Perhaps it could have gone better for the Baldwinsville boys swim team during Thursday’s Section III Class A championship meet at Nottingham High School – but it’s doubtful.
Between wins from John Licciardello and Nick Schultz and a state meet-qualifying effort in the 200 medley relay, the Bees made it all the way to third place in the team standings.
B’ville’s total of 265 points put them ahead of well-established power Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (262 points) for that third spot as Liverpool cruised to the title with 447 points and Watertown was second with 362 points.
In that 200 medley relay, B’ville needed to go under one minute, 40.67 seconds. Licciardello, Schultz, Alex Hiltbrand and Ryan Hiltbrand not only did so, but with 1:40.46 broke the school record.
Having assured that its relay side will go to the March 2-3 state championships on Long Island, B’ville could turn its attention to other events, including Licciardello’s win in the longest race of the meet.
Entering the 500 freestyle as the second seed at 5:04.32, Licciardello steadily pulled away and won in 4:58.60, with Liverpool’s Griffin O’Neil (5:03.22) edging Griffin Merkling (5:03.26) for second place as the Bees’ Bailey Ludden snared sixth place in 5:08.77, improving his best time of the winter by more than nine seconds.
Then, in the 100 breaststroke, Schultz got his turn, and while not quite matching his season-best 1:00.75, he did win the race in 1:00.88 as Fayetteville-Manlius swimmer Tanner Eisenhut was second in 1:02.11.
As for Alex Hiltbrand, he nearly chased down Liverpool superstar Tom Griffin in the 50 freestyle. With a time of 21.79 seconds, Hiltbrand finished second as Griffin won in 21.70 seconds. Ludden finished eighth in 23.40 seconds.
But while Hiltbrand had already qualified for the state meet in the 50 freestyle, he had not done so in the 100 butterfly. That changed here as, in 53.59 seconds, Hiltbrand beat the standard of 53.95 seconds and finished third behind Liverpool’s J.J. Ross (52.85) and J-D/CBA’s Spencer Schultz (52.99). John Burns finished 12th in 1:00.68.
Earlier in the meet, Nick Schultz contended in the 200 individual medley, finishing third in 2:05.55 but bettering his previous-quick time by more than four seconds. Brandon Formoza gained 12th place in 2:17.07 ,his best time of the winter.
Liccardello got fourth place in the 200 freestyle in a season-best 1:49.60 as Ryan Hiltbrand finished ninth in 1:53.79 and added a seventh-place time of 50.41 seconds in the 100 freestyle.
B’ville’s quartet of Licciardello, Schultz and the Hiltbrand brothers were third in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:30.47, just under the state qualifying standard of 1:30.12.
Ludden, Formoza, Burns and Quinn Gruppe got a fifth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:40.87 that allowed it to sneak ahead of J-D/CBA (who was sixth) in the final points standings.
Then it was on to Saturday’s sectional state qualifier, where B’ville would pick up 201 points and finish fourth behind Liverpool, Watertown and J-D/CBA.
Again, Schultz would win the 100 breaststroke, improving his season-best time to 1:00.23 to edge Eisenhut (1:08.83) at the wall. This added to an eighth-place finish by Schultz in the 200 IM in 2:08.06.
Alex Hiltbrand improved to 53.52 seconds in the 100 butterfly, but was still third behind Spencer Schultz (53.02) and Ross (53.52) as Burns was 13th, dipping under the one-minute mark with his time of 59.96 seconds.
Swimming in the 500 freestyle, Licciardello took third place in 4:58.41 behind Weedsport’s Macauley Kolonko (4:46.32) and Mexico’s Dylan Long (4:51.11), with Ludden 10th in 5:04.75.
In the 200 freestyle, Licciardello gained fifth place in 1:49.45, with Ryan Hiltbrand ninth in 1:51.10 as Ryan also got eighth place in the 100 freestyle in 50.78 seconds.
With their time of 1:30.29 in the 200 freestyle relay, the Bees’ quartet of Schultz, Licciardello and the Hiltbrand brothers missed on reaching the state meet by just 0.17 seconds. That same group went 1:41.65 to finish fourth in the 200 medley relay.
