For a long while, the Skaneateles girls swim team had reason to think that it had not caught up to its Maroon-clad neighbors to the west – but those times have changed.
And the Lakers emphasized that change during Thursday night’s season opener at the Community Center, where it rode double wins from Haley Buchholz and Rachel Teixeira, plus plenty of depth, to beat Auburn by a score of 99-75.
As a starting point, the Lakers dominated the 200 medley relay, where the Maroons didn’t contest the result. Buchholz, paired with Leah King, Rachel Teixeira and Mary Teixeira, finished in two minutes, 9.23 seconds, and that was just the opener.
Buchholz went from there to the 200 individual medley, where in a time of 2:34.51 she beat out Auburn’s tandem of Sydney Murinka (2:38.11) and Brianna Chehowich (2:40.39), And to further make the point, Bucholz would win the 100 backstroke in 1:09.58, again with two Maroons swimmers, Alexis Liberatore (1:13.68) and Katie Moore (1:26.48), chasing her.
As for Rachel Teixeira, she worked her way through the 500 freestyle in 5:42.83, part of a 1-2-3 Lakers sweep with Colleen Ferguson (5:55.05) and Halle King (5:56.56) trailing, and in the closest race of the meet, Teixeira, in 1:20.32, edged past Chehovich (1:20.37) in the 100 breaststroke.
Skaneateles also went 1-2 in the 100 butterfly, where Leah King prevailed in 1:07.45 and Kaleigh Nicholson got second place in 1:14.14. King added a second-place finish (27.52 seconds) behind Auburn’s Kennedy Wilson (26.34 seconds) in the 50 freestyle.
Ferguson’s lone title came in the 200 freestyle, as she finished in 2:11.97, just inches ahead of Halle King (2:12.02) at the wall. Buchholz, Halle King, Leah King and Rachel Teixeira went 4:03.87 in the 400 freestyle relay as Maddie Bohrer was third in the 100 freestyle in 1:05.12.
Skaneateles owned the diving competition, too. Tara Chalupnicki, with 163.15 points, gained first place, beating out teammate Kyra Cottrill, who was second with 147.90 points.
Bigger tests loom for the Lakers this week, starting with Tuesday’s meet at Jamesville-DeWitt and continuing Friday, when powerhouse Liverpool visits the Community Center.
