In the midst of its busiest stretch of the season, the Skaneateles girls swim team competed four times in eight days, counting its appearance in the Sept. 22 Watertown Invitational.
At the tail end of this stretch was back-to-back road meets, which began last Tuesday with the Lakers going to Liverpool and taking a 100-81 defeat to the Warriors.
From start to finish, Liverpool had too much depth for Skaneateles, but the visitors still had big moments, including Alice Spaulding going to the 200-yard individual medley.
In two minutes, 27.46 seconds, Spaulding prevailed in that race by nearly 10 seconds over the Warriors’ Jessica Testone, who posted 2:36.78. She also was a close second (1:07.72) to Testone (1:07.38) in the 100 butterfly.
Later in the meet, Rory Comer went 1:17.51 in the 100 breaststroke, holding off Liverpool’s Emma Goetzke (1:18.79) for the top time, a win that Lily Buchholz would find more elusive.
In the 200 freestyle, Buchholz finished in 2:06.70, but Liverpool’s Delaney Gellert won in 2:06.26. It was the same in the 100 backstroke as Buchholz posted 1:08.70, but Megan Winn (1:08.13) claimed it for the Warriors.
Elsewhere, Grace King was second in the 500 freestyle as she helped Buchholz, Spaulding and Elizabeth Springer go 4:07.45 in the 400 freestyle relay, while King, Spaulding, Comer and Springer swam the 200 medley relay in 2:07.59. Carlee Pitman earned 189.95 points in diving, second to the 210.05 from Liverpool’s Sophia Recuparo.
Two nights later, Skaneateles was at Baldwinsville, where the point structure changed due to no diving competition and the Lakers were able to defeat the Bees 52-42.
Early drama came in the 200 medley relay where Buchholz, King, Spaulding and Comer finished in 2:04.02, just ahead of B’ville’s 2:04.27.
Then Buchholz won the 50 freestyle by inches, 27.08 seconds to the 27.11 from the Bees’ Ashley Konz, before pulling away to prevail in the 500 freestyle in 5:43.75. Spaulding took the 100 butterfly in 1:08.83 as Comer was first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.29.
Skaneateles closed the meet with Buchholz, Comer, Springer and Ivy Carter winning the 400 freestyle relay in 4:21.54 after King was second in the 100 backstroke. The Lakers face CBA next Thursday at the Le Moyne College pool.
