DEWITT – It was quite a way for the area high school boys swim season to get underway with the area’s two teams going head-to-head and Fayetteville-Manlius emerging with the victory.

The Hornets topped Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy 100-84 last Wednesday night at J-D Middle School, using second and third-place finishes to overcome two wins apiece by the Red Rams’brother duo of Lesha and Misha Kabunov.

In exactly one minute 49 seconds Lesha Kabunov claimed the title in the 200-yard freestyle over F-M’s Jack Prendergast (1:52.58), and followed it up by winning the 100 butterfly in 55.45 seconds, the only competitor to break the one-minute mark.

As for Misha Kabunov, he went 2:10.94 to pull well away from the field in the 200 individual medley and then, in the 100 freestyle, prevailed in 50.40 seconds to Jack Prendergast’s second-place 52.87.

To cap off their day, Misha and Lesha Kabunov joined Jonas Sarmast and Garrett Fuller to go 1:36.08 in the 200 freestyle relay edging a 1:36.55 from the Hornets’ quartet of James Cao, Alex Kim, Derick Wang and Jack Prendergast.

A high-quality diving competition has J-D/CBA’s Cameron Corona go to the top with 257.95 points, needing that score to hold off a 239.80 point effort from Fuller. Sarmast won the 100 backstroke in 1:02.92.

F-M would counter with all those strong finishes and win a few races, too, including the opener, the 200 medley relay, where Cao,Wang, Neil Adamski and Zach Mangoba were victorious in 1:47.43 to J-D/CBA’s 1:50.51 from Sarmast, Misha Kabunov, Daniel Luo and Ryan Bannon.

Silas Kligerman was victorious in the 500 freestyle in 5:27.78 going 1-2-3 with teammates Zach Winans (5:44.77) and Vlad Roman (5:55.49) as David Park won the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.42 edging Anthony Bottar’s 1:11.12.

The Hornets also had Kim take second in the 100 butterfly and Mangoba second in the 100 backstroke, with Ben Prendergast second in the 200 IM.