As the competition gets tougher, the Baldwinsville girls swim team is meeting it head-on, even if it isn’t always reflected in the win column.
In the first of two meets in a 48-hour span last Wednesday night, the Bees went to Auburn and was quite impressive, putting together a 95-69 victory over the Maroons.
Noelle Staso and Brooke Atkinson both won two individual races. Staso got going in the 200-yard freestyle, prevailing in two minutes, 4.04 seconds, and then moving to the 500 freestyle, where she had a strong victory in 5:28.39.
As for Broke Atkinson, she beat teammate Grace Smith, 2:27.97 to 2:33 flat, in the 200 individual medley, moving from there to the 100 butterfly, where in 1:04.43 she beat out her sister, Emma Atkinson, who was second in 1:07.33.
Amanda Johnson won the 100 backstroke in 1:07.32, right before Lauren Burchill needed 1:14.40 to hold off Smith (1:18.37) in the 100 breaststroke. Anna DiOrio was second in the 50 freestyle, while Lauren Guild took third in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle and Allison Lange added a third in the 100 backstroke.
B’ville won two of the three relay events. Atkinson, Burchill, Staso and DiOrio rolled to first in the 200 medley in 2:04.68 and, at meet’s end, Guild and Johnson joined Atkinson and Staso in the 400 freestyle relay, where the Bees posted 4:09.26.
Back home on Friday night, B’ville lost, 49-44, to Jamesville-DeWitt, but had plenty of top efforts from its individuals and relay teams.
At the start of the meet, the Bees tore through the 200-yard individual medley, breaking the two-minute mark as Atkinson, Burchill, Johnson and Staso finished in 1:58.95.
Just as she did against Auburn, Staso won a pair of individual events, starting with the 200 freestyle, where she pulled away from J-D’s Alexis Phillips and won in 2:02.36, exactly six seconds ahead of Phillips.
It was closer in the 500 freestyle, but Staso, in 5:35.45, held off Phillips (5:36.76) to win again, and she would pair with Atkinson, Johnson and DiOrio as B’ville got first place in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:13.54.
For her part, Atkinson was second, in 2:24.48, to the Red Rams’ Sophia Farchione (2:22.69) in the 200 individual medley. Johnson went 1:00.07 in the 100 freestyle, second to J-D’s Alden Coyne, who also claimed the 50 freestyle.
Not only that, but Johnson added a second-place time of 1:06.47 behind Farchione (1:04.72) in the 100 backstroke. Burchill, swimming the 100 breaststroke, went 1:14.31, just behind another J-D standout, Hayley Schultz, who won in 1:12.10.
B’ville has just one meet this week, hosting Mexico on Wednesday.
