The routine for the Skaneateles girls swim team in recent years has included plenty of regular-season tests, followed by a successful post-season and a Section III Class C championship brought home.
This fall, the Lakers find things a bit different. The advent of the Salt City Athletic Conference for former CNY Counties League and OHSL Freedom division schools took them to separate leagues, leaving Skaneateles with just two other OHSL sides – CBA and Mexico.
However, that does free up Skaneateles to face more large schools on its regular-season slate, which got underway last Friday with a visit to Holland Patent and a 98-88 victory over the Golden Knights.
In the first face, the 200-yard medley relay, the Skaneateles quartet of Lily Buchholz, Ava Prochna, Grace King and Alice Spaulding roared to first place in two minutes, 3.60 seconds, one of three times King and Buchholz would go to the top.
Moving to the 200 individual medley, King finished in 2:33.51 to beat the field by more than 17 seconds, following it up with a winning time of 1:07.72 in the 100 butterfly as Spaulding was second in 1:14.21.
Buchholz would go 25.62 seconds to pull away from the field in the 50 freestyle as she also won the 100 backstroke in 1:05.79. Prochna was victorious in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.12 as Rory Comer was second in 1:25.10.
Lili Winkelman, third in the 500 freestyle behind Ivy Carter in second place, also finished second in the 200 freestyle in 2;33.08 as Marcella Buchholz was third in 2:35.66. Kyra Cottrill was runner-up in the diving competition with 177.55 points, just behind HP’s Johanna Sherman (180.45 points) as Comer was second (1:08.57) and Emily Parks third (1:09.81) in the 100 freestyle.
To wrap up the meet, the Lakers had the Buchholz sisters, paired with Spaulding and Winkelman, take the 400 freestyle relay in 4:29.82. Skaneateles would visit Mexico on Tuesday to look for its second win in 2017 and then have its home opener Thursday against Baldwinsville.
