Three area girls swim teams all began their respective 2014 seasons on the same Thursday night, but only one of them emerged victorious.
That was Jamesville-DeWitt, who outclassed the combined Syracuse city squad in a 102-68 decision that included two wins from Hayley Schultz, who swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.90 and added a victory in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.91.
Alden Coyne was first in the 200 individual medley in 2:23.26, ahead of Meredith Wagner (2:30.57), while Samantha Coombs (2:16.40) beat Hannah Gibson (2:19 flat) in the 200 freestyle. Margaret Parker won the 50 freestyle in 27.31 seconds.
Sophia Farchione got first place in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.88, this after Madeline Behan needed 1:03.09 to get a victory in the 100 freestyle. Jessica Rieger picked up 217.45 points on the diving board.
Schultz, Parker, Farchione and Maria Bussone won the 200 medley relay in 2:04.37, with Marissa Potamianos, Taylor Roadarmel and Cortney Vaughan going 2:00.75 in the 200 freestyle relay. Lauren Barry, Emilee Carpenter, Adriana Sotolongo and Mariyana VanArsdale got to the top in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:35.61.
As that went on, CBA, facing Cicero-North Syracuse at the Le Moyne College pool they both call home, would suffer its first defeat of the season, falling to the Northstars 98-88.
And this happened even though the Brothers won two of the three relays. Annie Fletcher, Beth Lumia, Tessa Queri and Julia Torell were first in the 200 medley in 2:00.28 and, later in the meet, Fletcher, Queri, Torell and Ally Howard won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:48.55.
Individually, Queri swam the 50 freestyle in 26.14 seconds, with Fletcher, in 56.79 seconds, winning the 100 freestyle. Torell went 1:03.14 in the 100 butterfly as Sam Lanzafame impressed in diving with 229.85 points.
Lauren Thorne would lead C-NS’s winning effort, edging past Katie Toole, 5:39.57 to 5:41.45, in the 500 freestyle, while also taking the 200 freestyle (2:09.82) and helping C-NS get the clinching points when it won the closing 400 freestyle relay in 4:11.32.
Fayetteville-Manlius, who conducts its home meets at Cazenovia College’s pool, has a new head coach – Tim Gallivan, a standout at Le Moyne who’s still competing for the Dolphins despite a heart ailment that nearly ended his career.
Ironically, the Hornets’ season opener was against Gallivan’s high school alma mater – West Genesee, who had little trouble prevailing by a score of 104.5-73.5.
Early in the meet, F-M did get an individual title from Riley Miller, who hit the finish line in the 200 IM in 2:21.77, the same time as WG’s Shannon Cahalan. Miller also finished second in diving with 156.9 points to the 180 points posted by the Wildcats’ Chloe Feuer.
Abbey Harris, in a time of 1:26.86, held off Grace Bang (1:27.25) in the 100 breaststroke, right before F-M’s team of Gillian Hall, Katie Hanover, Emma Reed and Emma Simonson took the 400 freestyle relay in 4:20.54.
Grace Garver was second in the 100 butterfly in 1:10.84, while Amelia Krouse was third in the 100 freestyle and Caroline Muller third in the 200 and 500 freestyle.
