For Cicero-North Syracuse junior Madeline Thorne, the ultimate competition next weekend when she goes to Ithaca College for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association diving championships.
Thorne had earned her spot earlier this season, on Sept. 28, when she scored 452.40 points at a meet in South Jefferson to exceed the state qualifying score of 440.00 points, but she still was after more as the Section III championships took place late in the first week of November.
In Class A diving, Thorne earned 408.05 points to finish second as C-NS teammate Kaitlyn Carroll was third with 383.90 points. Liverpool had Sophia Recuparo fourth with 373.25 points as the Northstars’ Karly Tolhurst (331.60 points), with the Warriors’ Aija McIntyre and Macy Moore eighth and 11th, respectively.
So it was on to last Saturday’s state qualifier at West Genesee, where Thorne improved to 438.00 points, and again was second as Carroll, just an eighth-grader, was third with 384.95 points.
They both trailed Syracuse’s Alexiana Foster, who won with 456.70 points. Recuparo finished eighth with 350.80 points as Tolhurst (344.95 points) was 12th and McIntyre (323.50 points) got 14th place.
A day later, at Nottingham High School, the sectional state qualifier was held for swimmers as Liverpool finished fifth with 147 points and C-NS was 12th with 112 points. Fayetteville-Manlius, with 300 points, captured the George Falwell Cup.
The Warriors’ best finish was in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Jaida Fox, Jessica Testone, Sophia Russo and Delaney Gellert got a time of three minutes, 47.71 seconds, putting them third behind J-D’s 3:39.51 and F-M’s 3:42.24/
On an individual basis, Gellert made her way to sixth place in the 100 freestyle in 56.12 seconds, quicker than the 56.25 she had going into the meet. Fox, in 5:29.20, jumped from 5:33.51, her previous best time this season, in the 500 freestyle and finished eighth.
Fox was eighth in the 200 freestyle in 2:04.23, just ahead of Russo, who was ninth in 2:02.34, an improvement of more than three seconds from her previous best this fall. Russo also improved to 1:01.74 in the 100 butterfly to finish ninth, with Jessica Testone 12th in 1:03.73
Dominique DeRuijter earned 11th place in the 100 backstroke in a season-best 1:04.73, with Megan Winn 15th in 1:05.68. Testone got 13th place in the 50 freestyle. Gellert, Fox, Russo and Testone were seventh in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:42.10.
Brooke Fedi led C-NS, getting to fourth place in the 200 individual medley in 2:17.08, Gellert 10th in a season-best 2:24.48. Moving to the 100 breaststroke, Fedi had her quickest time of the fall in 1:10.08 and again finished fourth.
Fedi helped Alyssa McRobbie, Bryn Myers and Alayna Harbaugh finish 10th in the 200 medley relay in 1:59.12, with Myers 10th in the 50 freestyle in exactly 26 seconds, three spots ahead of Testone. McRobbie finished 20th in the 100 backstroke.
Grace Devinney was 12th in the 500 freestyle in 5:43.82, beating out teammate Jeanne Vinette (5:48.80) in 15th place, while Devinney was 13th in the 200 freestyle in 2:07.11, with Brittany Wood 19th in the 200 IM. C-NS finished 12th in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:47.34 and 16th (4:07.29) in the 400 freestyle relay.
