Regardless of records, whenever the West Genesee girls swim team meets up with Liverpool, it’s intense, and a reminder of the glories both programs have achieved over the years and decades.
Though last Wednesday’s meet in Camillus lacked some of the stakes of previous meets, it still was intense and competitive, and though it was in its home pool, the Wildcats ended up with disappointment as it fell to the Warriors 100-86.
WG did make plenty of early noise, starting with Maddie Zapisek edging Liverpool’s Jaida Fox by nine-hundredths of a second, 2:07.57 to 2:07.66, in the 200-yard freestyle, with Gabby Shuron third in 2:15.38. Then Hannah Jasinski, in 2:26.78, and Mikki Riley (2:29.46) had a 1-2 finish in the 200 individual medley.
It proved close in the 50 freestyle, too, but Jenna Mellen, in 28.07 seconds, and Maggie Linton, in 28.11 seconds, were just behind the Warriors’ Ali Testone (27.73 seconds) as Liverpool went 1-2 in diving with Alyssa Vadala (259;75 points) and Ashleigh Reinhardt (223.6 points) as Kathleen Draveck settled for third place with 176.85 points.
Not until the 500 freestyle did the Wildcats win again, with Zapisek going 5:40.34 to again defeat Fox (5:43.52) as Abrianna Gasteau finished third. Right after, in the 200 freestyle relay, Zapisek joined Jasinski, Mellen and Shuron as WG prevailed in 1:50.62.
From there, though, Liverpool swept the remaining events, despite Shuron taking second place in the 100 backstroke in 1:12.01 and Haley Hagadorn getting third place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:20.82.
Liverpool won two of three relays, taking the 200 medley (2:04.13) and 400 freestyle (4:02.74), and had Sydnie Sovinsky swim a leg in both of those relays while also prevailing in the 100 butterfly (59.67 seconds) ahead of Jasinski (1:05.31) and Riley (1:06.31) and taking the 100 backstroke in 1:02.99.
With the loss, the Wildcats fell to 3-5, and would close its regular season Tuesday when it went to Le Moyne College to face Christian Brothers Academy.
Meanwhile, Marcellus swimmer Grace Femano, who competes with the Skaneateles girls swim team, had strong efforts in last Saturday’s Onondaga High School League championships at Mexico. Femano finished third in the 100 backstroke in a time of 1:07.17, and also had a clocking of 1:01.15 in the 100 freestyle.
