Start strong, finish strong, and hope to do enough in between to rack up enough points.
That, in brief, was the way it went for the Baldwinsville girls swim team in Wednesday night’s trip to West Genesee. With the CNY Counties League regular-season title on the line, the Bees swam well, but it wasn’t enough to topple the Wildcats, who prevailed by a score of 95-83.
It was always going to be a tall assignment, B’ville trying to prevail at West Genesee’s home pool and trying to end the Wildcats’ 22-meet win streak. And afterthe first event, WG did go out in front, and would stay there.
B’ville took a quick lead by winning the opening event, the 200 medley relay. Cassandra Cherebin did the breaststroke, Charis Parker handled the backstroke, Allie Connor swam the butterfly and Kaitlyn Martin got through the freestyle, all in 1:57.90, leaving WG (2:01.64) far back in second place.
Each of the next three events followed a pattern. The Wildcats would win, and the Bees would always get second place. Parker took second in the 200 individual medley (2:23.10), Martin did the same in the 50 freestyle (26.50 seconds) and Amanda Johnson, in 2:14.10, claimed the runner-up spot in the 200 freestyle.
After WG went 1-2 in diving (points that would prove valuable later), it was Connor’s turn for a second-place effort, swimming the 100 butterfly in 1:05.20.
Two events later, in the 500 freestyle, Martin finally earned B’ville’s first individual title, winning in 5:40.60, more than eight seconds ahead of the Wildcats’ Abby Mullett.
B’ville’s quartet of Parker, Connor, Martin and Elena Margrey got to second place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:54.10 as WG prevailed, further stretching out its lead. Samantha Sidorakis got second place in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.24, just behind WG’s Shannon Cahalan (1:05.58).
Parker would roar to first place in the 100 breaststroke in a clocking of 1:09.51, one of the season’s best times. Johnson, Sidorakis, Margrey and Lauren Guild won the 400 freestyle relay in 4:13.02, but WG had already clinched top honors.
Olivia Castro led the host Wildcats, swimming the 100 freestyle in a pool-record 53.35 seconds (the best time in Section III this season) and also claiming the 200 IM in 2:17.93 ahead of Parker. Cahalan, in addition to the 100 breaststroke, took the 100 butterfly.
