Capping off a remarkable winter of activity, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team took possession of the Section III Class A championship last weekend.
In the familiar setting of Nottingham High School, the Red Rams used its prowess on the diving board to earn the decisive margin Sunday morning and post 375 points, beating Auburn, who was second with 352 points.
Later that day, J-D/CBA nearly trumped that effort by winning the overall sectional championship, only to come up two points short in the final race of the evening.
Clayton Sutton and Mihali Tzetzis earned two of the top three spots in the diving competition, both of them earning trips to the state championship meet March 2 and 3 at Erie Community College in Buffalo.
Sutton won the title with 439.75 points, well clear of Trevor Herzog (Liverpool), who was second with 396.10 points. Behind them, Tzetzis earned 356.50 points and also topped the state qualifying standard of 343.89 points.
J-D/CBA earned that Class A title in a meet shortened to two days, and pushed back, by all the winter snows that kept many teams from traveling on Thursday and Friday, forcing postponements.
Together, the Red Rams, along with Auburn, had little trouble dethroning Liverpool after the Warriors’ 10-year reign as overall champions. But their battle with each other was a classic by itself.
It started in the 200 medley relay, where the Maroons were second (1:44.50) and the Rams’ quartet of Jack Fletcher, Tyghe Speidel, Dan Farchioine and Bryan Daley finished fourth, in 1:45.29.
Gradually, the Rams would assume the lead, as Mike Daly finished fourth (1:50.64) and Scott Thieke took eighth (1:54.13) in the 200 freestyle.
Speidel was seventh in the 200 individual medley (2:08.65), while Paul Romano (22.79 seconds) and Matt Lowery (22.93 seconds) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle.
Romano returned for a fifth-place finish in the 100 butterfly (57.24 seconds) as Lowery was eighth and Farchione ninth. Daly needed 50.33 seconds to finish seventh in the 100 freestyle.
Now neck and neck in points, J-D/CBA and Auburn went to the final leg of the 200 freestyle relay dead even, thanks to Lowery, Daly and Thieke. Romano could not keep up with Sean McNamara, though, as the Rams finished second in 1:30.71 and the Maroons (1:30.36) came out in front.
Fletcher finished eighth in the 100 backstroke in 59.79 seconds. When Speidel grabbed second place in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:03.51, the Rams now had 289 points, to Auburn’s 285, with one race to go.
Simply put, the Maroons had to beat the Rams in the 400 freestyle relay — and it did so. Despite a brave effort, Daly, Romano, Thieke and Lowery could only post 3:21.13 as the Maroons, in a time of 3:16.53, prevailed and claimed the sectional title.
