Casey Sawyer led the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team into action during last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Buffalo’s Erie Community College, while Fayetteville-Manlius diver Matt Beach joined them.
In the 100-yard butterfly, Sawyer had gone 51.57 seconds during the season, making him 15th among state qualifiers. But he improved on that time during Friday’s preliminary round, going 51.41 seconds to break the school record, good for 10th place and a spot in Saturday’s place round.
Then Sawyer won his consolation race, improving by nearly half a second, to 50.94 seconds and setting yet another school mark, but though he was faster than two of the finalists, Sawyer had to settle for ninth place. Brighton’s Noah Stevens won in 48.88 seconds.
Sawyer also entered the 50-yard freestyle as the 18th qualifier with his time of 21.75 seconds. Sawyer improved to 21.69 seconds in the qualifying round and moved up to a tie for 15th, again advancing to Saturday, while Watertown’s McLean Crossley went 20.66 seconds to be the top qualifier for the final and earned automatic All-American status.
In Saturday’s final, Sawyer improved to 21.55 seconds and would finish 11th. Crossley would have to settle for third place, having slowed to 20.95 seconds as Jamestown’s Matthew Marsh, in 20.62 seconds, earned the state title.
J-D/CBA was also in two different relays. Luca Bebla, Owen Farchione, Spencer Schultz and Dan McGann were in the 200 medley relay, where the Red Rams had swam to a time of 1:39.64 this winter. Here, though, they would go 1:41.34 and finish 31st overall.
McGann and Schultz joined Sawyer and Jack Toole in the 200 freestyle relay, trying to improve upon its season-best 1:29.71 in that event. It didn’t quite happen, but the Red Rams’ 1:29.82 put them in 21st place and, again, moved them into Saturday’s action, and it posted 1:29.37 for 17th place in the final standings. Half Hollow Hills won in 1;25.94.
Meanwhile, Beach had won the Section III Class A title in diving early last month, And took his total of 502.55 points into competition, where Mexico’s Noah Galuzzo was the top seed.
With 191.25 points, Beach was 17th in the first round, advancing to the semifinals. Here, the top 16 would advance to the finals, but Beach stayed in 17th and finished with 287.55 points, when it took 301.25 advance.
Later, in the finals, West Islip’s Patrick Carter prevailed with 528.40 points, with Galuzzo third, just 2.25 points back, and Brighton’s Corey Neas second, 1.75 points back of Carter.
