Every West Genesee girls swimmer, and their partisans, remembered how Jamesville-DeWitt had snagged the Section III championship from them a year ago.
So when the two undefeated, first-place powerhouses – the Wildcats leading the CNY Counties League, the Red Rams in front of the Onondaga High School League – got together Wednesday night, it was bound to be memorable, one way or another.
As it turned out, WG enjoyed the night a lot more, getting a superb effort from its star trio of Olivia Castro, Shannon Cahalan and Kaitlin Dunning, and a record-setting performance from diver Abby Uzcen, too, all in the course of a 97-89 victory over the Red Rams.
J-D only led at the outset, when the quartet of Alden Coyne, Marissa Potamianos, Sophia Farchione and Hayley Schultz swam the 200-yard medley relay in one minutes, 55.54 seconds, finishing first.
But from there, the Wildcats took over. Dunning tore through the 200 freestyle in 2:04.45, followed by Cahalan going 2:23.56 in the 200 individual medley and Castro, going into her sprint specialties, sped to victory in the 50 freestyle in 25.19 seconds.
A first-rate diving competition followed, and Uzcen, challenged by J-D’s strong contingent, not only won the event, but did so with 259.5 points, a new single-meet WG school record.
Then it was back to the “Big Three”, who didn’t disappoint. Cahalan got her second win in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.32, while Castro, completing her sprint sweep, went 55.13 seconds in the 100 freestyle before Dunning had a victory in the 500 freestyle in 5:32.90.
Even though Coyne, Potamianos, Meg Parker and Samantha Coombs gave J-D a win in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:45.57, and Farchione (100 backstroke) and Schultz (100 breaststroke) also claimed first-place finishes, WG had already clinched the meet. And it closed by having Maddie Zapisek, Gabby Shuron, Ayla Yagan and Stephanie Campagna go 3:52.65 to win the 400 freestyle relay.
Big as that win was, it sets up another showdown next Thursday in Camillus as WG takes on its closet challenger in the CNYCL, second-place Liverpool.
