Throughout last Wednesday’s meet, the Baldwinsville girls swim team traded points with Auburn, at times taking a backseat in individual events to go after the larger goal of a victory.
And that goal was reached, with the Bees holding off the Maroons 89-80 because it mixed in a handful of individual titles with enough second and third-place finishes to keep Auburn from catching them.
It was important for B’ville to win the opening 200-yard medley relay, which it did by having Noelle Staso, Anna DiOrio, Erin Mordaunt and Julia Atkins make their way to first place in a time of two minutes, 3.14 seconds.
In each of the first two individual races, Auburn won them, but Clare Burke was second (2:13.13) and Alyse Baker third (2:13.74) in the 200 freestyle, with Grace Skapura getting second place in the 200 individual medley in 2:37.20 ahead of Kaili Sacco (2:39.80) in third place.
Thus, B’ville gained more points out of each of those races, and then Staso took charge, winning the 50 freestyle in 25.79 seconds over Auburn’s Kennedy Wilson (25.89 seconds) and, minutes later, grabbing first place in the 100 butterfly in 1:04.66.
DiOrio needed 27.83 seconds to finish third in the 50 freestyle, but also was second (1:00.50) to Auburn’s Kennedy Wilson (58.47 seconds) in the 100 freestyle as Mordaunt got third place in 1:01.35.
After Clarke Burke took third place in the 500 freestyle, B’ville all but clinched the win when Allison Lange and McKenna Redmore went 1-2 in the 100 backstroke, Lange prevailing in 1:10.90 and Redmore getting second place in 1:12.21. Atkins was second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.59, with Skapura third in 1:21.83.
With the win, B’ville improved to 4-3 on the season, as it takes on Syracuse and Mexico this week.
