A clean sweep of the Section III Class A championships and George Falwell Cup last February brought a fitting end to another superb season for the Liverpool boys swim team.
Now, a new season is underway, and the Warriors got it going by taking on Baldwinsville Thursday night and mostly leaning on its superior depth to earn a 103-77 victory over the Bees.
B’ville had defeated Fayetteville-Manlius 58-36 in its season opener two nights earlier, and its top individuals stood out here, too, as Alex Hiltbrand won the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, with John Licciardello taking the 200 and 500 freestyle.
However, Liverpool claimed two of the three relays, starting with the 200 medley, where Griffin Merkling, Brandon Nguyen, Kyle Richardson and Curtis Merrick finished in one minute, 42.50 seconds to hold off B’ville’s 1:43.88.
Later, in the 400 freestyle relay, Merkling, Richardson, Merrick and Evan Kline would need 3:30.77 to beat out the Bees’ 3:32.96, though the visitors did win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:34.67 to the Warriors’ 1:36.65.
Individually, Merkling won the 200 individual medley in 2:05.31, well ahead of B’ville’s Nick Schultz (2:10.60), and then, in the 100 backstroke, Merkling prevailed in 58.28 seconds in a 1-2-3 effort with Jack Andrejko (1:00.88) and Richardson (1:01.31).
Merrick, in 50.55 seconds, was clear of the Bees’ Bailey Ludden (51.99) in the 100 freestyle as Uriy Grabovyy got 190 points on the diving board. Will Allen was second in the 200 freestyle (2:01.77) and 500 freestyle (5:30.71).
Richardson made it to second place in the 100 butterfly in 58.47 seconds, while Nguyen got second place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.73. Merrick went 22.52 seconds in the 50 freestyle, just behind Hiltbrand’s 22.31.
Back on Tuesday, Cicero-North Syracuse had opened its 2018-19 season against Weedsport at Le Moyne College, the Northstars utilizing its depth to control the meet from the outset and prevail 107-79.
John Harbaugh won two races on his own, going 2:26.77 in the 200 IM and then prevailing in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.65. Logan Petralia added a pair of titles as he took the 200 freestyle in 2:02.18 and the 100 freestyle in 55.73 seconds.
Bruce Hepel, second to Petralia in the 100 freestyle, was victorious in the 50 freestyle in 25.54 seconds as Dillon Johnson swam the 100 backstroke in 1:06.43 and Adam Rein went 1:15.79 to prevail in the 100 breaststroke.
C-NS also swept the relays. Rein, Harbaugh, Johnson and Hepel claimed the 200 medley in 1:54.23 before Tanner Dwyer joined Petralia, Harbaugh and Hepel to take the 200 freestyle in 1:42.14. Finally, Johnson, Dwyer, Petralia nad Connor Burke would claim the 400 freestyle relay in 3:57.26.
On Thursday night, when C-NS visited Fulton, the Red Raiders pulled away to top the Northstars 110-74, only winning one event – the 200 freestyle relay, when Hepel, Dwyer, Seaver Schultz and Garret Pitre posted 1:48.16.
Petralia was second in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.14, with Rein second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:16.98. Harbaugh took second place in the 100 butterfly in 1:02.58 as Dan Shaw earned 160.70 points for second place in diving. For Fulton, Mark Tallents (200 IM, 100 breaststroke) and Bryce Rogers (200 and 100 freestyle) won two events apiece.
C-NS has two more meets next week, against Fayetteville-Manlius at Cazenovia College on Tuesday and hosting Oswego on Friday, just as Liverpool has its own meet with F-M after taking on Mexico earlier in the week.
