Asking the Baldwinsville girls swim team to topple unbeaten CNY Counties League regular-season leader West Genesee at its home pool during Friday night’s Section III Class A championship meet proved too much to ask.
But the Bees still were quite happy with the fourth-place finish it offered as it earned a series of top-five finishes by the time the meet was done.
All told, B’ville had 251 points. The hosts from West Genesee won with 458 points, well clear of Oswego (360 points) and Liverpool (325 points), who were second and third, respectively.
Noelle Staso had the best finish of any Bees swimmer. In the 200 freestyle, Staso posted a time of two minutes, 1.55 seconds, giving her third place as WG’s Olivia Castro claimed the victory in 1:57.61 and Oswego’s Caitlin Gorton (1:58.83) got the runner-up spot. Staso also was sixth in the 500 freestyle 5:40.99, less than a second from a top-five showing.
This came just after the Bees’ 200 medley relay team opened the meet by having Samantha Sidorakis, Cassandra Cherebin, Brooke Atkinson and Alexandra Connor combine for a fourth-place finish in 1:59.53. Oswego (1:52.39) and WG (1:54.52) both broke pool records to finish in front of B’ville.
Individually, Connor had a big showing in the 100 butterfly, making her way to fourth place in 1:03.11, while Emma Atkinson got sixth place in 1:04.54. Brooke Atkinson did well in the 100 breaststroke, taking fifth place in 1:15.06, edging teammate Lauren Burchill, who was sixth in 1:15.26, while Cherebin gained sixth place in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.22.
Liverpool’s Madeline Murphy was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer, having broken pool records in both the 50 freestyle (23.86 seconds) and 100 freestyle (52.53 seconds), while the Warriors’ Olivia Corlett broke a school record to take the 100 backstroke in 1:00.91.
