ONONDAGA COUNTY – In their last meets prior to the holiday break, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys swim teams ended up with contrasting results.
A close meet between the Northstars and West Genesee Wednesday night at Nottingham High School went 94-91 in the Wildcats’ favor a day after the Warriors, improving to 3-0 on the season, handled Syracuse City 104-69.
Nothing between C-NS and WG was settled until the closing 400-yard freestyle relay, when the Wildcats, down 87-84 going into that race, had its top team put together a time of three minutes, 40.38 seconds, well clear of the 3:49.80 from the Northstars’ Ryan Lasher, Sean Loughlin, Lukyn Burak and Jake Griffin.
Again winning two individual races, Griffin put together a 22.03 seconds in the 50 freestyle that qualified him for March’s NYSPHSAA championships at Ithaca College as Keil was second in 24.03. Then Griffin won the 100 backstroke, his 56.34 topping the 58.80 from the Wildcats’ Ryan Goshow.
Caden Griffin was victorious in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.93 to Sean Putnam’s 2:01.44 for WG as Lasher was third and Bryson Duncan fourth, this before he won the 100 butterfly in 56.05 seconds.
Griffin had joined his brother, along with Leo Alexander and Brandon Keil, to win the 200 medley relay in 1:44.65 to WG’s 1:47.49, with Lasher joining Alexander, Keil and Griffin to take the 200 freestyle relay in 1:37.77. Keil edged Goshow, 52.51 seconds to 52.57, in the 100 freestyle as Lasher finished third.
Nate Ornoski won the diving event with 263.10 points as Carter Canastra was second with 225.20. Alexander was second in the 200 individual medley in 2:23.01, with Reece Balduzzi second (1:12.36) and Alexander third (1:12.46) in the 100 breaststroke.
Liverpool had gone through a far less stressful meet with Syracuse, where it won each of the 12 events on the card, again with Jack Cavallerano at the forefront.
On his own, Cavallerano claimed first place in the 50 freestyle in 22.77 seconds and went 59.74 to dominate the 100 freestyle. Collectively, he joined Joe Lisi, Nate Alexander and James Hayden to take the 200 medley relay in 1:44.95 and, with Alexander, Tristan Vang and Sean O’Neil, won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:36.79.
Alexander and Lisi also won two individual events apiece. Swimming in the 200 freestyle, Lisi claimed first place in 1:53 flat, later winning a thrilling 100 breaststroke in 1:05.33 to edge the 1:05.83 from Syracuse’s Badr Aly.
As for Alexander, he was first in the 200 IM in 2:17.75, well clear of Vang’s 2:25.61, before he won the 100 butterfly in 57.66 seconds as Hayden (59.88) also broke the one-minute mark.
Colin Gridley amassed 248.55 points in diving. Ryan Vann, in 56.87 seconds, edged Syracuse’s Marcus Strout (57.69) in the 100 freestyle as the Warriors had the quickest 400 freestyle relay time of 3:49.99.
