Another season of high school boys swimming is bound to prominently feature Liverpool, an annual championship contender in both the Salt City Athletic Conference and in the Section III Class A ranks.
The Warriors waited until Friday to get started, going to Baldwinsville, who had knocked off Fayetteville-Manlius earlier in the week, but that didn’t keep Liverpool from establishing its high standards right away in a 54-39 victory over the Bees.
Tom Griffin and J.J. Ross led the Warriors, beginning in the 200-yard medley relay, where they paired with Griffin O’Neil and Johannes Vorbach to go one minute, 41.60 seconds, holding off B’ville’s fine 1:43.20 effort.
From there, Ross moved right to a 200 freestyle victory in 1:51.47 and, in the 100 butterfly, went 54.99 seconds to hold off the Bees’ Alex Hiltbrand (55.37) for the top spot.
Griffin got his own tough win in the 50 freestyle with 22.09 seconds to Hiltbrand’s 22.54, but was more convincing in the 100 freestyle, tearing to victory in a B’ville pool-record 48.71 seconds, already putting him faster than the state qualifying time in both sprints.
O’Neil was victorious in the 100 backstroke in 58.74 seconds and went 2:07.82 in the 200 individual medley to finish just behind teammate Curtis Merrick, who won in 2:07.42.
Merrick joined Griffin, Ross and Matt Geary to take the 200 freestyle relay in 1:32.24, while Vorbach was second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.20 and Griffin Merkling was second in the 500 freestyle in 5:13.32. Merkling, O’Neil, Geary and Merrick swam the 400 freestyle relay in 3:30.21 to edge B’ville (3:30.85) in the last race of the day.
Among the local sides, Cicero-North Syracuse who swam first this winter, visiting Weedsport last Tuesday night and putting together a 99-82 victory with a well-balanced team effort.
To get it going, Payton Connors, Adam Rein, Eli Ward and Tanner Dwyer got together to claim the 200-yard medley relay in 1:54.42. Ward also won the 50 freestyle in 25.13 seconds and Rein took the 100 breaststroke, edging teammate Robert Walter, 1:16.67 to Walter’s 1:17.03.
Ward, Connors, Dwyer and Sean Payrot worked together to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:39.70 after Payrot had already claimed the 200 freestyle in 2:00.48 and won the 100 freestyle in 52.86 seconds.
Connors was victorious in the 100 butterfly in 1:08.14 and second in the 200 IM, with Logan Petralia second in the 500 freestyle and Ryan Heitman second in the 100 backstroke.
C-NS swam again Thursday, against Fulton at the Le Moyne College pool the Northstars still call home, and took its first defeat of the season, falling to the Red Raiders 99-84.
Payrot still tore through the sprints, going 22.68 seconds in the 50 freestyle and 51.23 seconds in the 100 freestyle , while Connors got first place in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.28 and was second in the 200 IM.
Petralia finished second in the 200 freestyle in 2:05.19, with Rein second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.16. In the 400 freestyle relay, Connors, Petralia, Payrot and Ward finished in 3:45.06. Fulton got two titles apiece from Koji Burdic (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) and Mark Tallents (200 IM, 100 breaststroke).
C-NS would face Fayetteville-Manlius Tuesday as Liverpool visited Mexico. The Northstars travel to Oswego Thursday night right before Liverpool hosts F-M.
