Having already pulled out a pair of narrow victories on the way to a 3-0 start, the Baldwinsville boys swim team now knows that its ability to prevail in closely contested meets is not confined to the Baker High School pool.
For when the Bees traveled to West Genesee Wednesday night, it again found itself in a close contest, and again won it by a single point, edging the Wildcats 82-81 for its second one-point win of the season to go with topping Fayetteville-Manlius 46-45 in the Nov. 30 opener. B’ville also squeaked past Mexico 48-46 a week after topping F-M.
Following WG’s win in the opening 200-yard medley relay in one minute, 46.49 seconds, B’ville started to stir in the 200 freestyle, where John Licciardello, in a time of 1:57.92, was the only swimmer in the race to break the two-minute mark as the Wildcats’ Matt Shoults was second in 2:00.78.
Then the Bees went 1-2-3 in the 200 individual medley, seeing Nick Schultz prevail in 2;13.86, while Evan Bohman needed 2:19.29 to grab second place and John Burns finished third in 2:27.08. This made up for B’ville not contesting the diving event, where WG swept the top three spots.
In the 50 freestyle, Alex Hiltbrand was second in 23.17 seconds, just behind WG’s Nate Gdula (22.94 seconds) as Ryan Hiltbrand finished third in 23.89 seconds and would go on to finish second (51.86 seconds) behind Gdula (50.69 seconds) in the 100 freestyle.
Between those races, though, was a 1-2 B’ville sweep in the 100 butterfly where Kellen Albrecht roared to a top time of 56.79 seconds and John Burns finished second in 1:04.55. Then, in the 500 freestyle, Licciardello won in 5:19.73, with Jonathan Oad grabbing second place in 5:32.21.
Responding to the Wildcats’ 200 freestyle relay win in 1:36.68, B’ville saw Bohman, in 1:02.44, beat Oad (1:04.20) as part of a 1-2 effort in the 100 backstroke. Schultz nearly won the 100 breaststroke, going 1:03.88 just behind WG’s Ryan Hagadorn, who won in 1:03.49.
All of this meant that the 400 freestyle relay would decide the meet. And B’ville was ready for it, having Licciardello, Oad, Brandon Formoza and Mark Dickson race to victory in 3:41.98 for the clinching points.
Now the trick for B’ville was to maintain its top form through a two-week break before a first-place CNY Counties League showdown with Liverpool on Jan. 5.
