SYRACUSE – A few days into 2025 the Fayetteville-Manlius boys swim team might have all the wins it needs to ultimately finish on top of the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.
The 3-0 Hornets clashed with 4-0 Baldwinsville last Friday at Nottingham High School and would pull out a 93-84 victory over the Bees with Jack Prendergast taking part in three winning efforts.
Superior depth helped F-M, who accumulated enough points for victory with three races left on the card.
Prendergast swam the 200-yard freestyle in one minute 50.87 seconds as Silas Kligerman (2:00.96) finished third. He also pulled away in the 500 freestyle to win in 5:17.33, with Kligerman (5:33.14) grabbing the runner-up spot.
In the 200 freestyle relay that clinched team honors Prendergast, paired with Vlad Roman, Derick Wang and Alex Kim, finished in 1:35.81 to top B’ville’s 1:39.07.
Going 1-2 in the opening 200 medley relay the Hornets had Roman, Kim, Neil Adamski and James Cao win in 1:48.39 with Anthony Bottar, Branden LeRoy, Ben Prendergast and Connor Kelly second in 152.10.
Another F-M sweep in the 50 freestyle had Wang win in 23.05 seconds and Roman get to second place in 24.66 edging out B’ville’s Adrian Clay (24.81) for that spot.
Cao won a tight 100 backstroke, his 1:01.66 just ahead of the 1:03.13 from the Bees’ Owen Nizar. Roman was second in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.46, beating out Kim (1:02.50) in third.
Wang’s time of 52.76 seconds in the 100 freestyle was runner-up to Alex Nicita’s 50.78 for the Bees, with Cao third (53.12) and Michael Wilson fourth in 55.21. Adamski (1:05.06) chased Clay (1:04.03) in the 100 breaststroke.
Ben Prendergast was second (2:16.72), Bottar third and David Park fourth in the 200 individual medley, with Connor Cuddy second in diving, beating out Dylan Wang in third and Aiden Burke in fourth.