SYRACUSE — At just the right moment, things pieced together and the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team made a serious run at the Section III Class A championship Friday at Nottingham High School.
However, that drive fell a few placements short as, again, Liverpool took the title, earning 381 points to the Red Rams’ 370.5, while Watertown was close behind in third place, earning 363 points.
Bad winter weather pushed the start of the sectional meet back 24 hours, but it did little to lessen the anticipation of the battle between the three powers that had gone undefeated through their respective leagues.
In particular, J-D/CBA was eager to dethrone Liverpool after a 101-84 defeat to the Warriors on Jan. 27, and they would trade blows throughout the sectional meet as Watertown kept up, too, with a series of first-place finishes.
The Cyclones, in fact, won the first race, the 200-yard medley relay, in 1:37.43, with Liverpool second (1:39.01), but J-D/CBA got to third place as the quartet of Dan McGann, Luca Bebla, Casey Sawyer and Jeff Gabriel posted a time of one minute, 39.64 seconds that qualified them for the state meet on March 4-5 at Buffalo’s Erie Community College.
Sawyer, having already advanced to the state meet in the 50 freestyle, still finished third in a season-best 21.75 seconds, while Gabriel was fourth in 22.66 seconds.
Then Sawyer lowered his best 100 butterfly time of the winter to 51.57 seconds to get second place in that race as Spencer Schultz was fifth in 55.81 seconds. Liverpool’s Nick Burdo won both the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly and was named Athlete of the Meet.
Dan McGann, in 50.81 seconds, beat out Gabriel (50.99 seconds) as they were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 100 freestyle. Jack Toole took his turn in the 500 freestyle and was third in 5:07.76 after a sixth-place effort (1:52.34) in the 200 freestyle.
continued — Owen Farchione would swim the 100 backstroke in 58.85 seconds for third place. Chris Bushnell rose up to take fifth place in the 200 individual medley in 2:13.53, while Sargon Bebla was sixth (2:14.57) and Luca Bebla got 12th place.
Now J-D/CBA began its charge at Liverpool with a victory in the 200 freestyle relay. Seeded third going into the race, the Rams’ quartet of Gabriel, McGann, Sawyer and Schultz won in a state-qualifying 1:29.71, well clear of Liverpool (1:32.19) in the runner-up spot.
Two races later, in the 100 breaststroke, Luca Bebla had his finest moment, rising from a fifth qualifying spot and an outside lane to win in 1:02.97, beating his previous best time of the season by more than three seconds. Schultz finished eighth and Sargon Bebla was ninth.
So with one race left, J-D/CBA only trailed Liverpool by 6.5 points, but it could only finish fourth in the closing 400 freestyle relay in 3:30.84 as the Warriors clinched the title by finishing second (3:17.35) to Watertown (3:13.51).
Fayetteville-Manlius earned 128 points to finish eighth in the 10-team field, which included Matt Beach’s win in the Class A diving competition six days earlier at Liverpool, Beach picking up 472.5 points to hold off Oswego’s Tyler Youngman (451.55 points) for the top spot.
Elsewhere, the Hornets saw Henry Dowthwaite improve by more than three seconds in the 100 freestyle and, with a time of 51.14 seconds, rise all the way to eighth place. Tanner Eisenhunt finished 10th in the 200 IM in 2:15.49 and also was 10th (5:21.33) in the 500 freestyle.
In Saturday’s overall sectional meet, J-D/CBA picked up 270.5 points, but it left them in second place. Watertown, with 299 points, edged Liverpool (292 points) for the top spot. Sawyer had the best individual finish, going 52.12 seconds to finish second behind Burdo (50.86 seconds).
In the 200 medley relay, Sawyer, Gabriel, McGann and Luca Bebla were third in 1:39.71, just off Watertown’s winning time of 1:38.90 as, in the 200 freestyle relay, Schultz and Toole joined Sawyer and Gabriel as J-D/CBA finished in 1:30.67, inches behind Cooperstown (1:30.63) and West Genesee, who claimed the title in 1:30.08.
Beach would continue his strong work on the diving board for F-M, earning 472.5 points to finish second overall, though Mexico’s Noah Galluzzo prevailed with 646.6 points.
