While sweeping through all of its Onondaga High School League opposition, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls swim team has paid close attention to West Genesee doing the same thing in the Onondaga High School League.
That’s because these two are likely to battle for Section III team honors later this season, just as they did in 2013, when the Red Rams held off the Wildcats for the crown. It’s also because they’re meeting head-to-head on Wednesday night to determine local regular-season superiority.
One of the last J-D tune-ups came in Tuesday night’s meet against New Hartford, which featured plenty of fast races and, once again, a Red Rams victory as it beat the Spartans 97-81.
Alexis Phillips is emerging as a force for the Rams. Phillips beat out Meg Parker, 2:05.78 to 2:06.59, in the 200-yard freestyle, and went from there to post a winning time of 5:38.49 in the 500 freestyle.
That matched Alden Coyne’s individual win total. For her part, Coyne went 25.21 seconds to pull away from New Hartford’s Taylor Dontino (26.58 seconds) in the 50 freestyle and, in the 100 freestyle, went 55.48 seconds to complete the sprint sweep.
Sophia Farchione nearly matched those titles, as she was inches behind the Spartans’ Alexis Salvo, 1:03.18 to Salvo’s 1:03.09, in the 100 backstroke. She had already won a similar battle in the 200 individual medley, going 2:21.57 to edge past New Hartford’s Maya Smith (2:21.72), who was also second in the 100 freestyle behind Coyne.
Hayley Schultz did more than claim the 100 breaststroke in a clocking of 1:11.72. Combining with Coyne, Farchione and Marissa Potamianos, Schultz helped J-D roar to a time of 1:54.67 in the 200 medley relay before Coyne, Parker, Katie Salvo and Samantha Coombs went 1:45.87 for first place in the 200 freestyle relay.
J-D went 1-2 in the diving competition. Jessica Rieger led the way, her dives producing a total of 212.05 points, clear of Hannah Gunther, who was second with 199.85 points.
Just 24 hours later, J-D competed again, beating Mexico 98-82 as CBA, in its own big showdown with Liverpool, lost to the Warriors 97-89.
No one on J-D had to win twice against the Tigers. Coyne was first in the 200 IM (2:24.80) after Potamianos took the 200 freestyle in 2:06.68 and before Phillips went 1:11.30 in the 100 backstroke.
Parker went 26.63 seconds in the 50 freestyle as Coombs took the 100 freestyle (59.19 seconds) and Rieger improved her diving total to 219.9 points. J-D only claimed one of the relays, seeing Phillips, Farchione, Coombs and Potamianos take the 200 freestyle relay in 1:51.42.
As for CBA, it was meeting a Liverpool side still seething from a Sept. 25 home loss to Cicero-North Syracuse, and the Warriors weren’t about to let that happen again.
Yet it was competitive from start to finish, starting with a 200 freestyle classic where Katie Toole, in a time of 2:09.37, held off Liverpool’s Julia Telesca (2:09.45) by a slim margin.
Julia Torell followed by winning the 200 IM in 2:24.54, and would later finish second (1:03.21) to Liverpool’s Sydnie Sovinsky (1:00.26) in the 100 butterfly.
Annie Fletcher got really close to her own double. She won the 100 backstroke in 1:03.33, easily ahead of the Warriors’ Olivia Corlett (1:08.44), but in the 500 freestyle a long race was decided by a tiny margin, Fletcher finishing in 5:22.47 behind Sovinsky’s 5:22.37.
Toole, Fletcher, Andrea Oyer and Mary Ierlan were victorious in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:08.35 after CBA lost a close 200 freestyle relay, 1:48.09 to the Warriors’ 1:47.65. Sam Lanzafame, with 212.75 points, beat teammate Erin Wind (203.45 points) in the diving competition.
