Having rampaged through their respective leagues, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA and Liverpool boys swim teams met up with each other, head-to-head, on Thursday night at J-D Middle School.
Together, the two powers put together some of the season’s fastest times, and the Red Rams more than held its own, even in a 99.5-86.5 defeat to the Warriors.
Many of these same swimmers are certain to meet up again on Feb. 14 for the overall Section III meet and state qualifier at Hamilton College, so this served as a sneak preview of some of the battles ahead.
Kevin Potocki gave J-D/CBA its first win of the night in the 200-yard individual medley, posting a time of two minutes, 1.51 seconds and pulling away from Liverpool’s Connor Thiel (2:10.75) as Potocki’s teammates, Spencer Schultz (2:15.14) and Luca Bebla (2:21.21), were third and fourth, respectively.
From there, it was on the 50 freestyle, where Cory Knapp, in a state-qualifying time of 21.91 seconds, beat the Warriors’ Liam Henry (22.90 seconds) by nearly a full second, a big margin in a race that short.
J-D/CBA then swept the top four diving spots. Alex Dieroff, closing strong, won with 263.95 points to edge Matt Wanamaker, who was second with 260.45 points. Kyler Harrington (209.55 points) and Ryan Evans (174.10 points) were right behind.
Knapp returned in the 100 freestyle to complete a sprint sweep, going 48.66 seconds (another state qualifying mark) to, again, pull clear of Henry (49.80 seconds) in the runner-up spot as Jeff Gabriel (53.28 seconds) finished fourth.
Then Liverpool won every remaining race, despite some strong showings by the Rams. Potocki swam the 100 butterfly in 54.15 seconds, not far behind the Warriors’ Troy Miller (52.91 seconds), while Schultz took second in the 500 freestyle in 5:15.48, just behind Liverpool star Nick Burdo (5:12.47), with Jack Toole (5:30.21) in third place.
Dan McGann took second in the 100 backstroke in a clocking of 1:01.29, with Owen Farchione (1:03.48) fourth, which left J-D/CBA just three points back with two events to go before the Warriors pulled away.
A big boost for the Warriors was the fact that it swept the relays. Farchione, Schultz, Connor Evans and Colin Howe were second (1:51.29) to Liverpool (1:49.46) in the 200 medley relay, with Potocki, Gabriel, Knapp and Casey Sawyer second (3:25.29) to the Warriors (whose 3:21.84 was 0.02 seconds off a pool record) in the 200 freestyle relay.
And to close out the meet, Burdo, who also came close to his own pool mark in winning the 200 freestyle in 1:45 flat, joined Miller, Henry and Connor Thiel as Liverpool won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:21.84, leaving the Rams’ quartet of Potocki, Sawyer, Gabriel and Knapp second in 3:25.59.
