As Friday afternoon’s Section III Class B girls swimming championship meet unfolded at Nottingham High School, Jamesville-DeWitt and New Hartford separated themselves from the other seven teams in the field.
Yet nothing was settled until the final race, the 400-yard freestyle relay, where the Red Rams prevailed and ran its total to 468 points, beating out the Spartans (458 points) as Watertown took third place with 297 points.
Already during the meet, the J-D quartet of Amelia Hesler, Emma Galletta and Marissa Potamianos had won the 200 freestyle relay in one minute, 40.71 seconds, with New Hartford third behind Watertown.
Now that same Red Rams group got together for the 400 freestyle relay and, in a time of 3:39.85 seconds, Hesler, Galletta, Potamianos and Phillips pulled away from New Hartford (3:47.88) for the clinching points.
So ended a battle that had started a day earlier with the sectional Class B diving competition, where J-D claimed four of the top eight spots.
At the top, Megan Alkins, earning 341.00 points, held off teammate Lauren Saletsky, who was second with 327.95 points. Katie White got fifth place with 303.60 points and Allin Liebler-Bendix (296.56 points) gained eighth place.
Hesler and Phililps had both contended in the first individual race, the 200 freestyle, where Hesler was second (1:55.42) and Phillips third (1:58.16) as Potamianos got fifth place in 2:01.23 From there, Hesler went on to dominate the 500 freestyle, finishing in 5:13.56, more than eight seconds ahead of New Hartford’s Kim McDonald (5:21.78) and the field.
Earlier in the meet, Galletta went to the top in the 50 freestyle, her time of 25.70 seconds just ahead of Mexico’s Emily Alvarado (25.96 seconds) as J-D’s Mackenzie Moore finished third in 26.06 seconds and Kate Salvo (26.73 seconds) got sixth place.
Going for a second title in the 100 butterfly, Galletta finished in 1:04.83, trailing only Potamianos, who won in 1;01.66.
Phillips finished second in the 100 freestyle in 53.92 seconds, trailing New Hartford’s Alexis Falvo, who won in 53.14 seconds after she won the freestyle, later named as the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer. Salvo (57.92 seconds) beat out J-D teammate Sawyer Parker (58.15 seconds) for fifth place, with Parker also fifth in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.27.
When it came back to Nottingham for Sunday’s state qualifying meet, J-D nearly would gain possession of the George Falwell Cup, finishing with 219 points, just behind Liverpool (223 points) and Fayetteville-Manlius, who followed up its sectional Class A title with 231 points here to hang on to the title.
Mostly, J-D’s title bid was based on winning two of the three relays. Hesler, Phillips, Potamianos and Galletta sped to a victory in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:40.72 with Auburn (1:42.49) in the runner-up spot, and that same J-D quartet returned to win the 400 freestyle relay in 3:39.38 to Liverpool’s 3:40.58.
Hesler, in a time of 1:55.48, was second in the 200 freestyle, inches behind Liverpool’s Ali Testone (1:55.37) as Phillips got third place in 1;59.79 before adding a second-place effort in the 100 freestyle in 54.82, again with Falvo (53.11 seconds) prevailing for New Hartford. Later, in the 500 freestyle, Hesler matched her Class B time of 5:13.56, but again settled for second place as Liverpool star Sydnie Sovinsky won in 5:05.26.
Elsewhere, Potamianos was third in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.93, while Galletta got sixth place in the 50 freestyle in 25.70 seconds. Saletsky finished 12th in the diving competition with 349.6 points, ahead of Alkins, who was 15th with 333.75 points.
Both the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams from J-D were able to advance to the Nov. 18-19 state meet at Ithaca College, with Hesler qualifying in the 200 and 500 freestyle.
