While there are plenty of bonds between Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy, one sport where they diverge in approaches is swimming.
On the boys side, J-D and CBA combine. But they remain separate in girls swimming, and went head-to-head last Tuesday night, with the Red Rams prevailing 100-83 in large part because it piled up second and third-place finishes even when the Brothers won a majority of the individual races.
Right away, it was exciting as J-D’s 200-yard medley relay team of Emma Galletta, Gwen Lister, Emily Ninestein and Julia Antoine needed one minute, 59.49 seconds to hold off CBA’s second-place 2:00.12 generated by Lauren Kelly, Kaitlyn Bushnell, Alyssa Nicita and Ally Howard.
Individually, Howard would, in 1:07.52, win a classic battle over Ninestein (1:07.69) in the 100 backstroke as Bushnell beat Galletta, 26.41 seconds to 26.61, in the 50 freestyle. Kelly won the 100 freestyle in 57.07 seconds.
J-D’s Sawyer Parker was second (57.70 seconds) to Kelly in the 100 freestyle, but would pair with Amelia Hesler to go 1-2 in the 200 freestyle as Hesler won in 2:05.16 and Parker (2:05.62) was close behind.
No one got close to Hesler in the 500 freestyle as she breezed to victory in 5:42 flat, a prelude to helping Galletta, Antoine and Parker win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:45.04 to CBA’s 1:46.47. Lister, Hesler, Parker and Kathryn Donaghue swam the 400 freestyle relay in 3:57.75.
Lister, who won the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.96 as Kelly finished second, challenged CBA’s Darien Tompkins in the 200 individual medley, but Tompkins prevailed in 2:19.53 to Lister’s 2:19.94, and then won the 100 butterfly in 1:02.35 as Galletta was second.
In the diving competition, the Brothers had Sophie Menar claim the top spot with 198.50 points. But like it did elsewhere, the Rams gained valuable points as Grace Evans (176.30 points) edged Abby McGuire (176.25) for second place.
J-D and CBA both swam on Thursday, with the Red Rams going to Liverpool and edging the Warriors 96-90 as the Brothers hosted Syracuse at Le Moyne College and won 100-83.
At Liverpool, J-D was led by Hesler’s pair of titles as she swam the 200 IM in 2:20.20 and the 100 butterfly in 1:03.16, also pairing with Parker, Antoine and Jade Stephenson to go 1:46.43 in the 200 freestyle relay.
Parker was first in the 200 freestyle in 2:05.90 as Ninestein won the 100 backstroke in 1:05.43, with Galletta taking the 100 freestyle in 56.95 seconds and Lister first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.74. Ninestein, Hesler, Galletta and Lister roared to first place in the 200 medley relay in a season-best 1:58.71.
Over at Le Moyne, CBA got two wins apiece from Tompkins and Kelly. In the 50 freestyle, Tompkins posted 25.75 seconds and then was first in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.01.
As for Kelly, she swam the 200 IM in 2:18.26, also getting a victory in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.82 as Bushnell won the 100 freestyle in 58.84 seconds and Annah Nizar was first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.70.
In the opening 200 medley relay, Kelly, Tompkins, Ally Howard and Nina Hickey won in 1:59.88, CBA moving on to win the 200 freestyle relay by having Kelly, Bushnell, Katelyn Wendt and Kathryn Nardella post a time of 1:49.94.
