In their own different manners, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool boys swim teams gained victories in last Wednesday’s meets.
The Northstars piled up points early, and then held on down the stretch to defeat Pulaski 47-44, while the Warriors, improving to 2-0, went to New Hartford and proved impressive during a 105-80 victory over the Spartans.
Points were different between C-NS and Pulaski since there wasn’t a diving competition, but the Northstars gained a quick advantage when Owen Ukleya, Nate Perrotta, Matt McAndrew and James Dwyer paired up to take the 200 medley relay in one minute, 56.41 seconds.
Then Steve Cooley took over, winning twice in individual races. He first claimed the 200 freestyle in 2:07.94, with Sean Payrot (2:24.57) in second place, and Cooley went on to take the 100 freestyle in 56.36 seconds, with Ukleya second in 58.06 seconds.
Dwyer would also win the 50 freestyle in 25.31 seconds, going 1-2 with Ukleya (26.28 seconds), while Ancona roared to first place in the 100 butterfly in 1:02.33 and McAndrew was second in the 200 individual medley. Cooley returned in the 200 freestyle relay to help McAndrew, Perrotta and Dwyer get first place in 1:42.70.
As that was going on, Liverpool was handling a strong opponent in New Hartford with Nick Burdo posting some quick times. Burdo went 1:46.03 in the 200 freestyle, following that up with a time of 47.47 seconds in the 100 butterfly to pull away from Matt Petit, who was second in 51.31 seconds.
The 50 freestyle nearly resulted in a dead head between two Warrior swimmers, but J.J. Ross, in 24.26 seconds, beat Matt Geary (24.27 seconds) by one-hundredth of a second. Tom Griffin went under a minute in the 100 backstroke, winning in 59.12 seconds, this after a close diving competition where Liverpool’s Brennan Matthews (183,1 points) beat out New Hartford’s Genaro Paniccia (180.85 points) for that top spot.
To counter, the Spartans did win two of the the three relays, topping Liverpool 1:47.14 to 1:49.28 in the 200 medley, but the Warriors claimed the 200 freestyle relay when Burdo, Griffin, Ross and Rainer Grimme finished in 1:35.75 as Petit, Geary, C urtis Merrick and Hayato Hirato posted 1:36.81.
Liverpool looks for three wins in a row Wednesday, at Auburn, as C-NS has its own tough road match at West Genesee.
