In many different ways, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls swim team’s Section III Class B championship, earned Friday at Nottingham High School, was quite satifying.
Not only did the Red Rams hold off its neighbors from Christian Brothers Academy in the team standings, it also managed to qualify all three of its relay sides for the Nov. 16-17 state championships at Ithaca College.
J-D had 352 points to CBA’s 318 points, with New Hartford (297.5) edging Watertown (289) and Mexico (279) for third place. The Rams’ depth helped to overcome the strong individual efforts from the Brothers, especially that of Darien Tompkins and Lauren Kelly.
It all started in the 200-yard medley relay. CBA had already clinched a state meet berth in this race and won again here, too, as Tompkins, Kelly, Ally Howard and Kaitlyn Bushnell finished in one minute, 50.86 seconds.
But J-D was close behind, and when Emma Galletta, Amelia Hesler, Emily Ninestein and Gwen Lister finished in 1:52.24, it beat the state qualifying standard of 1:52.35.
No one would catch the Rams in the 200 freestyle relay. Needing to go under 1:41.69 in this race to advance, J-D had Galletta, Hesler, Sawyer Parker and Julia Antoine finish in 1:41.03, edging CBA, who had Tompkins, Bushnell, Kelly and Katelyn Wendt go 1:41.23 to also advance.
Finally, in the 400 freestyle relay, Galletta, Hesler, Parker and Lister returned, and by posting a time of 3:41.58, it went under the qualifying standard (3:42.73) by more than a second. The Brothers finished sixth.
Moving to individual events, Tompkins set a Class B meet record in the 100 butterfly, her time of 57.95 seconds breaking the mark of 58.54 set by Alexis Falvo in 2015. Ninestein (1:01.15) beat Galletta (1:02.72) for fifth place.
Not stopping there, Tompkins also beat the field in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 1:00.97 as J-D had Claire Huyck finish third in 1:04.20 and Ninestein finished fourth in 1:06.68, with Howard seventh in 1:07.52.
Hesler dominated the 100 freestyle for J-D, winning in 52.84 seconds and, again, advancing to the state meet in that race. Bushnell was fourth in 56.36 seconds, beating out Parker (56.72), who was fifth.
Kelly was victorious for CBA in the 50 freestyle and advanced to the state meet by tearing to a time of 24.55 seconds to hold off Watertown’s Sarah Kilburn (24.71), with Bushnell third in 25.05 seconds. Antoine finished eighth.
Then Kelly prevailed in the 100 breaststroke, holding off Lister, 1:07.62 to 1:07.98, with the Rams’ Sofia Bebla making it to third place in 1:09.74. Annah Nizar was seventh for CBA in 1:14.25 as J-D’s Lucy Heflin was eighth (1:15.24) and Grace McGuire finished 10th in 1:16.56.
CBA’s Karrina Pullano had 361.45 points in diving, a close second behind South Jefferson’s Clara Marlowe (365.35), with Sophie Menar (319.75) edging Abby McGuire (317.10) for fourth place.
Parker nearly won the 200 freestyle, but got to second place in 2:00.92 behind Mexico’s Carolyn Zedack (2:00.31). Lister swam the 200 individual medley in 2:20.01 to finish third.
