gwen Lister as Cao was sixth in 1:12.42.
Together, Langan, Wratney, Millson and Cao went 1:52.51 in the 200 medley relay, edged by New Hartford’s 1:52.26 and just short of the 1:52.35 needed to reach the state meet.
But in the 200 freestyle relay Reyna joined Langan, Wratney and Cao and, with their time of 1:41.13, beat the 1:41.69 needed for the state meet, even as again it was a close second, this time to Oswego-Mexico’s 1:40.92.
Dardis went 1:04.82 in the 100 backstroke to land in seventh place. Millson was seventh in the 200 IM in 2:27.96 and ninth in the 500 freestyle in 5:41.88.
