For a long time now, the Christian Brothers Academy girls swim team flicked aside the challenge offered by its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt.
But with a deeper roster and a fierce determination to change the old order, the Red Rams put a serious scare into the Brothers Thursday night, the meet going to the final event before CBA could pull it out by a 95-91 margin.
Of the first 11 events, the Brothers won eight of them. However, J-D used a string of second and third-place efforts to balance out the points and lead going into the closing 400 freestyle relay.
Just in case, though, CBA its best swimmer, Summer Schmitt, for that event. She, along with Maggie Fletcher, Courtney Finkbeiner and Kendall Sangster, would post a time of 3:57.04 that beat J-D’s best side by more than 15 seconds.
That was merely the last part of a masterful performance from Schmitt. In both the 200 individual medley, which she won in 2:12.01, and the 100 butterfly, where she prevailed in 57.85 seconds, Schmitt set J-D pool records. She also helped Fletcher, Lexy McCauley and Kathryn Coughlin tear through the opening 200 medley relay in 1:53.28.
On her own, Fletcher won twice, too, tearing through the 100 freestyle in 54.42 seconds and claiming the 100 backstroke in 1:03.38. Coughlin took first in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.14), while Finkbeiner won the 500 freestyle in 5:50.30.
J-D countered with the efforts of Molly Hair, who won the 200 freestyle (2:05.96) by a comfortable margin, was second in the 100 breakstroke and teamed with Morgan Pusey, Kalie Coyne and Amanda Behan to beat CBA, 1:47.07 to 1:47.85, in a tight 200 freestyle relay.
The Rams also went 1-2 in diving, Danielle Doss winning with 210.30 points as Taylor Cook (192.05 points) was second. Coyne got second place in the 200 IM (2:18.14) and 100 butterfly (1:01.68) behind Schmitt, while Pusey was second in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Sophia Farchione claimed second in the 100 backstroke.
While all this was going on, Fayetteville-Manlius had its own tight and competitive opener, but lost to Liverpool 93-90 at the Nottingham High School pool where the Hornets have home meets.
Just like J-D did against CBA, the Hornets kept it close with a long series of second and third-place finishes to make up for the fact that the Warriors won most of the races.
Katie Pechacek, though, did break through in the 200 freestyle, blazing to a time of 2:05.43, and she also dominated the 500 freestyle, winning in 5:32.99. To end the meet, Pechacek teamed with Caroline Wilson, Morgan Way and Juile Barger to win the 400 freestyle relay in 4:05.69.
Madison Sestak (100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke) and Madeline Murphy (200 IM, 100 butterfly) both won twice for the Warriors, leaving F-M at 0-1 as it visits another big power, West Genesee, on Wednesday. CBA pays a visit to Skaneateles after J-D hosts the combined Manlius-Pebble Hill/Westhill squad.
