SYRACUSE — Right up to the final race, Friday’s Section III Class A boys swimming championships carried some suspense, with defending champion Liverpool doing its best to fend off strong challenges from CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt and Watertown.
But the Warriors’ depth and consistency ultimately allowed it to prevail again, earning 381 points as the Red Rams were second with 370.5 points and the Cyclones, with 363 points, settled for third place.
It all came back to senior Nick Burdo. The St. Bonaventure-bound star was named the Athlete of the Meet for his two individual titles, as he, along with Matt Petit, led Liverpool’s efforts.
In the 50-yard freestyle, Burdo was aiming to break the sectional record of 20.52 seconds set by Oswego’s Drake Becksted in 2012, but instead he settled for a narrow victory over Watertown’s MacLean Crossley, 21.02 seconds to Crossley’s 21.06, which broke his own school record.
Two races later, in the 100 butterfly, Burdo went up against another Watertown star, Joey Ongkingco, who had already won the 200 individual medley. Again, Burdo had to break his own school mark to prevail, going 50.86 seconds, barely half a second off the sectional record of 50.32 seconds last set by Travis Knopp 15 years ago. Ongkingco was second in 52.02 seconds.
By the time they reached the final race, the 400 freestyle relay, J-D/CBA had pulled within range only trailing by 6.5 points. Liverpool needed a second-place finish to make sure it finished on top.
Naturally, Burdo and Petit helped clinch it, joining Tom Griffin and J.J. Ross as they led most of the race before Watertown, with Crossley blazing through the anchor leg, won in 3:13.51, but the Warriors’ 3:17.35 not only secured the sectional title, it was fast enough to qualify for the March 4-5 state meet at Erie Community College in Buffalo.
continued — Petit had already won twice on his own, starting in the 200 freestyle, where he wasn’t the top qualifier, but in 1:48.23 held off Auburn’s Jacob Whiting (1:48.73) by half a second as Ross rose up and took third place in 1:51.91.
Later, in the 100 backstroke, Petit went 55.22 seconds as part of a 1-2 effort with Griffin, who was second in 57.09 seconds. Adding to the point total, Curtis Merrick gained fifth place in 59.74 seconds after finishing fourth (2:09.66) in the 200 IM.
Liverpool set the day’s tone by finishing second (1:39.01) to Watertown (1:39.64) in the 200 medley relay, and later had another runner-up effort in the 200 freestyle relay as Ross, Luke Rogers, James Hunter and Matt Geary posted 1:32.19 to J-D/CBA’s 1:29.71.
Griffin contended in the 100 freestyle and took third place in 50.75 seconds, though Crossley (47.16 seconds) pulled away and won. Hayato Hirota earned fourth place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.84, while Griffin O’Neil was seventh in the 500 freestyle in 5:19.39.
Cicero-North Syracuse had a series of strong finishes, too, taking seventh in the team standings with 133 points. The Northstars had a sixth-place clocking of 1:35.71 in the 200 freestyle relay and were seventh in the 200 medley relay in 1:48.97.
Individually, Nate Ancona was seventh in the 100 butterfly (58.79 seconds) and ninth in the 200 IM in 2:14.96. Steve Cooley was 11th in the 50 freestyle and 15th in the 100 freestyle. Owen Ukeyla (1:04.45) beat out teammate Payton Connors (1:05.21) in the 100 backstroke.
When the sectional state qualifier was held a day later, Liverpool could not quite hold on to the George Falwell Cup, earning 292 points as Watertown, with 299 points, claimed the victory and J-D/CBA was third with 270.5 points.
Burdo again won the 100 butterfly, this time in 50.86 seconds, but in the 50 freestyle Crossley, in 20.84 seconds, topped Burdo (21.09 seconds) on his way to Swimmer of the Meet honors.
In a close 200 freestyle relay, Burdo, Griffin, Hirota and Petit finished in 1:39.41, only to see Watertown (1:38.90) beat them by less than a second. And in the 100 backstroke, Petit, in 55.43 seconds, was second and Griffin third (56.96 seconds), trailing Cooperstown’s Ted Mebust, who won in 53.80 seconds.
