From an individual standpoint, the West Genesee girls swim team could not measure up to the stars from Oswego in Wednedsay night’s CNY Counties League first-place duel.
But the Wildcats’ depth led to a string of second and third-place finishes, plus two relay titles, that proved enough for a 100-84 victory over the Buccaneers.
WG carried a 4-0 league record into the meet, with Oswego at 5-0 and fresh off beating Liverpool 97-87 a week earlier, but right from the opening race the Wildcats gained control.
Olivia Castro, a central figure throughout the meet, teamed with Shannon Cahalan, Erin Dowler and Brianna Smith in the 200 medley relay as, in a time of 1:56.79, WG beat Oswego (1:59.91) by more than two seconds.
From there, Castro went right to the 200 freestyle, where in exactly one minute, 58 seconds she recorded the fastest Section III time of the fall in that event, beating the Bucs’ Brenna Riley (2:05.68) by more than seven seconds. To top it off, Castro, in 54.27 seconds, roared clear of Oswego’s Brooke Morrisseau (57.49 seconds) and the field in the 100 freestyle.
In an exciting 200 freestyle relay race, Castro, now teamed with Sinead Guy, Becca Kanoza and Kaitlin Dunning, broke pool record with a time of 1:42.85, but Oswego (1:42.83) won by two-hundredths of a second to set the mark anyway.
That didn’t matter, though, because in the closing 400 freestyle relay, the Wildcats clinched the victory when Guy, Dunning and Kanoza joined Smith for a time of 3:55.39, easily beating back the Bucs, who finished second in 4:00.86.
Other than Castro, Abby Uczen recorded WG’s lone individual title, on the diving board, where she put up 236.5 points to easily outdistance Oswego’s Hailey Ihlow (175.55 points) and finish on top.
Just as important were all of WG’s runner-up efforts. Cahalan was second in the 200 individual medley in 2:21.68, just behind Morriseau (2:20.59), while in the 100 butterfly Cahalan got a time of 1:03.10 to trail the Bucs’ Caitlin Gorton, who won in 1:01.31.
Gorton also won the 100 backstroke, but had to fight hard to hold off Smith, who was second in 1:05.29 to Gorton’s 1:04.77. Dowler nearly won the 100 breaststroke, finishing in 1:14.02, with Oswego’s Mariah Metcalf (1:13.39) just ahead of her.
Smith, in 26.51 seconds, took second to Metcalf (25.69 seconds) in the 50 freestyle, with Dunning posting a time of 5:45.06 in the 500 freestyle, second to Riley’s winning 5:33.33.
