SYRACUSE – Having established herself as one of the top swimmers in Central New York, Baldwinsville junior Eva Smith continued to add to her win total during the Section III championships at Nottingham High School.
It started with the Class A sectional meet on Wednesday afternoon, where Smith would claim victories in two of her specialties, the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle.
Already having earned a spot in the Nov. 18-19 state championship meet at Webster in the 100 backstroke, Smith’s time of 58.99 seconds here did not quite match her season-best 58.59, but still was well clear of the 1:02.24 from Cicero-North Syracuse’s Kate Gucciardi.
Earlier, in the 200 freestyle, Smith, who has gone as fast as 1:55.89 this season, finished here in 1:57.42, the only swimmer to break the two-minute mark as Fayetteville-Manlius’ Elise Wratney (2:00.02) was second.
Moving on to Friday’s sectional state qualifier, Smith again was victorious in the 200 freestyle against all the top swimmers in the area, her time of 1:55.06 more than three seconds ahead of Wratney’s 1:58.47.
Even more impressive was Smith’s 100 backstroke effort as she set a new season mark with 56.98 seconds, ahead of the 58.93 from New Hartford’s Katie Lester, who also qualified for the state meet.
B’ville, as a team, earned 151 points at the sectional Class A meet, earning seventh place in a 10-team field as, again, Fayetteville-Manlius (379 points) earned the top spot.
In the opening race, the 200 medley relay, Smith, Mia Rinko, Henna Luke and Addison Grosso finished third in a season-best 2:05.10, with Luke later finishing eighth in the 500 freestyle in 5:52.52 to go with her 11th in the 200 freestyle.
Smith, Grosso, Rinko and Makenna Williams went 1:50.81 in the 200 freestyle relay, beating their previous best by more than four seconds and taking sixth place overall. Grosso took 12th in the 100 backstroke in 1:11.67 as Luke, Williams, Ellianna Leggett and Eliza Gramiak were eighth in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:37.27.
Rinko was 12th in the 100 breaststroke (1:19.31) and 14th in the 50 freestyle in 27.53 seconds. Hannah Bidwell took 19th place in the 100 butterfly, with Gwendolen Matt 20th in the 200 freestyle and Leggett 20th in the 100 freestyle.
In the state qualifier, B’ville would finish eighth in the 200 medley relay as Smith, Rinko, Luke and Grosso improved by more than three seconds to 2:02.02. Luke was 13th in the 500 freestyle in a season-best 5:48.49, adding a 17th in the 200 freestyle in 2:09.31.
