Twice within a 48-hour span, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls swim team would get challenged, but in doing so it established itself as a challenger to Liverpool in advance of Thursday night’s showdown between the two neighbors at the Warriors’ home pool.

Over at Le Moyne College last Wednesday night, the Northstars, who beat Oswego 100-84 in its opener a week earlier, again relied on its depth to turn back Baldwinsville in a 96-82 decision.

Lauren Thorne led C-NS by winning a pair of races. In the 200-yard freestyle, Thorne posted a time of two minutes, 8.24 seconds to beat out Sarah Walter (2:13.24) in a 1-2 effort, and Thorne dominated the 500 freestyle, too, winning that race in 5:33.13, with teammate Olivia Griffin (6:11.65) second.

Brooke Fedi nearly matched Throne, prevailing over B’ville’s Noelle Staso, 2:18.98 to 2:20.71, in the 200 individual medley, where Jaime Rolf (2:23.92) was third. In the 100 backstroke Fedi (1:06.08) was just behind the Bees’ Amanda Johnson (1:05.62), with Christina Champagne third in 1:09.60.

Walter pulled away in the 100 freestyle, winning in 58 seconds flat, with Cassie Baldwin (1:02.04) in third. This followed a 50 freestyle where Kiersten Coates needed 26.49 seconds to fend off Griffin (27.06 seconds) and get on top.

Miranda Frascatore earned 217.95 points in diving, while Laura Gerber (146.3 points) finished second. Kelly Festa was second in the 100 butterfly in 1:09.52.

On the relay side, Champagne, Rolf, Fedi and Griffin went 2:01.05 in the 200 medley relay, but B’ville prevailed in 2:00.49. Avenging that, the Northstars went to the 200 freestyle relay and saw Thorne and Coates pair with Walter and Rolf to finish in 1:47.32, a time B’ville (1:55.24) could not match.

With little time to turn around, C-NS paid a visit to Auburn on Friday night, and moved to 3-0 on the season, pulling away to beat he Maroons 90-74.

Thorne and Fedi both won twice, with Thorne going 2:04.77 to win the 200 freestyle before recording a time of 5:35.83 in the 500 freestyle, nearly matching her effort from the B’ville meet.

Racing in the 200 IM, Fedi posted 2:19.74, with Rolf (2:27.94) again in the runner-up spot, and in the 100 backstroke Fedi got first place this time around, going 1:07.45 as Champagne took second place with a time of 1:11.11.

Coates went 26.59 seconds in the 50 freestyle, just behind Auburn’s Maggie Angotti (26.43 seconds), with Festa swimming the 100 butterfly in 1:13.20, second to the Maroons’ Kennedy Wilson, who won in 1:10.80. Walter (58.99 seconds) hung close to Angotti (58.14 seconds) in the 100 freestyle.

Where C-NS piled up the most points was going 1-2 in two different relays. Festa, Griffin, Cassie Baldwin and Amy Bubb took the 200 medley relay in 2:02.19, with Thorne, Walter, Rolf and Coates blazing to a time of 1:49.87 in the 200 freestyle relay.