Five consecutive meet wins to open the season moved the West Genesee girls swim team to the top of the CNY Counties League standings, but it had not yet faced its toughest opponents.
And no one in the CNYCL matches the quality and depth of Fayetteville-Manlius.
While the Wildcats made plenty of inroads in last Tuesday’s meet and even won the opening 200-yard medley relay, the Hornets had far too much on hand, prevailing 94-80.
It took the combination of Maddie Zapisek, Anna Ivery, Haley Hagadorn and Miki Riley one minute, 59.17 seconds to hold off F-M’s top quartet of Addie Antshel, Morgan Kingsley, Maya Hrosar and Michelle Sipple, who posted 2:00.23.
From there, though, the Hornets had top-three sweeps in both the 200 freestyle and diving events, claimed the 200 freestyle relay and earned enough points to wrap up the meet with plenty of action left.
Still, Zapisek beat them twice, starting in the 200 individual medley where, in 2:19.45, she finished just ahead of the Hornets’ Lindsay Mathews, who posted 2:21.26.
In a quick 100 freestyle, Zapisek, challenged by F-M’s Cara Campell, would win in a season-best 55.80 seconds to Kingsley’s 57.06 as WG’s Hannah Murdoch finished third in 59.08 seconds.
Elsewhere, Ivery was third in the 100 butterfly (1:11.95) and 50 freestyle (26.99 seconds), with Maggie Smith going 1:10.98 in the 100 backstroke and Hagadorn swimming the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.79.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Murdoch, Hagadorn, Julianna Lisi and Adriana Gill went 1:54.82, with Zapisek, Ivery, Murdoch and Riley going 4:00.94 in the 400 freestyle relay.
All this was quite the warm-up for an exciting Thursday meet against Liverpool, where Zapisek’s individual prowess and a relay sweep keyed WG’s 97-89 victory over the Warriors.
To start out, the Wildcats had Smith, Ivery, Murdoch and Hagadorn go 2:02.29 to get past Liverpool (2:03.52) in the 200 medley relay. Zapisek immediately followed by going 2:03.84 to blow away the field in the 200 freestyle.
Liverpool won each of the next four events, with Murdoch second in the 50 freestyle (26.45 seconds), Riley second in the 200 IM (2:30.65) and Ivery second in the 100 butterfly (1:10.85) as Cassie Lenhardt earned 186.70 points in diving for a runner-up finish.
Murdoch then beat the Warriors’ Jessica Testone, 58.80 seconds to 59.70, in the 100 freestyle, a crucial victory since Zapisek followed with a top time of 5:30.28 in the 500 freestyle.
With the score tied 63-63, Zapisek, Ivery, Murdoch and Hagadorn went 1:45.24 to Liverpool’s 1:46.43 in the 200 freestyle relay to help WG regain the lead as Smith won the 100 backstroke in 1:07.94.
When Hagadorn, in 1:13.57, finished just behind Liverpool’s Delaney Gellert (1:13.39) in the 100 breaststroke, it came down to the closing 400 freestyle relay. Zapisek, Riley, Smith and Lisi won that race in 3:59.00 to clinch a team victory.
WG has another big meet next Wednesday when it takes on Jamesville-DeWitt before hosting Auburn on Oct. 12.
