With so much skill on hand in individual races, the Baldwinsville boys swim team overcame its relative lack of depth and the fact that it doesn’t take part in diving events to build a 7-2 record this winter.
But in Thursday s meet at Mexico, the Bees could not overcome that situation in a 96-87 defeat as the Tigers earned 13 unanswered points in the diving event, more than the eventual margin of victory.
Still, B’ville displayed plenty of skill, starting in the 200-yard individual medley, where the quartet of John Licciardello, Nick Schultz, John Burns and Bailey Ludden prevailed in one minute, 47.53 seconds, edging Mexico (1:48.29) by less than a second.
Also, Alex Hiltbrand won twice, going 54.70 seconds in the 100 butterfly to pull away from Burns (1:02.12) in the runner-up spot and then tearing through the 100 backstroke in 56.76 seconds ahead of the Tigers’ Anthony Yost (57.79).
Ryan Hiltbrand held off Licciardello, 51.84 seconds to 52.34, by half a second in the 100 freestyle, with Ryan and Alex Hiltbrand joining Ludden and Schultz to pull away and win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:36.29.
B’ville swept all three relays as Licciardello, Brandon Formoza and the Hiltbrand brothers went 3:28.10 to hold off Mexico (3:30.24) in the 400 freestyle relay.
Early in the meet, Licciardello finished second in the 200 freestyle in 1:51.99, just behind Mexico’s Dylan Long (1:51.67) as Schultz was second in the 200 individual medley (2:13.56) and 100 breaststroke, where his 1:03.59 trailed Tigers star John Ocker’s 1:00.97.
Ludden, like Schultz, was twice a runner-up, as his time of 24.29 seconds trailed Ocker (23.55) in the 50 freestyle and his clocking of 5:19.19 in the 500 freestyle was well back of Long, who posted 5:03.71.
This concluded the regular season for B’ville, who would now spend the next two-plus weeks getting ready for the Feb. 14 Section III Class A championships at Nottingham, with the state qualifier set for Feb. 16, also at Nottingham.
