Though it could not quite get to the top of the standings during Thursday’s Section III Class A championship meet at Nottingham High School, the Jamesville-DeWitt-CBA boys swim team still earned a handful of victories and broke one school record.
All told, the Red Rams earned 294 points, just behind the tight battle at the top, where Watertown, beating Liverpool head-to-head in the last two relay races, prevailed with 354.5 points to the Warriors’ 344.5 points.
That new school mark came in the first race of the meet, the 200-yard medley relay. Together, the Red Rams’ quartet of Owen Farchione, Luca Bebla, Spencer Schultz and Jeff Gabriel posted a time of one minute, 38.74 seconds that not only set a record, it won the race, too, beating runner-up Watertown (1:41.00) by more than two seconds.
Schultz went from there to qualifying for the state meet with his victory in the 100 butterfly, finishing in 52.62 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of Baldwinsville’s Alex Hiltbrand (52.62 seconds). He also was third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.44 as Bebla was sixth in 1:04.26 and David Chen was seventh in 1:05.60.
Farchione was third in the 100 butterfly in 56.91 seconds, but was victorious in the 100 backstroke, going 55.58 seconds to edge Liverpool’s Tom Griffin (55.74 seconds) for that top spot as Chris Bushnell made his way to third place in 55.97 seconds.
On his own, Gabriel finished third in the 50 freestyle in 22.53 seconds, and got fourth place in the 100 freestyle in 50.26 seconds..Bushnell also was third in the 200 individual medley in 2:07.54 before helping Gabriel, Schultz and Bebla get third place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:30.73.
Bebla was 14th in the 50 freestyle (23.68 seconds), while Nathan Basch took 12th place in the 500 freestyle (5:25.48) and was 15th in the 200 freestyle in 2:00.13.
Watertown’s Maclean Crossley was named Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet. Crossley broke the sectional record in the 50 freestyle, winning in 20.37 seconds while also winning the 100 freestyle and also helping the Cyclones take the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays that proved so pivotal to the final outcome.
Fayetteville-Manlius featured Tanner Eisenhunt, who earned seventh place in the 200 IM in 2:11.74, improving his time in that event by nearly three seconds. Later, in the 100 breaststroke, Eisenhunt finished 10th in 1:06.14 as he, paired with Michael Araujo, Josh Lok and Nate Montgomery got eighth place in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:38.01.
Eisenhunt, Montgomery, Lok and Araujo went 1:36.73 for ninth place in the 200 freestyle relay. Tristan Wellner was 10th in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.32, with Ben Stroh 12th in 1:00.99 as Josh Lok got 12th place in the 100 freestyle in 52.59 seconds.
The Hornets were also 12th in the 200 medley relay in 1:53.22 as Araujo (23.86 seconds) edged Lok (23.90 seconds) and Nate Montgomery (24.16 seconds) for 15th place in the 50 freestyle. Jordan Krouse got 15th place in the 500 freestyle in 5:29.01 and also was 15th (1:03.30) in the 100 backstroke.
