Having turned itself into a regular presence at the top of the standings at each year’s Section III Class C championship meet, the Skaneateles girls swim team is going for more glory.
When the Lakers host next Friday’s sectional Class C meet at the Community Center pool, it will do so coming off a regular season where it put up a record of 5-7, but tested itself against most of the top programs in the CNY Counties League and Onondaga High School League.
And that included West Genesee, who has built a 48-meet win streak since 2009 and, by defeating Skaneateles 93-85 last Wednesday night in Camillus, finished its fifth consecutive unbeaten season.
Even amid the usual displays of Wildcats strength, though, there were plenty of bright moments for the Lakers, starting with Rachel Teixeira pushing WG’s Olivia Castro in the 200 freestyle, finishing in a time of 2:08.71 to Castro’s 2:04.95.
Later in the meet, Teixeira would gain a first-place finish, in the 500 freestyle, covering that distance in 5:44.22, well clear of WG’s Nikki Riley (5:53.65) and the field.
Leah King went 27.28 seconds in the 50 freestyle, second to the Wildcats’ Kaitlin Dunning (26.76 seconds), and in the 100 butterfly King again was close, going 1:05.23 to finish less than a second behind WG’s Shannon Cahalan, who won in 1:04.40.
The Lakers went 1-2 in the 100 backstroke, where Lily Buchholz posted a time of 1:15.99 and Allison Priest (1:23.20) finished second. Rose Keady, in 1:25.71, was second to the Wildcats’ Laurel Green (1:21.11) in the 100 breaststroke.
Skaneateles was the guests on WG’s Senior Night, which was capped off when four seniors who had spent five years in the program – Olivia Castro, Shannon Cahalan, Abby Mullett and Ayla Yagan – swam the closing 400 freestyle relay in a top time of 4:04.61.
During this championship weekend, Skaneateles hosts the Class C meet, and then sees its divers go to Mexico on Nov. 8 for that portion of sectional competition before the Nov. 9 state qualifier at Hamilton College.
