For the second year in a row, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team proved to be deeper, tougher and more talented than anyone else in the Section III Class A field.
The annual sectional meet at Nottingham consists of two parts. First, team and individual titles in Class A and B are determined. Then the two sides join together to determine overall titles and to see who advances to the state meet.
Mastering the first part last Thursday night, J-D/CBA (owners of a 41-meet win streak) repeated as Class A champions, earning 345 points to prevail in a tough three-way battle. West Genesee was second, with 320 points, while Auburn earned third place with 299 points.
In every event, the Red Rams earned multiple points for high finishes. Eric Jorgenson tore through the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:49.30 to beat Baldwinsville’s Elijah Langlois (1:50.26) by nearly a full second. Scott Thieke was fifth, in 1:51.48.
And in the diving competition, James Luttinger took over, earning 389.70 points to edge out Fayetteville-Manlius’ Jonnie Beach (382.85 points) for the title. Tim Beach (338.30 points) was second for the Hornets.
J-D/CBA also piled up points in relays, finishing third in the 200 medley (1:42.15), 200 freestyle (1:34.46) and 400 freestyle (3:22.78) events in a terrific show of consistency.
Tyghe Speidel gave J-D/CBA points when he finished second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.37, an event where Russ Farchione (1:06.75) took seventh place. Speidel was also fifth (2:04.34) in the 200 individual medley.
Jack Fletcher earned third place in the 100 backstroke in 57.58 seconds as Dan Farchione (1:00.23) and Garrett Farchione (1:00.59) were seventh and eighth, respectively.
As Jorgenson finished sixth in the 500 freestyle (5:02.71), Thieke swam his way to fourth place in the 100 freestyle, in 50.12 seconds.
West Genesee nearly matched J-D/CBA’s effort, with several great performances.
One big highlight came in the 200 freestyle relay, where Kyle Crompton, Carson Elias, Rob Kotheimer and Patrick O’Donnell needed every bit of their talent to win a thrilling duel with Liverpool.
All the way to the last stroke, the issue was in doubt, as the Wildcats and Warriors touched the wall in what looked to be a dead heat. When the times went on the board, WG had 1:30.75, Liverpool 1:30.76 — the Wildcats had prevailed by one-hundredth of a second.
Indiviually, Crompton tore through the 100 freestyle in 48.44 seconds, good for second place behind Auburn’s Pat O’Donovan (47.56 seconds), named the Class A meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer. Also, Crompton took third place in the 50 freestyle in 22.36 seconds.
Elias, for his part, got third in the 100 butterfly in 53.73 seconds and also took sixth (22.96 seconds) in the 50 freestyle. Tim Gallivan was sixth in the 100 butterfly in 57.26 seconds.
Ben Seketa swam to fourth place in the 200 freestyle in 1:51.33, with teammate Connor Agen in sixth place in 1:52.22. Seketa was also fourth (1:03.17) in the 100 breaststroke, where Gallivan (1:05.70) was sixth.
Agen fared better in the 500 freestyle, swimming to third place in 4:59.66, and also landed a sixth (1:52.22) in the 200 freestyle.
O’Donnell got second place in the 100 backstroke in 55.16 seconds and took sixth in the 200 individual medley (2:04.38) and Jeff Mancuso finished fifth in diving, accumulating 343.85 points.
Westhill’s Dan O’Connor, who competed with Nottingham this winter, dominated the 500 freestyle, blazing to a time of 4:44.99 to beat Liverpool’s Jeff Rapp (4:57.47) by more than 12 seconds.
O’Connor also took second place in the Class A 200 individual medley in 1:58.71 as another Auburn star, Lucas Zelehowsky, won in 1:56.23.
Liverpool, which had dominated Section III boys swimming for a decade, still had high results, including Chad Miller finishing second in both the 50 freestyle (21.96 seconds) and 100 butterfly (53.30 seconds).
All of these stars will be back at Nottingham Saturday, competing for overall Section III titles and trips to next month’s state meet.
