The inaugural Salt City Athletic Conference boys swimming championship meet held last Saturday at Nottingham High School would feature a landmark effort from Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA backstroke specialist Chris Bushnell.
Competing in the 100-yard backstroke, Bushnell tore to victory in 53.07 seconds, breaking the program record of 53.72 seconds set by Tom Nowakowski 14 years ago.
In doing so, Bushnell beat Liverpool star Tom Griffin (54.88) by nearly two full seconds as his teammate, Owen Farchione, claimed third place in 56.30 seconds.
J-D/CBA also went 1-2 in the diving competition, where Lucas Dekaney, earning 435.70 points, bettered his previous season-high effort of 421.85 and needed to do so since Ryan Evans was a close second with 432.2.0 points. Evan Blust finished 11th.
Bushnell and Farchione, joined by Spencer Schultz and Nathan Chen, would also get a state-meet qualifying time of 1:40.04 in the 200 medley relay, ahead of the 1:40.64 standard and just behind Liverpool’s winning 1:39.51.
Schultz, who had gone as fast as 52.62 seconds in the 100 butterfly this winter, won the event here in 53.90 seconds as Farchione was second in 56.85 seconds and Nathan Chen was sixth in 1:01.71. Schultz took third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.51, with David Chen fifth in 1:04.65 and Nathan Chen (1:07.26) seventh.
Another victory for Bushnell came in the 200 individual medley, which he claimed in 2:03.50, more than two seconds ahead of the field Bushnell, Schultz, Farchione and David Chen were second (1:32.77) to Liverpool (1:29.56) in the 200 freestyle relay.
Fayetteville-Manlius also swam at the SCAC meet, with Tanner Eisenhut getting fourth place in the 200 IM in 2:13.08 behind Bushnell as he also notched sixth place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.74.
Miguel Aldana was fifth in the 500 freestyle in 5:47.31 and Jordan Krouse (5:54.71) was seventh. Nate Montgomery was eighth (24.17 seconds) and Michael Araujo ninth (24.37) in the 50 freestyle.
Isaiah Haywood took seventh place in the diving event as Richard Wan was seventh in the 200 freestyle and eighth in the 100 backstroke as Tristan Wellner took ninth in the 100 butterfly and Montgomery 10th in the 100 freestyle.
Richard Wan, in 1:05.48, got eighth place in the 100 backstroke. The Hornets were sixth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:53.98 and seventh in the 200 freestyle relay and 10th in the 200 medley relay.
In some years past, J-D’sCBA’s meet against Liverpool had a bit more cachet to it. But that wasn’t the case in last Wednesday’s edition as the Red Rams could not overcome Liverpool’s vast depth and took a 100-81 defeat.
Even here, J-D/CBA had some bright spots, especially Schultz’s effort in the 100 butterfly. In 53.68 seconds, Schultz was a close second to Liverpool’s J.J. Ross won the race in 53.64 seconds.
Bushnell hinted at he would do later in the week in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 54.65 seconds to meet the state qualifying standard of 54.82 seconds, but just behind Griffin, who won in 54.29 seconds to go with his victory in the 50 freestyle.
In the diving competition, Dekaney pulled away to win with 255.05 points and Evans was second with 185.35 points.When it came to the races, though, the Rams only won twice, seeing Bushnell take the 200-yard IM in 2:05.13 and then claiming the 400 freestyle relay in 3:55.55 long after the team event was settled.
Schultz, in 1:04.72, was just behind Liverpool’s Johannes Vorbach (1:04.03) in the 100 breaststroke, while Conlan Rourke was second in the 200 freestyle. .
