Right after a defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius on Jan. 16, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA boys swim team would find plenty of its own success during the meets that followed.
And even in a 95-87 home defeat to unbeaten Liverpool last Friday night, the Red Rams had some big moments. Chris Bushnell broke a pool record that had stood since 2002 when he swam the 100-yard backstroke in 53.10 seconds.
That was the third pool record of the meet. Earlier, Bushnell, joined by Nathan Chen, Conlan Rourke and Liam Kaplan, set a pool mark winning the 200 medley relay in 1:40.76, and Liverpool did the same winning the 200 freestyle relay in a state meet-qualifying 1:29.42.
Elsewhere in this meet, Bushnell, in 22.34 seconds, edged Liverpool’s Julien Brownlow (22.41) in the 50 freestyle. Rourke roared to first place in the 100 freestyle in 51.77 seconds as Chen won the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.29 and Lucas Dekaney had 280.75 points to claim the diving competition. Nate Wales was first in the 500 freestyle.
Exactly one week earlier, Bushnell led J-D/CBA as it won several individual events during the Salt City Athletic Conference championships at Nottingham High School.
When Bushnell swam the 100 butterfly in 53.27 seconds, he not only won, he broke the meet record another J-D/CBA swimmer, Spencer Schultz, established when he went 53.90 seconds a year earlier.
Later, in the 100 backstroke, Bushnell could not quite match his 53.07 seconds time from 2018, but still won in 53.38 seconds over Liverpool’s Griffin Merkling (55.34).
Chen, who was third in the 100 butterfly in 58 seconds flat, would prevail in the 100 breaststroke, going 1:03.41 to hold off West Genesee’s Ryan McMahon (1:04.66) in second place. Emmanuel Ignacio finished eighth in 1:12.41.
Wales won a tight race with F-M’s Miguel Aldana in the 500 freestyle, Wales hitting the wall in 5:24.74 to edge out Aldana, who was second in 5:25 flat. Logan Rodarmel finished sixth for the Red Rams..
Rourke, in 2:00.69, beat out Wales (2:02.07) for third place in the 200 freestyle. Bushnell, Chen, Rourke and Colby Porter went 1:43.84 to finish third in the 200 medley relay. Bobby Diel was fourth in the 200 individual medley in 2:22.89, with Porter seventh and Ignacio eighth.
F-M had a fourth-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay as Nate Montgomery, Tanner Eisenhut, Lucas Wieres and Nico Foster finished in 1:36.23, with Baldwinsville prevailing in a state meet-qualifying 1:29.61. Eisenhut, Montgomery, Wieres and Richard Wan were fifth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:39.84.
Eisenhut made his way to fourth place in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.65, with Jordan Krouse seventh in 1:04.58, his best time of the winter Montgomery get sixth place in the 50 freestyle in 23.71 seconds, two spots ahead of J-D/CBA’s Liam Kaplan (24.10) in eighth place.
Wieres was sixth in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.02, with Tristan Wellner (1:00.33) eighth. Wieres also took sixth in the 200 freestyle in 2:02.36 as Aldana (2:03.35) got eighth place. Ben Rabin finished ninth in the 200 IM in 2:30.45.
Michael Magee finished sixth in diving with 315.70 points, while Eisenhut was sixth in the 100 freestyle in 51.06 seconds and Chris Ziobro took ninth place in the 100 breaststroke.
F-M went from here to a head-to-head meet against Syracuse last Tuesday night, and prevailed 87-81, led by Montgomery, who swept the sprints as he took the 50 freestyle in 23.30 seconds and the 100 freestyle in 52.55 seconds, with Quinn Smith (55.84) second.
In the 200 IM, Eisenhut pulled away to win in 2:07.93, with Wan and Ben Rabin making it a 1-2-3 Hornets finish before Eisenhut had a 100 breaststroke time of 1:04.23. Magee, in 213.17 points, beat out Connor Gleasman (181.78) for diving honors.
In exactly one minute, Wieres held off Wellner (1:01.33) in the 100 butterfly as Aldana took the 500 freestyle in 5:30.56. Krouse swam the 100 backstroke in 1:06.54.
Montgomery, Wellner, Krouse and Chris Ziobro went 1:53.85 in the 200 medley relay, while Foster joined Montgomery, Wellner and Ziobro to swim the 200 freestyle relay in 1:44.36.
