When the West Genesee girls swim team faces Cicero-North Syracuse next Wednesday afternoon, superiority in the CNY Counties League is at stake.
In the meantime, the Wildcats simply had to run through all the preliminary foes, and two more of them fell last week in a span of 48 hours.
First, WG put together a 102-77 victory over visiting Mexico last Tuesday night, keyed by a sweep of all three relay events against the Tigers.
In the opening 200 medley, Olivia Castro, Hannah Jasinski, Maggie Linton and Abby Mullett earned a victory in a time of two minutes, 10.40 seconds.
Later, Castro helped Jenna Mellen, Mackenzie Oslica and Maddie Zapisek win the 400 freestyle relay in 4:12.63 after a 200 freestyle relay where Zapisek, joined by Lonnie Bargabos, Greta Jasinski and Ali McCormack, rolled to first place in 2:00.16.
Individually, no Wildcat swimmer won twice, but Kaitlin Dunning won a tight 200 individual medley, edging Mexico’s Jane Pritchard, 2:24.80 to 2:25.12, in the 200 individual medley.
Linton, in 28.83 seconds, and Gabby Shuron (29.02 seconds) went 1-2 in the 50 freestyle, with Mikki Riley holding off Pritchard, 1:05.07 to 1:05.26, in the 100 butterfly.
Shannon Cahalan rolled to a victory in the 500 freestyle in 5:39.03, ahead of Ayla Yagan (6:19.85), as Chezeki Boudreau was second (2:15.18) to Julia Lamb (2:12.41) in the 200 freestyle and Hannah Jasinski got second (1:19.58) behind another Mexico swimmer, Jessie Faulkner (1:18.82), during the 100 breaststroke.
Two nights later, the Wildcats went to Baldwinsville, and twin victories from the trio of Castro, Cahalan and Dunning served as the backbone of a 52-41 victory over the Bees.
Castro, in 25.40 seconds, stopped B’ville’s Noelle Staso (25.09 seconds) in the 50 freestyle before winning a rematch, 55.85 seconds to Staso’s 57.01, in the 100 freestyle.
Dunning, posting a time of 2:05.38, and Zapisek (2:12.71) went 1-2 in the 200 freestyle, leading to a 500 freestyle where Dunning prevailed in 5:37.38 and Zapisek (5:58.54) again got second place.
Cahalan would get first place in the 100 butterfly, edging B’ville’s Brooke Atkinson, 1:02.97 to 1:04.46, and those same two dueled in the 200 IM as Cahalan posted 2:22.92 and Atkinson (2:24.58) again was a close second.
Kanoza was second in the 100 breaststroke (1:17.33) to B’ville’s Lauren Burchill (1:13.5), and the Bees won two of three relays, but WG did grab the other relay, the 200 freestyle, where Cahalan, Castro, Dunning and Riley went 1:48.47 to get on top.
Meanwhile, in a big development, unbeaten C-NS knocked off Liverpool 93-91, and suddenly the Wildcats’ match with the Northstars will determine who gets into first place in the CNYCL.
