Fresh off establishing a handful of school records at the Oct. 15 Onondaga High School League championships, the Skaneateles girls swim team gained one of its most satisfying victories in an already satisfying season.
Taking on Auburn at the Community Center last Tuesday night, the Lakers claimed bragging rights in this Route 20 rivalry as Leah King, Rachel Teixeiraand Lily Buchholz each won two races and it led to a 97-78 victory over the Maroons.
To start her night, King pulled away from the field and won the 200-yard freestyle in two minutes, 6.61 seconds. Much later, in the 100 butterfly, King claimed a second title in 1:03.05, more than three seconds ahead of Auburn’s Claire Alexander (1:06.24).
In the two toughest races, Teixeira was untouchable, starting with a top time of 2:28.16 in the 200 individual medley and continuing with the 500 freestyle, where her clocking of 5:47.27 beat Auburn’s Lindsay Rose (5:51.32) by more than four seconds.
Buchholz got to work in the 100 freestyle where, in 58.33 seconds, she was comfortably ahead of the Maroons’ Kennedy Wilson (59.43 seconds) at the line. Then, in the 100 backstroke, it took 1:09.07 for Buchholz to pull away from Alexander (1:11.30) as Rebecca Rottiger (1:18.10) gained third place for the Lakers.
Rose Keady had paired with M Teixeira, Grace King and T Hill to win the 200 medley relay in 2:03.89, but had to wait for her own individual title until the 100 breaststroke, where she got first place in 1:13.38, more than five seconds ahead of Auburn’s Sydney Murinka (1:18.50) as Ava Prochna (1:21.22) gave Skaneateles more third-place points.
Skaneateles also got a top-three sweep on the diving board. Gabriella Capozza, with 197.35 points, claimed the victory, with Kyra Cottrill getting to second place with 165.5 points and Carlee Pitman third with 123.95 points.
Ashley Drotar was second (28.23 seconds) to Murinka (27.43 seconds) in the 50 freestyle, with Keady third in 29.19 seconds. Grace King was third in the 200 IM in 2:37.06 and third in the 100 butterfly in 1:11.23, all of this helping to make up for Auburn winning the 200 freestyle (1:50.80) and 400 freestyle (4:02.12) relays.
This led to Thursday’s showdown with Jamesville-DeWitt, with the Lakers well aware that the Red Rams had seen its undefeated run stopped by Fayetteville-Manlius earlier in the week. Determined not to take back-to-back defeats, the Red Rams beat Skaneateles 99-83.
For a brief moment, the Lakers got the upper hand when Buchholz, Keady and Grace King helped the Lakers win the 200 medley relay in 2:03.38, more than five seconds ahead of J-D’s 2:08.76. After that, though, Skaneateles won just one more event, when Leah King topped Alexis Phillips, 1:04.20 to 1:06.04, in the 100 butterfly.
Teixeira was second in both the 200 IM (2:30.11) and 100 backstroke (1:11.20), while Buchholz was second in the 50 freestyle in 27.58 seconds. Grace King took second place in the 500 freestyle in 6:02.76, while also settling for second place in the 200 freestyle (1:50.66) and 400 freestyle relay.
For J-D, Amelia Hesler won twice, going 56.72 seconds in the 100 freestyle while also prevailing in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.27. Marissa Potamianos was victorious in the 50 freestyle in 27.04 seconds over Buchholz and swam the 500 freestyle in 5:37.35 to top Grace King.
The Rams took charge when Sawyer Parker, winning the 200 freestyle in 2:11.08, led a sweep that included Galletta (2:12.45) and Moore (2:12.53), right before Phillips rolled to first place in the 200 IM in 2;25.01.
In diving, Megan Alkins (211.65 points) and Katie White (185.96 points) went 1-2 for J-D, this before Archer, in 1:21.55, edged Lauren Barry (1:22.55) to win the 100 breaststroke. J-D swam the 200 freestyle relay in 1:48.59 and 3:45.28 in the 400 freestyle relay, one of the best Section III times of the fall in that event.
This would conclude the Lakers’ regular season at 9-4, with a couple of weeks of work ahead before the Section III championships on the first weekend of November.
