Between a relay sweep and double titles from John Licciardello, Alex Hiltbrand and Bailey Ludden, the Baldwinsville boys swim team did enough to get a big season-opening victory against Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday at the Cazenovia College pool.
Every bit of that excellence was needed for the Bees to defeat the Hornets 94-89, with the issue in doubt until the final race.
Licciardello claimed the 200-yard individual medley in two minutes, 11.74 seconds and also won the 100 backstroke in 1:00.71 after joining Hiltbrand, Ludden and Nick Schultz to help B’ville take the 200 medley relay in 1:47.51 to open the meet.
As for Alex Hiltbrand, he swept the sprints, going 22.71 seconds in the 50 freestyle and 52.76 seconds to dominate the 100 freestyle, with F-M’s Nate Montgomery second in both races.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Alex Hiltbrand joined Ryan Hiltbrand, plus Schultz and John Burns, as B’ville won that race in 1:38.31 to keep in front of the Hornets, who were piling up second and third-place points. Ryan Hiltbrand was second in the 100 breaststroke.
Ludden, who swam F-M’s Tanner Eisenhut to a dead heat in the 200 freestyle, both finishing in 1:58.32, claimed a solo victory in the 500 freestyle in 5:34.20, with Brandon Formoza second in 5:40.41. Schultz (1:00.26) and Burns (1:02.66) went 1-2 in the 100 butterfly.
Despite all that, the outcome was still in doubt going into the 400 freestyle relay, so Ludden, Licciardello, Formoza and Hiltbrand got together and, in 3:39.99, clinched a B’ville victory.
B’ville would return home on Friday night, but that meant a meet against Salt City Athletic Conference favorite Liverpool, who again subdued the Bees in a 54-39 decision.
A fast 200 medley relay saw Licciardello, Schultz and the Hiltbrand brothers post 1:43.20, but that trailed the Warriors’ 1:41.60 as Liverpool won every event until the 500 freestyle, which Licciardello claimed in 5:10.52.
Schultz would take the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.41, and in a thrilling 400 freestyle relay Ludden, Formoza, Licciardello and Alex Hiltbrand went 3:30.85, just behind Liverpool’s 3:30.21.
Tom Griffin and J.J. Ross each won twice for Liverpool as Griffin tore to victories in the 50 freestyle (22.09 seconds) and 100 freestyle (48.71 seconds), with Alex Hiltbrand going 22.54 seconds in the 50 freestyle and Ryan Hiltbrand going 51.52 seconds in the 100 freestyle.
Meanwhile, Ross won the 100 buttterfly in 54.99 seconds to edge Alex Hiltbrand (55.37) and also took the 200 freestyle in 1:51.47 to Licciardello’s 1:53.76. The Bees went 1:37.57 in the 200 freestyle relay, but Liverpool posted 1:32.24.
B’ville has two more meets this week, venturing to CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt on Tuesday before hosting Auburn Friday night.
