A busy and important stretch for the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team would, in a seven-day span, include two head-to-head meets, including Tuesday’s showdown at home against Liverpool, who would enter the meet with an 8-0 record.
In the middle of it all was Friday’s Onondaga High School League championships at Mexico, where the Red Rams would record a series of victories in both relays and individual events.
J-D/CBA didn’t waste too much time, blazing to victory in the 200-yard medley relay as Spencer Schultz, Chris Bushnell, Luca Bebla and Jeff Gabriel tore to a time of one minute, 41.30 seconds, setting the league record for that event.
Schultz, would tear through the 100 butterfly in 53.11 seconds and, by doing so, not only win the race, but qualify for the March 3-4 state championships on Long Island as his time easily beat the state qualifying standard of 53.95 seconds.
To top off his individual efforts, Schultz would prevail in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.75 as part of a 1-2 sweep by the Rams at the top as Bebla finished second in 1:06.51 and David Chen took fifth place in 1:09.29.
Gabriel claimed a victory in the 50 freestyle, his time of 22.66 seconds nearly a full second better than Auburn’s Nate Lupo (23.44 seconds) as Bebla was fifth in 24.32 seconds and Bushnell (24.43 seconds) got sixth place. In the 100 freestyle, Gabriel was second, in 51.35 seconds, as Mexico’s Dan Mullen won in 50.42 seconds.
Reuniting in the 200 freestyle relay, Gabriel and Schultz joined Bebla and Owen Farchione as J-D/CBA won again, in 1:33.07, more than three seconds ahead of Mexico (1:36.84) as a second J-D quartet of Bushnell, Nathan Basch, Jacob Harron and Matt Schultz was seventh in 1:44.13.
Bushnell nearly won the 100 backstroke, but settled for second place in 58.22 seconds as Weedsport’s Macauley Kolonko won in a meet-record 56.43 seconds. Farchione, with a time of 59.05 seconds, grabbed third place.
Basch made his way to fourth place in the 200 individual medley in 2:26.81 and was fifth (54.10 seconds) in the 100 freestyle as Liam Kaplan was seventh (56.82 seconds) and Qizhe Liu (57.94 seconds) finished 10th. Farchione was seventh in the 200 freestyle in 1:59.18, with Harron 10th, though Harron did better in the 500 freestyle, gaining eighth place in 5:47.63.
All of this was preceded by last Wednesday night’s 112-74 romp over Fulton, where Farchione won two individual races, going 2:03.56 to claim the 200 freestyle and then swimming the 100 freestyle in 53.87 seconds for another victory.
Farchione swam legs for J-D/CBA as it won the 200 medley relay in 1:48.66 and the 200 freestyle relay in 1:44.06. Gabriel claimed the 200 IM in 2:23.08, while Bushnell was first in the 50 freestyle in 24.09 seconds and Schultz roared to first place in the 500 freestyle in 5:17.14. In a close, high-quality diving competition, Ryan Evans, with 275.60 points, finished ahead of Lucas Dekaney, who got 244.30 points.
