All of the preliminaries were over and, following a 10-1-1 regular season, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team is set for this week’s Section III championships at Nottingham High School.
It actually got underway last Saturday with the sectional Class A diving competition, one dominated by the Red Rams’ duo of Lucas Dekaney and Ryan Evans.
By earning 470.50 points, Dekaney not only won the competition, he earned a trip to the state championship meet in March at Nassau Aquatic Center on Long Island because he easily surpassed the state qualifying standard of 450.0 points.
Every bit of that effort by Dekaney was needed because Evans was right behind him in second place with 469.45 points, having already qualified for the state meet earlier this season.
West Genesee’s David Puma was third with 388.25 points as Fayetteville-Manilus diver Isaiah Haywood was ninth with 296.70 points, with the Hornets’ Connor Gleasman 14th. Dekaney, Evans and Haywood all advanced to Wednesday’s overall sectional finals.
Prior to that, J-D/CBA had one more regular-season meet, against Auburn, last Thursday night, and the Red Rams rolled to a 74-63 victory over the Maroons.
Warming up for the sectional meet, Dekaney earned 281.95 points on the diving board, just ahead of Evans (273.10 points) as Evan Blust was third with 173.40 points.
Spencer Schultz would tear through the 200-yard freestyle in one minute, 51.85 seconds to edge Auburn’s Sam Carbonaro (1:53.21) while also winning the 100 freestyle in 51.02 seconds.
Chris Bushnell covered the 100 butterfly in 57.72 seconds and edged Owen Farchone, 1:13.35 to 1:14.33, in the 100 breaststroke, though Farchione was victorious in the 200 individual medley in 2:20.46.
Conlan Rourke claimed first place in the 50 freestyle in 24.55 seconds over Kaleel Boykins (25.43) and swam the 500 freestyle in 5:43.39, well back of Carbonaro, who won in 5:09.12.
Liam Kaplan had the quickest time of 1:06.59 in the 100 backstroke and paired with Boykins, Rourke and David Chen to take the 200 medley relay in 1:55.20. Michael Sizing joined Hatton, Boykins and Chen in the 200 freestyle relay as J-D/CBA posted 1:41.81.
