Right before each of them headed for their respected holiday breaks, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys swim teams would get together for their annual regular-season clash.
It occurred in the wake of the Warriors’ most impressive win of the young season as it ventured to Watertown last Saturday and, led by the duo of J.J. Ross and Tom Griffin, won a clash of unbeaten powerhouses, pulling away to beat the Cyclones 99-87.
Quick times were posted throughout the meet, but volume favored Liverpool and it started to assert that depth in the 200-yard freestyle, where Ross, in one minute, 54.08 seconds, pulled away from teammate Matt Geary (1:56.55) in a 1-2 Warriors finish.
Curtis Merrick followed up in the 200 individual medley by claiming a thriller, edging the Cyclones’ Nate Carlos, 2:07.45 to Carlos’ 2:07.68. The Warriors also would sweep the top two spots in the diving competition, Michael Lucy recording 188.62 points and Brennan Matthews (176.02 points) getting second place.
Griffin first found the win column in a close 100 freestyle, going 50.24 seconds to edge Cyclones star Maclean Crossley (50.37 seconds). Then Ross returned to claim the 500 freestyle in 5:11.32 and Griffin prevailed again in the 100 backstroke, going 59.35 seconds to pull away from Watertown’s Ben Cisco (1:02.14) and clinch the team victory.
Liverpool only won one of the three relays as Griffin, Merrick, Geary and James Hunter went 1:32.96 in the 200 freestyle relay to hold off Watertown (1:33.27) by 0.31 seconds. Merrick had also finished second (58.14 seconds) to Crossley (56.51 seconds) in the 100 butterfly, while Dan Stapleton (1:11.36) edged Jiyong Han (1:11.96) for second place in the 100 breaststroke behind the Cyclones’ Peter Victoria (1:07.14).
In the other relays, the Warriors were second despite Griffin, Ross, Stapleton and Hunter going 1:44.72 to Watertown’s 1:41.13 in the 200 medley relay and, in the 400 freestyle relay, seeing Ross, Merrick, Geary and Griffin O’Neil go 3:31.71 as, once more, the Cyclones prevailed in 3:26.07.
By contrast, C-NS had a bit of disappointment after last Wednesday’s meet with West Genesee at Le Moyne College. With two races to go, the Northstars led and was hoping it could hang on for some momentum going into the Liverpool showdown.
Instead, the Northstars saw the Wildcats record 1-2 finishes in those remaining races to surge in front and prevail, 96-88, having Ryan Hagadorn (1:06.41) beat Zach Zaonetti (1:10.31) in the 100-yard breaststroke and also sweep the top spots in the 400 freestyle relay.
C-NS had done that exact same thing in the first two individual races of the night. Sean Payrot won the 200 freestyle in 2:01.11 to edge Nick Engell (2:01.84) at the line before Nate Ancona won the 200 individual medley in 2:18;96 and Payton Connors got second place in 2:23.28.
In a quick counter, WG went 1-2 in the next two events, including wins by Nate Gdula in the 50 freestyle (23.08 seconds) and Peter Bown (268.6 points) in the diving competition, but Gdula wasn’t done, returning to take the 100 freestyle in 50.98 seconds as Steve Cooley, in 53.43 seconds, settled for second place.
Adding a second title on the night, Ancona rolled to first place in the 100 butterfly in 59.33 seconds, while Engell, in 5:36.48, pulled away from WG’s Ryan McMahon (5:43.66) in the 500 freestyle. Then Cooley, Payrot, Engell and E Ward beat the Wildcats, 1:35.56 to 1:36.31, in the 200 freestyle relay.
When Payton Connors needed 1:01.71 to win the 100 backstroke by more than three seconds over Brian Salmons (1:05.04), the Wildcats had control, but the Wildcats’ sweeps of the last two events altered the team outcome.
Starting with the meet at Liverpool, C-NS is on the road for all of its meets through the end of January, not hosting a contest at Le Moyne until Feb. 1, against Weedsport.
