With just 15 on its roster, the Baldiwnsville girls swim team accomplished plenty in the 2018 season, including a string of top-five finishes in last Friday’s Section III Class A championships.
Two days later, the Bees were back at Nottingham High School, this time to take part in the sectional state qualifier and, once more, held its own against the best swimmers in the area.
B’ville freshman Ashley Konz nearly beat the field in the 100-yard backstroke. The winner of the race was guaranteed a berth in this weekend’s state championships at Ithaca College, regardless of the time.
In a time of one minute, 2.51 seconds, Konz went quicker than she had this season (1:02.63), and got second place, trailing only Christian Brothers Academy’s Darien Tompkins, who won in 1:00.80. Konz got to 15th place in the 50 freestyle 26.50 seconds
Junior Kaili Sacco inched her time in the 200 individual medley up to 2:19.73 after going 2:19.74 this season, which put Sacco in sixth place as Mexico’s Alexa Von Holtz (2:11.53) won. Also, Sacco finished 11th in the 100 freestyle in 56.79 seconds.
Konz, Sacco, senior Grace Skapura and junior Clare Burke were ninth in the 200 medley relay in 1:58.40, just off their season-best time of 1:57.32. Then, in the 200 freestyle relay, that same quartet finished in 1:46.27 and earned 10th place as Emily Spaulding, Nora Wilson, Bryanna Spaulding and Olivia Ransier swam the 400 freestyle relay in 4:39.03.
Burke improved to 5:47.37 in the 500 freestyle to take 18th place and was 17th in the 200 freestyle in 2:07.40, more than two seconds quicker than her previous best effort this fall. Skapura was 24th in the 100 butterfly in 1:11.60.
Overall, B’ville had 69.5 points to finish 14th in the team standings. Fayetteville-Manlius, who narrowly lost this same event to Jamesville-DeWitt a year ago, prevailed this time, claiming the George Falwell Cup with 300 points as J-D (222 points) edged CBA (213 points) for the runner-up spot.
