Before it went into the new year, the Baldwinsville boys swim team split its first two meets of the season, defeating Fayetteville-Manlius but losing to CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt.
And it was not until last Wednesday night’s meet with Auburn that the Bees finally got to compete at home, but that didn’t quite turn out well as the visiting Maroons prevailed 48-43.
Of the first six events, B’ville only prevailed once, in the 200-yard freestyle, where Eric Johnson put up a time of two minutes, 5.72 seconds to hold off Auburn’s Jacob Whiting (2:03.35) by less than a second.
More success would be found later in the meet. John Sidorakis was first in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.81, just ahead of teammate Ryan App (1:04.67), while Steven Kulak gained a victory in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.10.
App, Sidorakis and Johnson would join Michael Boyce as B’ville won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:56.78, this after that same quartet swam the 200 medley relay in 1:56.48, behind Auburn’s 1:51.38. Nick Radell led the Maroons with individual victories in the 100 butterfly (59.39 seconds) and 200 individual medley (2:15.02).
Two nights later, B’ville made up the snowed-out Jan. 3 meet with West Genesee, and had a chance to win it right until the final race before falling to the Wildcats 49.5-44.5.
Johnson gave the Bees an early title when he claimed the 200 freestyle in 2:04.70, but WG claimed most of the early races, including the 100 butterfly, where Johnson, in 1:00.27, was just behind Matt O’Donnell’s winning time of 59.19 seconds.
Right after WG’s Collin Zapisek set a pool record in the 500 freestyle with his time of 4:57.78, App did prevail in the 100 backstroke, improving to 1:02.80.
Still, the Wildcats swept every relay race. App, Johnson, Sidorakis and Boyce got 1:54.68 in the 200 medley relay, but WG won in 1:52.50, and that same B’ville quartet went 3:48.43 in the 400 freestyle relay, only to see the Wildcats snatch first place in 3:46.28.
B’ville had another tough meet on Wednesday, when it went to Liverpool and went up against the unbeaten Warriors.
