Having long established itself as one of the top programs in Central New York, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team wasted little time establishing itself as the favorite in the Onondaga High School League again.
The Red Rams went to Oswego for Wednesday night’s season opener, and though it got pushed for much of the meet, a late string of 1-2 finishes helped put away a 97-79 victory over the Buccaneers.
Things started with Owen Farchione, Luca Bebla, Chris Bushnell and Michael Conley working together to take the 200-yard medley relay in one minute, 48.59 seconds over Oswego’s 1:53.37, with Spencer Schultz following up by going 1:51.62 in the 200 freestyle.
A close 50 freestyle saw J-D/CBA’s Jacob Harron edge the Bucs’ Josh Thomas, 23.85 seconds to 23.90, while Lucas Delaney (202.8 points) and Ryan Evans (195.25 points) pulled off a sweep of the diving competition.
Farchione had back-to-back runner-up finishes, getting second place (1:00.64) behind Oswego’s Austin Richardson (58.05 seconds) in the 100 butterfly and then going 53.08 seconds in the 100 freestyle to trail Thomas, who won in 52.66 seconds. Richardson had also edged Bushnell, 2:11.30 to 2:11.79, in a close 200 individual medley.
But after Nathan Basch finished second in the 500 freestyle in 5:43.36, J-D got first and second place in the 200 freestyle relay, piling up points as Bebla, Schultz, Bushnell and Harron finished in 1:38.44.
Then Farchione got into the win column in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.84, with Liam Kaplan (1:11.69) in second place. Bebla’s victory in the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.72 over David Chen (1:09.89) helped the Rams clinch the meet win.
While that was going on, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys swim team nearly won its 2016-17 opener at Baldwinsville, but ultimately could not hold on in a 46-45 defeat to the Bees.
The Hornets had a series of second and third-place finishes, but could not overcome B’ville winning most of the events. Tanner Eisenhunt got close in the 100 backstroke, posting 1:03.77 to finish just behind B’ville’s Evan Bohman, who won in 1:03.34.
Eisenhunt also was second in the 200 freestyle in 2:04.68 behind the Bees’ John Licciardello (1:57.21). Michael Araujo swam the 50 freestyle in 24.63 seconds as Ricky Wan got second place in the 200 IM in 2:22.79 and added a runner-up finish in the 100 breaststroke in 1;15.14.
