ONONDAGA COUNTY – If the Jamesville-DeWitt girls swim team is able to get past Liverpool in next Wednesday’s regular-season finale, it will truly have earned its undefeated mark.
All the Red Rams had to do just to earn this opportunity was knock off both of its talented neighbors – and did so in consecutive weeks, starting with an Oct. 8 win over Fayetteville-Manlius.
Just as exciting, if not more so, was Wednesday night’s meet against Christian Brothers Academy at Le Moyne College, in doubt all the way to the final race before J-D was able to turn back the Brothers 93-87.
The closing 400-yard freestyle relay proved a classic. CBA broke the four-minute mark, going three minutes 58.84 seconds, but J-D was able to just touch the wall first in 3:58.81 – a margin of three-hundreths of a second.
And this proved an ideal coda to an event that began with a small margin in the 200 medley relay, where the Rams had to go 2:02.30 to fend off the Brothers, who finished in 2:02.90. J-D also had the top two times in the 200 freestyle relay, including a win in a clocking of 1:49.74.
Thearyn Wales was part of this effort, having already won twice. She went 2:05.72 in the 200 freestyle to pull away from CBA’s Zoe Thayer in 2:10.60 before going a quick 1:01.67 in the 100 backstroke, well clear of the 1:06.86 of Anna Fuller and 1:07.61 from Sophia Ciereck.
Evelyn Jones’ 25.84 seconds in the 50 freestyle was part of a 1-2-3 J-D effort with Lila Schroth (27.25) and Nora Barnello, whose 27.81 edged Alison Sullivan’s 27.83 for key points.
In a close 100 freestyle, Jones, in 1:00.48, edged Barnello (1:00.53) by five-hundredths of a second, with Sullivan (1:02.36) edging Maggie Lister (1:02.43) for third.
Lister won the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.94, well clear of Alicia Snyder’s 1:20.78 in second. Kayla McQuaid won in diving with 235.70 points, just ahead of a strong second-place 229.70 from the Brothers’ Sophia Osvoldik.
On CBA’s side, Ciereck was victorious in the 200 individual medley in 2:30.32 to beat out the 2:31.27 from J-D’s Helena Sofinski as Fuller (2:35.09) was third.
Thayer got a title of her own in the 500 freestyle in 5:48.66 as Lilly Wallis was second in 6:12.66. Madison Ceclia pulled away in the 100 butterfly, prevailing in 1:05.48 as J-D had Maria Fisher second (1:11.37) and Gretchen Olsen third (1:13.67).
All of this followed Monday’s meet where F-M, taking on Baldwinsville at Nottingham High School, followed up its big Oct. 11 win over Liverpool by defeating the Bees 87-84.
Meghan Groshans went 2:13.24 for first-place points in the 200 freestyle and 5:54.58 for the same in the 500 freestyle before Kelly Liu won the 50 freestyle in 27.53 seconds to Addie Atherton’s 27.95 for B’ville and Emme Prendergast won the 100 freestyle in 1:03.07 to Riley Fitzgerald’s 1:04.65.
Elise Wratney’s 1:12.88 in the 100 breaststroke was 1-2 with Avery Howe (1:18.65) just ahead of Atherton (1:19.02) as Wratney added a second in the 100 butterfly in 1:12.49 and Gabby Dardis topped Ella Mekker, 1:08.30 to 1:09.06, in the 100 backstroke.
Prendergast got second in the 200 IM in 2:36.77 as Eliza Smith (2:39.41) was third. Keegan Nicolette prevailed in the diving competition, earning 188.75 points.
Many of the area’s top divers were at Nottingham Saturday for the Burgos Invitational – and no one could beat McQuaid, whose state-qualifying score of 457.90 points beat out the 447.55 from Liverpool’s June Piorkowski.
Osvoldik gave CBA a sixth-place finish with 383.50 points, with J-D’s Kaia Eutale seventh ahead of Zoe McCarthy in eighth, Abby Gorczynski in 10th and Jennifer Ambrose 11th as Eliza Hansen got 14th place for F-M.
