by Phil Blackwell

After all the uncertainty, delays, school closings and school openings, boys swimming teams at Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy reached their most important goal – having meets this winter.
Deemed a “low-risk” sport by New York State officials, area boys swim teams began practice in mid-December, and last weekend the Hornets and Red Rams both got underway. Again having its practices and meets at Cazenovia College, F-M took on Oneida last Friday, and the Hornets prevailed 94-78 over the Indians.
An early highlight came in the 200-yard freestyle, where F-M teammates Ben Rabin and Eric Bang both finished in one minute, 59.87 seconds, going 1-2 overall. Bang went on to win the 100 freestyle in 52.41 seconds.
Lucas Wieres had the quickest times in two races, going 2:11.67 in the 200 individual medley and then tearing to a first-place 55.17 seconds in the 100 butterfly.
Jason Porter, second in the 200 IM behind Weires, was first in the 500 freestyle, his time of 5:33.08 ahead of Eli Kligerman (5:47.11) and Nathan Walz (5:50.01) as Carter Page went 1:01.59 in the 100 backstroke.
Erich Omans, in 1:07.97, edged Rabin (1:08.34) for top honors in the 100 breaststroke, with Omans going 24.03 seconds in the 50 freestyle to take second behind the 23.87 from Oneida’s Andrew Hicks.
Connor Gleasman, one of Section III’s top returning divers, recorded 235.72 points in his first meet of the winter, with Liam Hartnett-Waere getting 135.75 points.
Rabin, Weires Omans and Porter paired up to go 1:48.01 in the 200 individual medley. Later, in the 200 freestyle relay, Bang, Weires, Oman and Rabin posted 1:35.30 as, in the 400 freestyle relay, Bang, Porter, Kligerman and Cooper Hughes finished in 3:48.40.
J-D/CBA would get its turn on Saturday against Baldwinsville. To hold this meet with both teams in person, the sides were each designated two lanes, minimizing personal contact and not having spectators in person.
It went off well, and the Red Rams would finish on top, beating the Bees 91-81, led by multiple titles from Nathaniel Wales, Nathan Chen and Bobby Diel.
Wales swam the 200 freestyle in 1:55.43 to edge B’ville’s Tristan Miranda (1:56.17), and the pair staged another close race in the 500 freestyle, Wales winning in 5:17.64 to Miranda’s 5:20.22.
Chen went 23.80 seconds to top the Bees’ Mikey White (24.00) in the 50 freestyle and then posted the top time of 1:10.55 in the 100 breaststroke. Diel pulled away in the 200 IM to claim victory in 2:18.46, preceding a 100 butterfly where he finished in 1:00.72.
In a close 100 backstroke, Jamey Turo, in 1:03.40, was just behind B’ville’s Aidan Solomon (1:03.26), with Luke Marino second (56.58) and Gehrig Snyder (57.34) third in the 100 freestyle. Sean Rigdon scored 168.45 points in diving.
The 200 freestyle relay provided another highlight as Chen, Marino, Wales and Mike Bratslavsky posted 1:39.01, just ahead of the Bees’ time of 1:39.22.
J-D-CBA is in action again Saturday against Cicero-North Syracuse. F-M next competes on Jan. 27 against West Genesee.