Victories by Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA junior Chris Bushnell and Fayetteville-Manlius junior Tanner Eisenhut, plus a diving sweep by the Red Rams’ duo of Lucas Dekaney and Ryan Evans, highlighted the Section III Class A championship meet at Nottingham High School.
The diving competition proved ultra-close. Dekaney won it, though, earning 470.05 points to beat Evans’ total of 469.95 points, though both would qualify for the March 2-3 state meet on Long Island. F-M’s Isaiah Haywood was ninth with 296.70 points.
Of the two race winners, Bushnell’s effort was far more expected. After all, Bushnell had already advanced to the state meet in his specialty, the 100-yard backstroke, with a time of 53.07 seconds.
Here, Bushnell won again, in 53.79 seconds, while senior teammate Owen Farchione stepped up and, in 54.48 seconds, improved upon his best effort of the season (56.30) by nearly two seconds while also qualifying for the state meet.
Eisenhut’s win in the 200 individual medley was a pleasant surprise for Hornets fans. During the season, Eisenhut had not gone faster than 2:08.87 in the event and was only the fourth-fastest qualifier.
Here, though, Eisenhut went to the front and stayed there, finishing in 2:02.36 to edge Bushnell, who finished second in 2:02.63. And Eisenhut would also finish second in the 100 breaststroke, going 1:02.11 to improve upon his previous 1:05.74 this season and only trail Baldwinsville’s Nick Schultz, who won in 1:00.88.
In the team portion, J-D/CBA picked up 262 points for fourth place, just behind Baldwinsville (262 points) as Liverpool, unbeaten in the regular season, won with 447 points to dethrone defending champion Watertown (362 points).
The Red Rams’ 200 medley relay quartet of Bushnell, Farchione, Spencer Schultz and David Chen had already qualified for the state meet in this event, but nearly won here, too, going 1:38.72 to finish just behind Liverpool’s winning 1:38.31.
Schultz went from there to the 200 freestyle, where with a time of 1:46.99 he qualified for the state meet and finished second, right behind Liverpool’s J.J. Ross, who won in 1:45.96.
It was even closer in the 100 butterfly for Schultz, who tore to a time of 52.99 seconds to nearly catch Ross, who prevailed in 52.85 seconds. Farchione was fourth in 55.13 seconds,
In the 200 freestyle relay, Farchione, Bushnell, Schultz and Conlan Rourke made it to fourth place in 1:31.55. Chen made it to sixth place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.61 as he, along with Rourke, Peter Hatton and Colby Porter, were sixth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:43.18.
F-M finished sixth in the team standings with 162 points, buoyed by Eisenhut’s individual efforts and also by him pairing with Mike Araujo, Nate Montgomery and Richard Wan to take fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:37.84.
The Hornets were also seventh in the 200 freestyle relay, where Eisenhut, Araujo, Montgomery and Nico Foster finished in 1:36.54. Foster, Wan, Tristan Wellner and Chris Ziobro were ninth in the 200 medley relay in 1:50.68.
Wellner was 10th in the 100 butterfly in a season-best 58.72 seconds.Wan finished 11th in the 200 IM behind Eisenhut, while Jordan Krouse was 12th in the 500 freestyle in 5:31.35, more than 18 seconds faster than what he had previously done this winter as Miguel Aldana was 13th in 5:33.24.
