All the work that the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt boys swim team has done has led to what happens late this week – and beyond.
Come Thursday, the Red Rams will venture to the Section III Class A tournament at Liverpool. Then it will venture to SUNY-Cortland Saturday for the overall sectional meet, with the top finishers advancing to the Feb. 27-28 state championships at Ithaca College.
But it will do so already having the Class A diving championship in its possession, thanks to Alex Dieroff, who won a duel with teammate Matt Wanamaker when the top Class A sectional divers gathered Saturday at Liverpool.
Dieroff and Wanamker traded the lead throughout the 11 dives. When it was done, Dieroff had 473.5 points, less than five points ahead of Wanamaker’s 469.05 points.
And it was a 1-2-3 sweep at the top for the Red Rams because Kyler Harrington made his way to third place, earning 399.6 points. Another J-D/CBA diver, Ryan Evans, finished seventh, picking up 337.2 points.
Before all that, J-D/CBA, fresh off its win at the Jan. 31 Onondaga High School League meet, ventured to New Hartford to make up a meet postponed in mid-January.
Here, the Rams beat the Spartans 96-84 to finish its regular season with a 12-2 mark, and the meet included plenty of top individual efforts.
Dan McGann prevailed twice, starting in the 200-yard freestyle, where he claimed first place in two minutes, 3.58 seconds. Then, in the 100 freestyle, McGann won again, in 54.05 seconds.
To cap off his day, McGann paired with Corey Knapp, Jeff Gabriel and Sargon Bebla as J-D/CBA made it to first place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:41.15.
Casey Sawyer, who won three times at the OHSL meet and set a Mexico pool and meet record in the 100 butterfly, won here in the 50 freestyle in 24.66 seconds. He also paired with Connor Evans, Matt Schultz and James Lynch in the 200 medley relay, where J-D/CBA prevailed in 1:50.76.
Knapp was victorious in the 200 individual medley in 2:16.67, with Spencer Sutherland going 5:38.39 to get first place in the 500 freestyle. Dieroff needed 262.9 points to win the diving competition.
A day later, Fayetteville-Manlius met New Hartford and lost, 96-86, to the Spartans. Chris Rettinger led the Hornets as he won the 100 freestyle in a swift 51.75 seconds, and later took the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.59 for another victory.
Matt Beach picked up 255.35 points on the diving board, while the Hornets’ 200 freestyle relay team, composed of Rettinger, Alex Mihalia, A.J. Dowthwaite and Henry Dowthwaite, prevailed in 1:43.84. Mihalia, Rettinger, A.J. Dowthwaite and Michael Araujo won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:55.96. F-M’s 2-11 record includes a 101-87 victory over Syracuse on Jan. 23.
