On the same Wednesday night, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse’s boys swim teams both emerged with high-quality wins.
In the Warriors’ case, it was particularly sweet, as it hosted a strong team from Oswego and, with its superior depth, gained the points to beat the Buccaneers 99-84.
Right away, Liverpool gained a key edge in the 200 medley relay, where Troy Miller, Liam Henry, Marc Alessi and Garrett Clarke finished in a time of 1:49.65, holding off Oswego (1:50.98) as the Warriors also took third in 1:56.41.
In fact, Liverpool swept the relays. Dan Hens, Drew Henry, Brian Alsever and Nick Burdo got together and, in the 200 freestyle relay, pulled away for a top time of 1:35.36. In the 400 freestyle relay that closed the meet, Burdo, Clarke, Hens and Drew Henry held off Oswego, 3:31.54 to 3:32.87.
Individually, Dan Roche had a superb showing on the diving board, amassing 283.67 points. Burdo won the 200 freestyle in 1:53.39, with Henry second (1:58.34), while Hens rolled to a 500 freestyle victory in 5:15.63.
Burdo added a second (58.96 seconds) to the Bucs’ Reeve Callen (56.23 seconds) in the 100 backstroke, while Henry swam the 100 freestyle in 52.29 seconds, second to Callen’s blistering time of 48.62 seconds. Miller claimed the runner-up spot in the 100 butterfly (1:03.72), where Oswego star Drake Becksted zoomed to a time of 51.68 seconds.
Liverpool would prevail again on Friday, in a non-league meet against New Hartford, putting together a 95-86 victory over the Spartans.
It started when Clarke, Burdo, Hens and Drew Henry blistered through the 200 medley relay in 1:43.15, and followed with Hens taking the 200 freestyle (1:53.78), Clarke beating the field in the 200 IM (2:13.46) and Burdo needing exactly 23 seconds to win the 50 freestyle.
Roche again excelled on the diving board, earning 274.05 points as Ethan Stallcup and Joe Whaley were second and third, respectively. Burdo returned to get another title, in the 500 freestyle (5:18.17), with Hens, Clarke, Alsever and Carl Tsang winning the 200 freestyle relay in 1:39.74.
As this went on, C-NS met the combined Syracuse city squad at Nottingham High School, and earned a 95-88 victory by piling up early titles.
Billy Werksman, who recorded 249.65 points in the diving competition, also prevailed in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.41. He also teamed with Ben Mozo, Tim Hahn and Ricky Blackburn as C-NS took the 200 freestyle relay in 1:39.29.
On his own, Mozo swam the 100 butterfly in a top time of 1:02.93, and added a second in the 50 freestyle in 24.06 seconds. Hahn earned his title in the 200 freestyle in 2:03.74 and was second in the 500 freestyle, with Blackburn holding on to claim the 100 freestyle in 54.97 seconds.
Sean Cooley took second in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.63), with Zach Dengos third. Dengos, Joe Woznica, Marc Halbritter and Andrew Nutter got second in the 200 medley relay in 2:06.71.
