To the surprise of some, the Liverpool boys swim team had some company atop the CNY Counties League in December, with Baldwinsville matching the Warriors’ 4-0 start.
But when those two teams got together Wednesday night at the Baker High School pool, the Warriors reasserted its place at the top, putting together a series of race victories and defeating the Bees by a 52-42 margin.
Again, Nick Burdo was the pace-setter, tearing to a time of one minute, 49.01 seconds to win the 200-yard freestyle by a big margin over B’ville’s Ryan Hiltbrand (1:59.91) before going to the 500 freestyle and winning that race in 5:17.60, again with Hiltbrand (5:27.15) in the runner-up spot.
During a close 50 freestyle, Matt Petit held off the Bees’ Alex Hiltbrand, 23.80 seconds to 23.98, while Peyton Sobolewski pulled away and won the 100 freestyle in 51.87 seconds. In the 100 backstroke, Tom Griffin won in 1:00.23, part of a 1-2 finish with Curtis Merrick (1:01.47) as Hayato Hirito won the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.73, where Dan Stapleton (1:10.77) finished third.
Griffin O’Neil was second in the 200 individual medley (2:15.50), inches behind the Bees’ John Sidroakis (2:15.46), but beating out Merrick (2:16.72), who was third. The 100 butterfly was even closer, J.J. Ross finishing in 1:00.03, but B’ville’s Alex Hiltbrand (1:00.02) beating Ross by one-hundredths of a second.
Liverpool also prevailed in two of the three relays. Sobolewski, Justin Allen, Lucas Mussi and Justin Mancuso were first in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.90, with another Warriors team second in 1:37.35, while Mancuso, Tyler Hyde, Kyle Richardson and Lachlan Eicholzer went 1:50.04 in the 200 medley relay, exactly one second ahead of the Bees’ 1:51.04.
A night earlier, at Nottingham High School, Cicero-North Syracuse returned from its holiday break and controlled matters against the combined Syracuse city team, winning by a score of 102-80.
Nate Ancona led the Northstars, starting in the 200 freestyle, where he posted 2:05.89 to beat out James Dwyer (2:12.65) for that top spot, and then prevailing again in the 100 butterfly in 1:06.18 as Matt McAndrew (1:09.25) grabbed the runner-up spot.
Steve Cooley also won twice, going from a time of 24.92 seconds in the 50 freestyle to claiming the 500 freestyle in 6:00.85.
Cooley also helped Nate Perrotta, Sean Payrot and Elias Ward get to first place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:42.66 to Syracuse’s 1:45.09. Earlier, in the 200 medley relay, Perrotta, Cooley, McAndrew and Owen Ukleya held off Syracuse, 1:55.38 to 1:56.63, for a key early win.
On his own, Ukleya was victorious in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.91, this before helping Ancona, Payrot and Tanner Dwyer win the 400 freestyle relay in 4:09.87 to Syracuse’s 4:11.82.
James Dwyer went 56.24 seconds to win the 100 freestyle over Syracuse’s Dan Hoffman (57.55 seconds), while McAndrew was second in the 200 IM and Michael Ferguson had 156.8 points in diving to finish behind Syracuse’s Meikhi Scott (196.65 points).
C-NS pays a visit to Fulton next Wednesday night, just as Liverpool aims for 6-0 hosting Fayetteville-Manlius.
