Everyone eagerly anticipates the Liverpool boys swim team’s showdown with Jamesville-DeWitt on Wednesday night, each side undefeated and atop their respective leagues – the Warriors in front of the CNY Counties League, the Red Rams first in the Onondaga High School League.
One last tune-up for the Warriors came last Thursday against the combined Syracuse city squad at the Nottingham High School pool that will host the Section III championships in mid-February. Getting re-acquainted with that familiar venue of years past, Liverpool defeated Syracuse 95-84.
For the most part, Liverpool’s top swimmers rested, but it gave a chance for others to shine, including Andrew Phan, who won the 100-yard freestyle in 56.23 seconds after he finished a close second (2:09.41) to teammate James Hunter (2:05.48) in the 200 freestyle.
The Warriors went 1-2 in a pair of other individual races, starting with the 200 individual medley, where Rainer Grimme posted a time of 2:22.89 and Kyle Richardson was second in 2:31.33. then, in the 100 butterfly, Rob Hinkey, in 1:01.82, held off Matt Geary (1:02.27) for the top spot.
Peyton Sobolewski was victorious in the 50 freestyle in 26.54 seconds over Syracuse’s Jack Kaftan (26.91 seconds), later taking second place in the 500 freestyle. Richardson needed 1:05.05 to prevail in the 100 backstroke as Brennan Matthews, with 207.4 points, pulled away in the diving competition.
The top swimmers did get together to work in the 200 freestyle relay where Nick Burdo, Matt Petit, Tom Griffin and Luke Rogers tore to a time of 1:29.74. This followed a 200 medley relay where Geary joined Griffin, Lachlan Eicholzer and Matt Geary to produce an impressive winning time of 1:41.73.
Meanwhile, Cicero-North Syracuse had a big meet of its own last Wednesday night, facing Baldwinsville at Le Moyne College, but never really getting a chance to keep up with the Bees, who prevailed by a 103-72 margin to improve to 6-1, with its lone defeat coming to Liverpool earlier this month.
Michael Ferguson was impressive in the diving competition for the Northstars, earning 213.72 points, but other than that, B’ville nearly swept individual events in the early going, with Ryan Hiltbrand taking the 200 freestyle (1:59.18) and 500 freestyle (5:23.11), while Alex Hlitbrand was first in the 50 freestyle (24.29 seconds) and 100 butterfly 1:00.75) for more points.
B’ville also took the 200 medley (1:51.13) and 200 freestyle (1:38.71) relays before Payton Connors gave C-NS a race win in the 100 backstroke, doing so in a time of 1:07.31. Nate Perrotta was victorious in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.68 as the Northstars fell to 2-4 on the season, returning to Le Moyne this Wednesday to face Fayetteville-Manlius before a Friday trip to Weedsport.
