Though up and down throughout the autumn, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls swim teams both finished the regular season Wednesday night by adding to the win column.
In the Warriors’ case, it meant beating Oswego 99-84 to clinch a winning record of 5-4, while the Northstars topped the combined Syracuse city squad by a 95-87 margin.
Liverpool’s Madeline Murphy swept the sprints against the Buccaneers. She swam the 50 freestyle in a swift 25.51 seconds, her best time of the season, and added a 100 freestyle victory in 56.42 seconds as Renee Stromski (1:00.91) was second.
Madison Sestak also won twice, beating the field in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.32 and, in the 100 breaststroke, edging Oswego’s Mariah Metcalf, 1:15.13 to 1:15.23.
A close 200 freestyle race saw the Warriors’ Madison Hall, in 2:07.89, hold off the Bucs’ Kalia McClelland, who was second in 2:08.74. Ashley Zemotel was second in the 200 individual medley (2:31.40) as Jesse Cain won the diving competition, 171.3 points to Kelsey Austin’s 170.4.
The Warriors also won a pair of relays, as Sestak, Hall and Stromski joined Mikayla VanSlyke to help fend off Oswego, 1:50.19 to 1:50.51, in the 200 freestyle relay. Earlier, Murphy, Sestak, Zemotel and Olivia Corlett cruised to an easy 200 medley relay victory in 2:01.96.
Moving to the CNS meet at Notttingham, Emily Altier and Nicole Blidy both notched a pair of wins early in the meet. Altier swam the 200 freestyle in 2:08.41 and added a 100 freestyle time of 59.08 seconds, while Blidy took the 50 freestyle (27.02 seconds) and, in the 100 butterfly, prevailed in 1:08.42.
Kim Morris jumped in, too, beating the field in the 200 IM in 2:32.58 as Stacey DeCarr prevailed in diving with 154.25 points. Blidy, Altier, Kayla Massena and Breanna Ruffrage worked together to swim the 200 freestyle relay in 1:50.01.
Both CNS and Liverpool make their way to Nottingham next Wednesday to begin work in the Section III championships, which run through Nov. 5 and set up the qualifiers for the Nov. 18-19 state meet at Erie Community College in Buffalo.
