With more great things in mind for this winter, the Liverpool boys swim team passed an important rest right away.
The Warriors opened its 2015-16 season last Wednesday night at Camillus, taking on another traditional power in West Genesee. And with senior Nick Burdo in top form, Liverpool led from start to finish and defeated the Wildcats 97-85.
A couple of weeks ago, Burdo signed his college letter of intent to attend St. Bonaventure University. With his college decision made, Burdo could turn his attention back to the pool, where the Warriors are heavy favorites in the CNY Counties League.
In an exciting opening race, the 200-yard medley relay, Burdo swam with Matt Petit, J.J. Ross and Luke Rogers as the Warriors, in a time of one minute, 47.90 seconds, held off West Genesee (1:48.18) by 0.28 seconds. Later, in the 200 freestyle relay, Burdo, Petit, Rogers and Tom Griffin won in 1:34.47, with the Wildcats (1:37.74) further back.
Individually, Burdo prevailed in the 200 individual medley, going 2:04.71 as Griffin (2:17.03) made it a 1-2 finish. Then, in the 100 backstroke, Burdo tore to a time of 55.34 seconds, well clear of Petit despite his down strong time of 58.09 seconds.
Griffin earned his own title in the 100 freestyle, going 52.77 seconds to hold off WG’s Nate Gdula (53.41 seconds), while Petit earned first place in the 200 freestyle in 1:55.51 and Ross finished second in 2:03.22, just as he would finish second (1:00.33) to the Wildcats’ Dave Whiting (55.57 seconds) in the 100 butterfly. The Warriors’ Griffin O’Neill won the 500 freestyle in 5:24.73, with Matt Geary (5:45.95) in the runner-up spot.
As that went on, Cicero-North Syracuse had an exciting season-opening meet of its own against Auburn at Le Moyne College (which serves as the Northstars’ home pool), where it picked up a string of second and third-place finishes, but could not climb to the top in a 93-86 defeat to the Maroons.
In fact, C-NS won only three events, counting Michael Ferguson’s diving score of 131.45 points. Steven Cooley swam the 50 freestyle in 24.25 seconds, getting first place, and this happened after Cooley, P Connors, Matt McAndrew and Nick Ancona claimed the 200 medley relay in 1:48.29.
Auburn countered by winning every other race, seeing Jacob Whiting prevail in the 200 freestyle (1:55.70) and 100 freestyle (51.91 seconds) and swim legs of the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, too, while Tyler Mason took first in the 200 IM (2:10.69) and 100 butterfly (58.66 seconds).
C-NS looks to bounce back next Wednesday at Pulaski, just as Liverpool has its home opener against New Hartford.
