SYRACUSE – A lively race is unfolding in Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division boys swimming with Liverpool undefeated, but the likes of Baldwinsville and West Genesee also off to strong starts.
Of course, what mattered a lot to the Warriors was having bragging rights over its rivals from Cicero-North Syracuse – which it maintained Wednesday night in a 103-80 decision at Nottingham High School, still serving as the Northstars’ home venue.
A particular highlight of this meet was the sprint battles between the best swimmers on both teams. In the 50-yard freestyle, it was Jack Cavallerano winning for Liverpol, going 22.34 seconds to beat the 22.52 from Jake Griffin and 22.92 from Caden Griffin.
From there, Cavallerano went on to take the 100 butterfly in 53.96 seconds to Caden Griffin’s 57.16, but Jake Griffin rebounded in the 100 freestyle, going 50.38 to get away from Warriors teammates Nate Alexander (52.47) and Sean O’Neil (52.51).
Taking eight of the 12 events on the card, Liverpool got it going in the 200-yard medley relay when Tristan Vang, Bryce Shutts, James Hayden and Ryan Vann finished in 1:53.69 well clear of C-NS’s 2:12.86. Hayden would add a third in the 100 butterfly.
Vang would go 1:09.89 to win the 100 breaststroke, closely followed by Nate Alexander (1:13.43, who beat out C-NS’s Leo Alexander (1:14.29) for second place.
Swimming the 200 freestyle relay, Cavallerano, O’Neil, Alexander and Joey Lisi won in 1:33.77 to the 1:36.09 from Leonardo Alexander, Brandon Keil and the two Griffins. To complete a relay sweep, that same Liverpool quartet won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:42.05.
A 1-2-3 Warriors sweep of the 200 medley relay had Lisi pull away and, in 2:06.17, take the win over Shutts’ second-place 2:19.14 and Vang getting third place in 2:22.69. Then Liverpool repeated it in the 500 freestyle, piling up points as Shutts got the title in 5:35.57, beating out Vann’s 5:39.05 as Jonah Keyes was third in 6:16.90.
Lisi would add a 100 backstroke title in a quick 56.36 seconds, Hayden getting second in 1:01.90 ahead of Ryan Lasher’s 1:03.50 for C-NS.
In the 200 freestyle, the Northstars prevailed when Keil, who was fourth in the 100 freestyle, went 2:00.83 to beat out the 2:04.15 from Vann as Sean Loughlin was third in 2:15.31.
Another great battle unfolded on the diving board, where the Northstars had Nate Ornoski pick up 256.45 points to hold off a great effort from the Warriors’ Colin Gridley (243.25), with Carter Canastra (205.20) third and Chris Koegel (189.40) fourth for the Northstars.
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The first of two key league showdowns for Liverpool comes next Tuesday when it hosted West Genesee as C-NS, that same night, meets Fayetteville-Manlius at the Nottingham pool.
