SYRACUSE – Already this winter, Skaneateles sophomore Gavin Van Kersbergen had, through his quick times in two different events, earned a trip to Ithaca College in March for the state boys swimming championships.
But Van Kersbergen, who competes in the regular season with Weedsport, wanted to get better, and the opportunity to do so came this week at Nottingham High School during the Section III championship meets.
It started in the Class C meet on Wednesday night, where Van Kersbergen’s pair of wins helped Weedsport finish second overall with 333 points behind Cooperstown’s 374.
In the 100-yard butterfly, Van Kersbergen had gone 52.45 seconds in the regular season. At the sectional meet, he posted 52.88, easily ahead of the second-place 59.21 from Sherburne-Earlville’s Amon VanAlst.
Then there was the 100 backstroke, where Van Kersbergen’s regular-season 54.64 seconds only trailed the 54.15 from Cooperstown’s Tom Hellenthal. But with Hellenthal only competing in sprints (he was second to Weedsport’s Nolan Craner in both the 50 and 100 freestyle), Van Kersbergen rolled to a win in a season-best 54.22.
Elsewhere for the Lakers, Liam Byrons finished third in the 500 freestyle in 5:15.39, not far from the winning 5:14.37 from Lowville’s Zane Metzler, adding a fourth in the 200 freestyle in 1:56.09. Jacob Gordon got fifth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.38.’
Van Kersbergen carried his success over to Friday’s sectional state qualifier where, facing large-school competition, he nearly won both of his specialties again.
The 100 backstroke saw Van Kersbergen set a new school and season mark with 52.23 seconds, needing it to hold off the 52.65 from Liverpool’s Joey Lisi, while in the 100 butterfly Van Kersbergen improved to 51.95, beaten only by Lisi’s teammate, Jack Cavallerano, who won in 50.94.
Back on Wednesday, in the sectional Class A championships, West Genesee finished seventh in an 11-team field with 191 points, led on an individual basis by freshman Gavin Flanagan.
In the 500 freestyle, Flanagan finished in 5:05.78, beating everyone in the field except Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy’s Misha Kabunov, who pulled away to win in 4:56.42.
Over in diving, WG’s Seth Burlingame had an 11th-place finish in Class A on Feb. 10, finishing with 273.20 points. Teammate Anthony Kotlyarov was 13th with 229.50 as Central Square’s Truman Reminicky won with 506.05.
Moving to the state qualifier two days later, WG had Flanagan go 5:09.25 for fifth place in the 500 freestyle and swam the 200 freestyle in 1:54.73, one of many strong efforts from the Wildcats.
Flanagan helped WG finish seventh in the 200 medley relay in 1:43.68 and eighth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:33.19. David Martin, in 2:14.34, beat out Sean Putman (2:15.14) in the 200 individual medley, both of them season bests, and then went to seventh in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.35.
Ryan Goshow followed Van Kersbergen in the 100 backstroke, making his way to fifth place in 55.20 seconds, less than half a second from the state qualifying standard of 54.82, while going 23.16 seconds for 11th place in the 50 freestyle.
