Though West Genesee boys swimming junior Ryan McMahon made four different appearances on the awards podium during Thursday’s Section III Class A championships at Nottingham High School, one of them meant more than the others.
On his way to a third-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, McMahon earned the time necessary to advance to the March 1-2 state championship meet at Long Island’s Nassau County Aquatic Center.
Prior to the sectional meet, McMahon had only gone one minute, 3.79 seconds in the 100 breaststroke, and reaching the state meet required 1:01.20, an improvement of more than 2 1/2 seconds.
Helped by a blistering pace by the swimmers in front of him, McMahon got exactly the performance he needed, finishing in 1:01.05, beating the mark by 0.15 seconds. Baldwinsville’s Nick Schultz won in 58.22 seconds, with Fayetteville-Manlius’ Nick Eisenhut second in 59.83 seconds.
Overall, WG had a fine effort that lifted them to fifth place in Class A with 229.5 points. Liverpool, with 342 points, held off F-M (317 points) to defend its sectional team title from 2018 despite not winning any event.
McMahon also contended in the 500 freestyle, his time of 4:58.44 an improvement of more than eight seconds from his 5:06.72 this winter and second to Syracuse’s Belal Hamad, who won in 4:52.75.
In the Class A diving competition held Feb. 9, Wildcats sophomore Justin Byrne finished second with 409.25 points, traling only Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Lucas Dekaney (486.00) as junior David Puma was third with 405.45 points. Sophomore Parker McIlroy finished sixth with 323.45 points and Bryan Reichert (303.75 points) was ninth.
Keegan Scharoun made his way to third place in the 100 backstroke, his time of 56.68 seconds trailing J-D/CBA’s Chris Bushnell (52.81) and Liverpool’s Griffin Merkling (54.59), who both advanced to the state meet. Scharoun also got ninth place in the 100 freestyle, posting 51.86 seconds.
Scharoun also paired with McMahon, Alex Shuron and Tiernan Guy to finish fifth in the 200 medley relay, the time of 1:42.01 not far off the state qualifying standard of 1:40.67. In the 400 freestyle relay, Scharoun, McMahon, Jack McManus and Matt Shields for sixth place in 3:37.94, more than six seconds quicker than the previous 3:44.13.
Shuron paired with Guy, Shields and Jackson Craig for fifth place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.94, this after he took sixth place in the 100 butterfly in 55.66 seconds and got eighth place in the 200 individual medley in 2:13.07.
Matt Barrington finished 12th in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.92. Matt Shields tied for 13th in the 50 freestyle in 24.37 seconds, with Guy 15th in 24.53 seconds.
Moving on to Saturday’s sectional state qualifying meet at Nottingham, McMahon led WG to an eighth-place total of 134 points as Liverpool (259 points) edged F-M (240 points) to maintain the George Falwell Cup.
In the 500 freestyle, McMahon finished in 4:59.60, getting third place as Hamad, with a 4:51.89, earned the time he needed to qualify for the state meet and Mexico’s Dylan Long was second in 4:56.89. In the 100 breaststroke, McMahon was fifth in 1:01.50.
Byrne finished with 438.1 points in diving, third behind Dekaney’s 491.1 points and the 451.8 points from Weedsport’s David Sterling. Scharoun gained fourth place in the 100 backstroke in 57.28 seconds.
McMahon, Scharoun, Barrington and Guy were sixth in the 200 medley relay in 1:44.18, with Guy, Shuron, Craig and Nate Long eighth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:39.02
