Baldwinsville — Through the years, the Baldwinsville boys swim team had achieved plenty of victories, but rarely was able to match up against the powerhouse sides, one of which was the West Genesee Wildcats.
All of that changed Tuesday night, though, when the Bees hosted WG at the Baker High School and utilized its depth in many different ways to pile up points and pull away to defeat the Wildcats 58-36 and finish a perfect 4-0 run through December.
Right away, B’ville seized control when it won the opening 200-yard individual medley. John Sidorakis, Nick Schultz, Alex Hiltbrand and David Watkins roared to a time of one minute, 50.96 seconds and won there.
Sidorakis went from there to the 200 individual medley, the first of a trio of 1-2 sweeps for the Bees as, in a swift time of 1:58 flat, Sidorakis won and John Licciardello managed a second-place time of 2:01.91.
Moving to the 500 freestyle, Ryan Hiltbrand, who was second in the 200 freestyle behind WG’s David Whiting (1:50.96), made up for it by winning her in a clocking of 5:31.11, well clear of the field as, in second place, Licciardello posted a time of 5:55.17. Right after that, in the 100 backstroke, Evan Bohman led yet another 1-2 effort, finishing in 1:04.42 to win over Jonathan Oad, who got a time of 1:05.43.
Alex Hiltbrand was second in both the 50 freestyle (24.13 seconds) behind WG’s Nate Grabowski (23.91 seconds) and the 100 butterfly (1:00.07) behind Whiting (55.71 seconds), while Schultz was second (1:09.19), just behind the Wildcats’ Ryan Hagadorn (1:08.59), in the 100 breaststroke.
To close out the meet, though, B’ville won the 400 freestyle relay, seeing Oad, Licciardello, Ryan Hiltbrand and Brandon Formoza finish in 3:40.85.
B’ville will rest and practice during the holiday break and then, on Jan. 6, welcomes unbeaten (4-0) Liverpool to the Baker High School pool in a first-place CNY Counties League showdown, one of the Bees’ biggest meets in years.
