Enough excitement and tension was crammed into the Liverpool girls swim team’s season-opening meet against Auburn Wednesday night to last a month.
Ahead most of the way, the Warriors didn’t get caught by the Maroons until the final race, but when it did, the meet ended in a 91-91 tie.
Liverpool didn’t waste much time going to the front, though even that proved close. Ali Testone, Sydnie Sovinsky, Maddie Rose and Kelley Townley paired up in the opening 200-yard medley relay and made it to first place, edging Auburn by three-hundredths of a second, 2:02.52 to 2:02.55.
Testone went from there to pulling away in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:26.84, more than 10 seconds clear of Auburn’s Sydney Murinka (2:36.94).
Sovinsky would win twice, pulling away from the Maroons’ Kennedy Wilson, 25.04 seconds to 25.61, in the 50 freestyle, and then going 1:00.70 in the 100 butterfly to leave Auburn’s Gabriella Vevone (1:07.10) far back.
As the swimmers rested, Liverpool’s Alyssa Vadala (267.95 points) and Sarah Lavalley (194.25 points) went 1-2 in diving, adding to the Warriors’ lead.
Auburn’s rally began with Hannah Foster, who won both the 200 and 500 freestyle, each time with Rose in second place as Rose swam the 200 free in 2:12.04 and the 500 free in 5:52.81, not far behind Foster’s 5:49.45.
After the Maroons prevailed in the 200 freestyle relay, 1:46.10 to Liverpool’s 1:50.38, Auburn went 1-2 in the 100 backstroke with Yasmine Smith prevailing in 1:08.06 before Testone, in 1:15.46, beat Sydney Murinka (1:19.17) in the 100 breaststroke.
So it all rode on the closing 400 freestyle relay. Like the 200 medley, it was a tight race, with Testone, Jaida Fox, Lauren Flynn and Reilly Wolf posting 4:13.65, but Auburn’s quartet of Foster, Smith, Lindsay Roe and Gabrielle McGinn prevailing in 4:13.05 to create the tie.
Cicero-North Syracuse opened on Wednesday night at Oswego, and used its depth, along with a pair of individual and relay titles from Jaime Rolf, to beat the Buccaneers 100-84.
Rolf, in a time of 2:21.73, prevailed in the 200 individual medley, with teammate Brooke Fedi getting second place in 2:27.63. Later in the meet, Rolf swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.55, part of another 1-2 sweep as Kelly Festa (1:16.64) took the runner-up spot.
C-NS got out in front early, seeing Rolf, Brooke Fedi, Amy Bubb and Olivia Griffin claim the 200 medley relay in 2:01.35, just ahead of Oswego’s 2:02.37. Moving to the 200 freestyle relay, Rolf helped win again, pairing with Lauren Thorne, Sarah Walter and Grace Devinney for first place in 1:50.30 to the Bucs’ 1:52.83.
Olivia Griffin prevailed in the 50 freestyle in 27.27 seconds, with Miranda Frascatore earning 217.75 points on the diving board and Donna Alizdeh victorious in the 500 freestyle in 5:38.84.
Thorne was second (2:07.57) to Oswego star Caitlin Gorton (2:04.76) in the 200 freestyle as Fedi was second in the 100 backstroke (1:07.34) and Walter was second (58.90 seconds) to the Bucs’ Mariah Metcalf (55.62 seconds) in the 100 freestyle.
Liverpool will take on Fayetteville-Manlius next Friday at Cazenovia College’s pool, which the Hornets use as a home venue, two days after C-NS goes for two wins in a row at its home pool at Le Moyne College against Baldwinsville.
