For the Jamesville-DeWitt girls swim team, the bad feelings that arose from surrendering the Section III Class B team championship to New Hartford quickly subsided – if they existed at all.
That’s because, less than 48 hours later, the Red Rams made its way to Hamilton College and, in Sunday afternoon’s sectional state qualifier, rode big performances by its entire roster of stars to repeat as George Farwell Cup champions.
All told, J-D picked up 331 points, leaving New Hartford, with 262 points, settling for the runner-up spot. Both sides beat the top Class A teams as Oswego finished third with 246 points and West Genesee, who beat the Red Rams in the regular season and haven’t lost a head-to-head meet since 2009, settled for fourth place with 221 points.
And the Red Rams pulled this off while winning just one event – the 100-yard breaststroke, where Hayley Schultz posted a time of one minutes, 8.09 seconds to pull away from Cicero-North Syracuse eighth-grader Jamie Rolf, who was second in 1:09.65, while Schultz’s teammate, Meg Parker, landed in third place in 1:09.79.
Alden Coyne took part in four different runner-up finishes – two on her own, two with relay teams.
To start with, Coyne, paired with Schultz, Sophia Farchione and Marissa Potamianos, went 1:52.37 in the 200 medley relay, just behind Oswego, who won in 1:50.39. Then, in the 50 freestyle, Coyne went 24.19 seconds as Liverpool’s Madeline Murphy (24.01 seconds) won this race for the fourth consecutive year.
Moving to the 100 freestyle, Coyne posted 52.63 seconds, so it required West Genesee’s Olivia Castro to beat her in 52.43 seconds. Finally, in the 200 freestyle relay, Coyne, Parker, Samantha Coombs and Alexis Phillips went 1:40.33, edged out by Oswego’s 1:39.78.
Phillips finished third in the 500 freestyle in 5:24.52 and fourth in the 200 freestyle in 1:59.16, with Potamianos (2:00.56) sixth in the 200 free. Farchione got to third place in the 200 individual medley in 2:16.76 as Parker (2:19.66) settled into fifth place.
Later, in the 100 backstroke, Farchione again got to third place, posting 1:00.56. Schultz added a fifth-place effort in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.52, while Potamianos (1:03.27) earned eighth place.
Amid all this, CBA’s pair of stars, Annie Fletcher and Julia Torell, also had big efforts, with Fletcher going 59.86 seconds to edge West Genesee’s Shannon Cahalan (1:00.17) in the 100 backstroke ahead of Farchione, and also finishing second (5:17.53) to Liverpool’s Sydnie Sovinsky (5:17.53) in the 500 freestyle.
Meanwhile, Torell, like Coyne, had a pair of second-place efforts, starting in the 200 IM, where she beat Farchione with 2:13.91, but still was behind Sovinsky’s 2:11.73. Then, in the 100 butterfly, Torell finished in 54.90 seconds, though Oswego’s Caitlin Gorton (56.80 seconds) pulled away to win.
The Brothers’ best relay finish came in the 200 medley. As J-D got second place, Fletcher, Torell, Tessa Queri and Beth Lumia went 1:57.81 and took fourth place.
Still, Fletcher and Torell are joining Coyne, Farchione, Schultz, Potamianos, Phillips, Parker, Coombs and divers Jessica Rieger (J-D) and Samantha Lanzafame (CBA) on the Section III side heading to Ithaca College for the Nov. 21-22 state championship meet at Ithaca College.
