Given that it went through another undefeated regular season and dominated the CNY Counties League, the West Genesee girls swim team did not need any more advantages going into Friday’s Section III Class A championship meet.
But the Wildcats got a big one by having the meet at its home pool, and energized by the familiar setting, WG easily outlasted its main rivals to earn a sectional title.
Overall, the Wildcats picked up 458 points, while Oswego settled for second place with 360 points. Liverpool, despite a superb individual effort from Madeline Murphy (who broke two pool records), finished third with 325 points.
Even though WG did not win the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, it still set a winning tone. Brianna Smith, Erin Dowler, Shannon Cahalan and Christina Lee broke the pool mark with a time of one minute, 54.52 seconds, only to see Oswego win that event in 1:52.39.
Right after that race, Olivia Castro gave the Wildcats its lone individual victory, covering the 200 freestyle in 1:57.61 to hold off the Buccaneers’ Caitlin Gorton (1:58.83) for that top spot. They were the only sub-two-minute times of the race.
Castro would later qualify for the state meet in the 100 freestyle, finishing in 53.35 seconds, part of a big Wildcat point surge in that event as Becca Kanoza finished fourth, in 55.87 seconds, and Sinead Guy (56.13 seconds) gained fifth place.
As a closing flourish, Castro, Guy, Kanoza and Smith would dominate the 400 freestyle relay, setting yet another pool record with a winning time of 3:40.79, more than 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Oswego (3:53.98), and qualifying for the state meet.
WG enjoyed another big point surge in the 100 backstroke, where Smith, in a time of 1:01.11, finished second, just behind Liverpool’s Olivia Corlett (1:00.91), while Cahalan made her way to third place in 1:03.42 and Kanoza, in 1:05.03, finished fifth.
Erin Dowler did more than help Lee in singing the national anthem prior to the meet. Dowler, in the 200 individual medley, recorded a third-place finish in 2:23.84, and would also finish third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.17.
Cahalan had her best individual finish in the 100 butterfly, getting to third place in 1:01.63, just ahead of Abby Mullett (1:04.03) in fifth place, this after Mullett was fifth (2:24.67) in the 200 IM. Guy was fourth in the 50 freestyle in 25.78 seconds, just ahead of Smith (25.88 seconds) in fifth, with Dunning getting to fifth place in the 500 freestyle in 5:40.29.
As Dunning, Lee, Guy and Chizeki Bourdeau finished third in the 200 freestyle relay (1:43.95), Murphy delivered a memorable individual night for Liverpool, breaking pool records in the 50 freestyle, where she won in 23.86 seconds, and 100 freestyle, where she needed 52.53 seconds to hold off Castro.
About the only thing that West Genesee could not pull off was winning Sunday’s overall sectional meet at Hamilton College – though it came quite close, earning 344.5 points, just behind Jamesville-DeWitt, who took the top spot with 350 points.
Castro improved her 200 freestyle time to 1:55.98 and beat Gorton (1:58.46) by a larger margin this time, clinching a state meet berth in that event. And she would also pair with Guy, Dunning and Kanoza to make it to the state meet in the 400 freestyle relay as WG won that event in 3:40.16.
In a 100 freestyle classic, Castro, in 52.63 seconds, was just behind Murphy, who needed a Hamilton College pool-record 52.43 seconds to prevail as she also won the 50 free in 24.10 seconds. Smith gave the Wildcats a third-place time of 1:01.59 in the 100 backstroke, pairing with Castro, Dowler and Cahalan to get third place (1:51.17) in the 200 medley relay.
At the sectional Class B meet at New Hartford, Marcellus swimmer Colleen Ferguson had a pair of fourth-place finishes. Ferguson swam the 500 freestyle in 5:44.82 and 200 freestyle in 2:08.52.
