Two reigning Section III boys swim champions battled last Tuesday night, with Class A champion Liverpool going up against Class B champion Oswego.
And it went in the Warriors’ favor as it beat the host Tigers 101-77, with Curtis Merrick at the forefront thanks to two individual titles and help in two inning relay efforts.
On his own, Merrick was first in the 200-yard individual medley in two minutes, 11.30 seconds, edging teammate Brandon Nguyen (2:13.04) before going to the 100 backstroke and prevailing in 58.27 seconds.
To start the meet, Merrick, Nguyen, Julien Brownlow and Michael Piraino went 1:50.42 to win the 200 medley relay, followed by a 200 freestyle relay where Griffin Merkling and Kyle Richardson joined Merrick and Nguyen, and the Warriors won in 1:33.52.
Brownlow, in 23.53 seconds, led a 1-2-3 Liverpool sweep of the 50 freestyle with Piraino (25.18) and Evan Kline (25.27), while Richardson won the 100 butterfly in 1:00.32.
Jack Andrejko needed 54.30 seconds to hold off Kline (55.05) in the 100 freestyle as Nguyen posted the fastest time of 1:09.19 in the 100 breaststroke. Merkling, Brownlow, A.J. Wagner and Ryan Wilhelm went 3:41.85 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Will Allen needed 5:26.41 to prevail in the 500 freestyle, this after Merkling went 1:50.19 in the 200 freestyle, just beaten out by Mexico’s Dylan Long, who prevailed in 1:50.05. Uriy Grabovyy had 187.15 points in diving, just behind the Tigers’ Logan Dana (192.20).
This leads the head-to-head meet between Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse on Tuesday night, which the Northstars follow by going to Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA on Friday as the Warriors visit Oswego.
