One award as the top boys swimmer of a Section III championship meet was not enough for Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA senior Chris Bushnell, so he went out and got another.
With his twin titles in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke, plus help in winning the 200-yard medley relay, Bushnell was named the Outstanding Swimmer of last Saturday’s sectional state qualifying meet at Nottingham High School.
Not only that, but J-D/CBA’s Lucas Dekaney was named the Outstanding Diver for his first-place finish, and Fayetteville-Manlius got close to snatching the George Falwell Cup away from defending champion Liverpool.
This 100 butterfly was even quicker than the sectional meet, and pushed by quality rivals, Bushnell won in 52.25 seconds over Watertown’s Nate Carlos (52.63) and Baldwinsville’s Alex Hiltbrand (53.08), who had earlier won the 50 freestyle.
Then, in the 100 backstroke, Bushnell broke his own program record, improving from 52.81 seconds to 52.50, which was nearly three seconds ahead of Liverpool’s Griffin Merkling (55.42) in the runner-up spot.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Bushnell, paired with Conlan Rourke, Nathan Chen and Liam Kaplan, would go 1:39.72 in the 200 medley relay to edge Baldwinsville (1:39.92) for the top spot and avenge its defeat to the Bees in the sectional meet.
Meanwhile, they finished the diving competition, and Dekaney could not get caught, adding this to his sectional crown by earning 491.1 points, comfortably ahead of Weedsport’s David Sterling (451.8 points) in second place.
Meanwhile, F-M repeated its sectional Class A win in the 200 freestyle relay. Tanner Eisenhut, Nate Montgomery, Lucas Wieres and Nico Foster went 1:30.23, enough to hold off Liverpool (1:30.64) and nearly a second faster than its previous 1:31.15.
Also, Eisenhut won the 200 indvidiual medley, his 1:57.55 not quite as quick as the 1:57.15 from the Class A meet, but still well clear of Liverpool’s Griffin Merkling (1:59.41) in second place. In the 100 breaststroke, Eisenhut was second in 1:00.54 to Baldwinsville’s Nick Schultz, who won in 59.47.
The Hornets’ Tristan Wellner nearly reached the March 1-2 state meet on Long Island in the 100 butterfly, finishing in 54.11 seconds for fourth place behind Bushnell, and just short of the 53.95 he needed to advance.
Montgomery went 22.43 seconds in the 50 freestyle, not quite reaching the 22.19 he needed to qualify state meet, but also finishing fourth. In the 100 freestyle, Montgomery was eighth in 51.49 seconds as Jordan Krouse got eighth in the 500 freestyle in 5:20.01.
F-M also had Foster, Wellner, Richard Wan and Quinn Smith finish seventh in the 200 medley relay in 1:45.45, more than a second quicker than the 1:46.76 from two days earlier.
