A few weeks early, the Baldwinsville boys swim team got to compete and race in the very same Nottingham High School pool to which it will return Feb. 16 and 18 with the Section III championships and state meet berths on the line.
This result proved quite successful as the Bees, by defeating the combined Syracuse City team 99-76 Thursday night, improved to 7-1 with just one regular-season meet left, B’ville visiting Oswego on Feb. 7.
Against Syracuse, things started for B’ville when Evan Bohmann, Nick Schultz, Ryan Hiltbrand and Alex Hiltbrand got together in the 200-yard medley relay and grabbed first place in one minute, 49.16 seconds.
A 1-2 finish followed in the 200 freestyle, with Ryan Hiltbrand roaring to victory in 1:58.08 and Jamus Socker getting second place in 2:09.69. Bohman would beat the field in the 200 individual medley, finishing in 2:18.25 to edge Syracuse’s Robert Briscoe (2:18.34) at the wall.
In the 50 freestyle, Alex Hiltbrand got his turn at the top, winning in 23.65 seconds as Brandon Formoza was second in 24.87 seconds. Yet another 1-2 finish came in the 100 butterfly, where Jonathan Oad posted 1:01.50 and Socker, in 1:04.42, got his second runner-up finish of the meet.
Prevailing for the second time, Ryan Hiltbrand roared to victory in the 100 freestyle in 53.74 seconds, with Bailey Ludden third in 57.43 seconds. John Licciardello edged Alex Hiltbrand, 5:14.47 to 5:14.65, as the pair nearly hit the line together in the 500 freestyle.
Bohman earned his second win in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.37, with Oad second in 1:04.53. Schultz posted the fastest 100 breaststroke time of 1:05.39 as, in the 200 freestyle relay, Formoza, Licciardello and the Hiltbrand brothers won in 1:38.99. Oad, Bohman, Socker and Ludden swam the 400 freestyle relay in 3:50.40.
