SYRACUSE — Fresh off a second-place finish in the CNY Counties League regular-season standings behind Liverpool, the Baldwinsville boys swim team would vie for more honors during last weekend’s Section III championships at Nottingham High School.
In the Class A championships on Friday, the Bees earned 189 points and finished sixth as Liverpool, with 381 points, held off Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (370.5 points) and Watertown (363 points) for that top spot.
Then, in the overall sectional meet a day later, the Bees had a string of solid finishes and was ninth with 115 points, while Watertown, with 299 points, took possession of the George Falwell Cup by seven points over Liverpool (292 points), with J-D/CBA in third.
Paired together in the 200 medley relay, John Sidorakis, Ryan App, Alex Hiltbrand and Dan Watkins finished in a time of one minute, 47.23 seconds, winning the B final and claiming the seventh-best time, even though it was a ninth-place finish.
Sidorakis was seventh in Class A in the 200 individual medley, going 2:13.84, just above his season-best 2:13.72, but he improved to 2:13.42 on Saturday and was 10th in the overall sectional standings. Jonathan Oad (2:17.91) beat out Evan Bohman (2:18.94) for 20th place.
John Licciardello improved to 5:14.57 and was seventh in the sectional 500 freestyle race, with Ryan Hiltbrand shaving more than six seconds off his season-best effort to go to 5:18.05 and take 11th place.
In the 50 freestyle, Alex Hiltbrand swam faster (23.60 seconds) in the Class A race, where he was 10th behind App’s 23.29 seconds in eighth place. App went 23.90 seconds a day later, which still beat Watkins, whose 25,90 seconds was well off the 23,80 he had recorded on Friday.
Hiltbrand also improved from 58.88 second to 58.37 in the 100 butterfly to finish eighth in Class A and ninth overall, with Oad posting 1:02.58 and Watkins was 20th in the 100 freestyle in 54.04 seconds after going 53.80 seconds in the Class A meet. In the 200 freestyle relay, Hiltbrand, App, Watkins and Kevin Atkinson were 10th in 1:35.78.
continued — Ryan Hiltbrand, whose best time in the 200 freestyle this winter was 1;55.55, would go 1:56.99 here and finish 14th overall, while Licciardello was 21st in 1;59.17, though that, too, was slower than his season-best 1:57.45.
Sidorakis came into the 100-yard backstroke final on Saturday and, with a season-best 58.92 seconds, took seventh place. App got the best finish in Class A, earning ninth place in 1:01.17 but improving to 1:00.13 on Saturday for 11th place overall as Evan Bohman gained 10th place in 1:01.45 Friday, but fell to 16th Saturday in 1:02.03. Nick Schultz was 24th in the 100 breaststroke.
To cap it all off, B’ville’s 400 freestyle relay team, which included Sidorakis, Licciardello, Ryan Hiltbrand and Brandon Formoza, went a season-best 3:35.09 on Saturday to win their heat and finish ninth overall, though it was the eighth-fastest time.
