ONONDAGA COUNTY – Only two meets into the season the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys swim teams would get to face one another.
As before, it would go in Liverpool’s favor, a 97-88 decision over the Northstars Thursday night with Jack Cavallerano at the forefront thanks to his four victories in individual and relay races.
Twice, Cavallerano put up state meet-qualifying times, going 21.94 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle to beat Sean O’Neil’s 23.26 and then tearing through the 100 butterfly in 52.52, leaving behind a strong 57.45 from C-NS’s Leo Alexander.
Before all this, Cavallerano helped Liverpool’s 200-yard medley relay team go 1:46.42 well clear of C-NS’s 1:54.02. In the 200 freestyle relay Liverpool took it in 1:41.46 to beat the Northstars’ 1:46.28.
Ryan Vann won twice for Liverpool as his 2:03.80 dominated the 200 freestyle before he swam the 500 freestyle in 5;31.85 to beat out the Northstars’ Anthony Aloi (5:36.76).
James Hayden earned his own pair of titles for Liverpool. First, he went 2:09.29 to win the 200 individual medley over the 2:13.11 from the Northstars’ Leo Alexander, and then in the 100 backstroke Hayden won in 58.80 seconds, with Ryan Lasher (1:04.81) second for C-NS.
To cap off this effort, Liverpool swept the top two in the 100 breaststroke thanks to Bryce Shutts prevailing in 1:10.92 and Jake Knapp taking second in 1:18.26 edging the 1:18.50 from C-NS’s Lukyn Burak.
Where C-NS did pile up points was in diving, where it went 1-2-3 at the top thanks to Nate Ornoski winning with 261.30 points edging the 259.70 from Chris Koegel and 257.35 from Carter Canastra.
In a close 100 freestyle C-NS’s Brandon Keil went to the front and won in 51.23 seconds edging O’Neil (51.76) for the victory. The Northstars also had Bryson Duncan finish second in the 200 freestyle and won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:42.40 as Liverpool (3:46.72) was close behind.
C-NS had opened its season two days earlier, meeting Pulaski at the Nottingham High School pool it still uses as a home venue, and earning a 92-72 victory over the Blue Devils.
Alexander led the way, going 2:12.55 in the 200 IM to pull away from Logan Tyo (2:34.62) before a 500 freestyle where Alexander prevailed in 5:21 flat to Keil’s 5:49.33. Alexander, Keil, Tyo and Sean Loughlin put up 1:42.53 in the 200 freestyle relay.
Burak won the 100 butterfly in 1:11.42 before he swam the 100 breaststroke in a top time of 1:18.51, beating Tyo’s 1:21.23. Lasher went 1:03.94 in the 100 backstroke with Koegel second in 1:09.46.
To start a relay sweep Byrak, Lasher, Duncan and Aloi claimed the 200 medley relay in 2:04.49, while Aloi, Alexander, Loughlin and Lasher posted 4:00.59 in the 400 freestyle relay.
In a diving sweep Ornoski got 288.90 points, beating the 253.90 from Cananstra and 236.45 from Koegel. Keil did take the 200 freestyle in 1:55.71, while Aloi beat the field in the 100 freestyle in 59.53 seconds.