Recent history has seen the Liverpool girls swim team cede control of its rivalry with Cicero-North Syracuse, to the tune of three consecutive head-to-head victories by the Northstars, and this did not sit well with the Warriors at all.
Inspired to regain local bragging rights, Liverpool, in front of an overflow crowd at its home pool Tuesday night, finally caught C-NS, prevailing 99-86 in a meet decided by the Warriors accumulating enough points to clinch things before the closing 400-yard freestyle relay.
For that, Liverpool could largely thank the duo of Maddie Rose and Ali Testone, who won two races apiece. Rose got going with her top time of two minutes, 7.01 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle to beat C-NS’s Jeanne Vinette (2:12.03) by more than five seconds. Then Rose won the 500 freestyle in 5:46.10.
Ali Testone had seen her sister, Jessica, pull away to win the 100 butterfly in 1:08.47. When it was Ali’s turn, she went 57.78 seconds in the 100 freestyle to go 1-2 with Jaida Fox (59.27 seconds) and, in the 100 backstroke, Testone posted 1:06.39 to all but clinch the team victory.
Sarah Lavalley won the diving competition for the Warriors, earning 208.05 points to top the Northstars’ Madeline Thorne (181.35 points) as Alyssa Hollenbeck and Sophia Recuparo were second and third, respectively. Rose, Fox and the Testone sisters blazed to time of 1:48.25 to edge C-NS (1:49.34) in the 200 freestyle relay.
Earlier, the Northstars had won the 200 medley relay when Brooke Fedi, Grace Devinney, Sarah Walter and Olivia Griffin posted 2:03.35 to edge Liverpool’s 2:04.22. Two races Later, Fedi won the 200 individual medley in 2:22.02 as Griffin took the 50 freestyle in 26.41 seconds.
Fedi also was victorious in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.32 as Walter took second place in the 100 backstroke (1:09.96) and 100 butterfly (1:11.63). Devinney was second in the 500 freestyle in 5:53.68.
Back on Sept. 15, C-NS had dropped a first-place Salt City Athletic Conference showdown with Fayetteville-Manlius at the Le Moyne College pool, falling 87-75 to the Hornets.
Of the first eight races, the Northstars won just one of them, taking the 200 IM when Fedi pulled away and posted 2:18.73. Before that, F-M had gone 1-2 in the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle, piling up points that C-NS could not overcome.
Walter edged Hornets’ Mairead Egan, 1:09.44 to 1:09.55, in the 100 backstroke, with Fedi returning to win the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.21. Devinney was second in the 500 freestyle in 5:50.48.
F-M had 1-2 individual finishes in four different races to build an insurmountable lead, led by Cara Campell, who swept the 50 freestyle (25,77 seconds) and 100 freestyle (57.48 seconds) as Hannah Kellogg (200 freestyle), Addie Antshel (100 butterfly) and Lindsay Mathews (500 freestyle) also won events.
After the loss to Liverpool, C-NS broke its skid on Thursday when it defeated 94-85, just as Liverpool was prevailing again over Syracuse City 93-85.
At Le Moyne, the Northstars saw Griffin win twice, going 1:00.07 in the 100 freestyle and 27.07 seconds in the 50 freestyle. Fedi won the 100 butterfly in 1:04.44, with Walter going 1:06.76 in the 100 backstroke as Thorne (202.45 points) and Carly Tolhurst (183.15 points) went 1-2 in diving.
C-NS also claimed the two relays it needed to build a winning point total against the Tigers. Fedi, Devinney, Walter and Griffin went 2:02.08 in the 200 medley relay, with Alyssa LaFace joining Griffin, Fedi and Devinney to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:49.05.
Meanwhile, Liverpool did not have a letdown against a Syracuse side that, when it beat Skaneateles 96-90 earlier in the week, ended a five-year victory drought.
Ali Testone won the 50 freestyle in 27.03 seconds as Jessica Testone took the 200 IM in 2:39.33. Rose went 59.22 seconds in the 100 freestyle and Fox won the 500 freestyle in 5:49.57, LaValley earning 226.15 points on the diving board. Rose, Megan Winn, Ali Testone and Avery Clarke swam the 200 medley relay in 2:04.38.
