With a complete assault on its own record books, the West Genesee boys swim team emerged as Section III Class A champions during last Thursday’s sectional gathering at Nottingham High School.
At the same time, Westhill’s Dan O’Connor, who has competed with Nottingham since his own school doesn’t have a team, dominated a pair of individual events.
The Wildcats finished with 387 points, taking the top spot as Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (322 points) held off Liverpool (318 points) for second place.
In all, WG shattered six school records in the Class A meet alone, including the 200 medley relay, where Ben Seketa, Pat O’Connell, Kyle Crompton and Carson Elias put together a time of 1:35.69 to beat Auburn (1:39.39) by a comfortable margin.
Seketa was only getting started, too. He set a second school mark in the 200 freestyle, winning that event in 1:45.71, a second and a half better than Baldwinsville’s Chris Cadwell as Connor Agen (1:51.27) finished sixth.
Then, in the 100 breaststroke, Seketa engaged CBA/J-D’s Tyghe Speidel in a terrific duel, winning that contest, 59.48 seconds to Speidel’s 59.67, and breaking a third school record in the process.
Elias was fourth in 1:01.89, but he would later set his own school mark in the 100 butterfly in 51.96 seconds, nudged out at the wire by Auburn’s Lucas Zelehowsky (51.88 seconds).
O’Donnell broke two school records. He swam the 100 backstroke in 52.07 seconds and it took Auburn’s Patrick O’Donovan breaking a Section III mark with 50.15 seconds to beat him. In the 200 individual medley, O’Donnell’s clocking of 1:58.76, another school record, put him in fourth place.
WG would also prevail in the 200 freestyle relay, where Elias, Seketa, Crompton and Rob Kotheimer posted a time of 1:29.76. Crompton swam the anchor leg and got to the wire 0.12 seconds ahead of CBA/J-D.
On his own, Crompton finished second in the 100 freestyle in 48.17 second and third in the 50 freestyle in 22.04 seconds. Agen was third in the 500 freestyle in 4:56.80. Tim Gallivan (54.82 seconds) and Kotheimer (55.61 seconds) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 100 butterfly as Josh Byrne accumulated 366.15 points for sixth place in diving.
As for O’Connor, he ripped through the 200 individual medley in 1:57.13, holding off Zelehowsky (1:57.79) for the top spot, but the real show came in the 500 freestyle.
Pulling far away from his rivals in this longest of sectional events, O’Connor posted a winning time of 4:36.88, which beat J-D/CBA’s Eric Jorgensen by more than 19 seconds.
Everyone will be back at Nottingham on Saturday for the overall sectional meet, where WG will seek team honors against the likes of Mexico, the unbeaten OHSL chamipons who easily won the Class B sectional title.
Look for the full story in next week’s The Advocate.
