Two of Central New York’s top boys swim programs met head-to-head two days before Christmas, knowing that more battles between them still lay ahead.
Liverpool hosted Watertown, and a series of 1-2 sweeps early in the meet put the Warriors in control as it went on to defeat the Cyclones 99-84.
These two sides split the top honors in 2016-17, with Watertown taking the Section III Class A title, but Liverpool prevailing in the George Falwell Cup.
This latest battle started with the 200-yard medley relay where the Warriors’ quartet of J.J. Ross, Griffin O’Neil, Brandon Nguyen and Johannes Vorbach finished in one minute, 43.66 seconds to the Cyclones’ 1:45.23.
Then Liverpool started stacking points in the 200 freestyle where Ross, in 1:54.29, was just ahead of teammate Grififn Merkling (1:54.75) before a 200 individual medley where Curtis Merrick grabbed the victory in 2:05.12 and O’Neil (2:09.87) got the runner-up spot.
By the time Tom Griffin won the 50 freestyle in 21.83 seconds and Matt Geary was second in 23.14 seconds, the Warriors had a 41-21 lead, augmented by Uriy Grabovyy earning 162.75 points to take the diving competition.
Protecting that margin the rest of the way, Liverpool had Griffin go 49.21 seconds to roll to first place in the 100 freestyle as Merrick won a 100 backstroke duel with O’Neil, 58.48 seconds to 58.64.
Vorbach was victorious in the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.74, just ahead of Watertown star Connor Way (1:04.85), though the Cyclones did have Caleb Way edge Merkling, 5:06.74 to 5:07.21, in a close 500 freestyle and Nate Carlos (54.31 seconds) beat out Ross (55.96) in the 100 butterfly.
A close 200 freestyle relay saw Watertown win in 1:30.22 just ahead of the 1:30.29 put up by Griffin, Ross, Merrick and Geary. Liverpool would have Geary, O’Neil, Merrick and Griffin go 3:25.52 in the 400 freestyle as Watertown got a time of 3:23.84.
The work went beyond the pool, too. Watertown, like New Hartford had done earlier in the week, brought large bags of perishable food items, which Liverpool will turn around and donate to a local food pantry.
