After its fourth consecutive victory to open the season, the Liverpool boys swim team wasn’t going to let its closest neighbor and rival stand in the way.
The Warriors hosted Cicero-North Syracuse Tuesday night, and with Nick Burdo a part of three different race wins, Liverpool pulled away and defeated the Northstars by a score of 102-73.
As a starting point, Burdo joined J.J. Ross, Luke Rogers and Hayato Hirato in the 200-yard individual medley, which the Warriors claimed in one minute, 44.39 seconds right before Burdo turned to the 200 freestyle and won that race, too, in 1:55.39.
Then, in the 100 butterfly, Burdo lowered his time to 53.27 seconds, going faster in that event than Rogers did in winning the 100 freestyle in 54.16 seconds. Ross, for his part, was a close second (2:14.88) behind Tom Griffin in the 200 individual medley as Griffin prevailed in 2:13.95.
Peyton Sobolewski was victorious in the 500 freestyle in 6:06.14 before Justin Mancuso gave Liverpool a first-place time of 1:08.08 in the 100 backstroke. Brennan Matthews earned 199.85 points on the diving board.
As for the Northstars, James Dwyer claimed early success when he won the 50 freestyle in 24.36 seconds, but C-NS had to wait until the 100 breaststroke to win again as Nate Perrotta took that event in 1:14.43. Dwyer, Nate Ancona, Steve Cooley and Owen Ukleya were victorious in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:47.22.
Before that, C-NS tested itself by competing in last Saturday’s New Hartford Invitational, where in a six-team field it finished third with 186 points, behind Oswego (239 points) and the host Spartans, who won with 339 points.
Ancona earned the Northstars’ lone victory, in the 100 butterfly. With a time of 1:00.46, Ancona held off New Hartford’s Albert Shkane (1:01.42) and earned the top spot on the podium.
Ancona also grabbed third place in the 200 individual medley in 2:19.10, where New Hartford’s Noah Farmer had a Section III season-best 2:01.97 to prevail. Dwyer was second (24.42 seconds) to the Spartans’ Seamus Kearney (23.72 seconds) in the 50 freestyle, while Matt McAndrew was third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.65.
Of the three relays, C-NS fared best in the 200 freestyle, where Dwyer, Ancona, McAndrew and Cooley raced to a time of one minute, 37.36 seconds, topped only by New Hartford’s 1:34.37. Earlier, Cooley, Ancona, McAndrew and Ukeyla were third in the 200 medley relay in 1:53.12.
Following the loss to Liverpool, C-NS could rest before resuming Jan. 6 against the combined Syracuse city team at Le Moyne College, the same day as Liverpool meets 4-0 Baldwinsville in a showdown for first place in the CNY Counties League at the Baker High School pool.
