Routine business was conducted by the West Genesee girls swim team Wednesday night at the Wildcats’ home pool in Camillus. Senior Night ceremonies took place, gifts and memories were shared, and everyone had something to smile about.
One more routine occurrence happened, too – the Wildcats completed an undefeated regular season for the fifth year in a row.
Building upon a streak that dates back to 2009 and includes at least 47 straight wins, WG turned back Skaneateles to finish a 12-0 campaign and begin the lead-up to this weekend’s Section III championship meets.
In all, seven seniors were honored. They include Olivia Castro, Shannon Cahalan, Abby Uczen, Abby Mullett, Ayla Yagan, Cheyenne Scott and Caitlyn Whalen, with four of them (Cahalan, Castro, Mullet and Yagen) part of all five of these perfect regular seasons.
So it only figured that, in the final race of this final home meet, that five-year varsity letter quartet would team up in the 400-yard freestyle relay, Cahalan, Castro, Mullett and Yagan offering up one more first-place finish in a time of four minutes, 4.61 seconds.
Already in the meet, Castro had gone 2:04.95 to earn a victory in the 200 freestyle, while Cahalan, in the 100 butterfly, finished in 1:04.40 to hold off Skaneateles’ Leah King (1:05.23) at the line.
Kaitlin Dunning swept the sprints, beating King, 26.76 seconds to 27.28, in the 50 freestyle, and going 56.15 seconds in the 100 freestyle as Becca Kanoza (58.32 seconds) took the runner-up spot.
Maddie Zapisek (2:31.71) and Hannah Jasinski (2:36 flat) went 1-2 in the 200 individual medley, with Laurel Green needing 1:21.11 to prevail in the 100 breaststroke. Mikki Riley was second (5:53.65) to the Lakers’ Rachel Teixeira (5:44.22) in the 500 freestyle. Jasinski, Sarah Campagna, Jenna Mellen and Gabby Shuron went 1:57.12 to prevail in the 200 freestyle relay.
West Genesee does not have to travel anywhere for the sectional Class A meet, which it will host next Friday at 5 p.m. Uzcen and the other divers compete in their sectional meet on Nov. 8 at Mexico, with the state qualifier set for Nov. 9 at Hamilton College’s pool.
