Just two weeks into the season, the Liverpool boys swim team is tearing up all kinds of marks other sides may have established in previous seasons.
Another example of this came last Tuesday night in the Warriors’ 100-81 victory over Mexico. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Tom Griffin, J.J. Ross, Curtis Merrick and Matt Geary tore to a time of one minute, 30.59 seconds that broke the Mexico pool record.
That followed Griffin going 22.07 seconds in the 50 freestyle and 48.84 seconds for a win in the 100 freestyle. Ross had also won twice, beating the Tigers’ Dylan Long, 1:51.05 to 1:53.81, in the 200 freestyle and going 54.81 seconds to top Merrick (58.65) and Griffin O’Neil (59.38) as part of a 1-2-3 Warriors sweep in the 100 butterfly.
O’Neil was a close second (2:08.57) to Mexico’s Anthony Yost (2:07.93) in the 200 individual medley as Brennan Matthews picked up 204.60 points in diving to finish runner-up to the Tigers’ Kian Long (210.10 points).
Griffin Merkling was second in the 500 freestyle in 5:14.35, with Jack Andrejko second in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.07. Johannes Vorbach went 1:05.07 in the 100 breaststroke and helped Ross, Griffin and O’Neil go 1:41.73 in the 200 medley relay.
Later that same night, Cicero-North Syracuse hosted Fayetteville-Manlius at Le Moyne College, with the Northstars claiming plenty of races, yet still falling to the Hornets 99-85.
Payton Connors, Adam Rein, Sean Payrot and Eli Ward swam the 200 medley relay in 1:46 flat to pull away from F-M (1:51.84) in that race as Connors took the 200 IM in 2:17.11 and Payrot roared to victory in the 50 freestyle in 22.38 seconds.
Still, the Hornets went 1-2 in diving and were helped by a pair of C-NS disqualifications in the next two races, though Ward still won the 100 freestyle in 54.53 seconds and Logan Petralia claimed the 500 freestyle in 5:51.53.
F-M’s accumulation of second and third-place finishes, plus the occasional race win, proved too much for C-NS to overcome, though Connors added a second title in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.14 and joined Payrot,Petralia and Tanner Dwyer to take the 400 freestyle relay in 3:46.03.
When Liverpool faced F-M Friday night, the Warriors continued to impress, defeating the Hornets 97-81 and ending the night by having Griffin, Ross, O’Neil and Geary qualify for the state meet in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:18.77.
Individually, Griffin went 1:51.58 to win the 200 freestyle and claimed the 100 butterfly in 57.38 seconds. O’Neil beat Vorbach, 51.19 seconds to 53.21, in the 100 freestyle as Geary took the 50 freestyle in 23.07 seconds and Ross won the 500 freestyle in 5:18.79.
Merkling, in 58.78 seconds, beat out Merrick (59.56 seconds) in the 100 backstroke, with Brandon Nguyen a close second (2:11.80) to F-M’s Tanner Eisenhut (2:11.53) in the 200 IM. Merkling, Merrick, Justin Mancuso and Wesley Turverey went 1:36.60 in the 200 freestyle relay.
Liverpool has another meet this Friday against Oswego, two days after C-NS takes on Baldwinsville.
