All through the fall and winter of the 2019-20 school year, various sports teams from Liverpool would have to make their home elsewhere as the school’s athletic complex undergoes a full makeover.
In the case of the girls swimming Warriors, that meant going nearly 20 miles north, to Fulton’s Granby Elementary School, to host meets against a tough slate of foes inside and outside the Salt City Athletic Conference.
The first of these contests proved successful, though, as Liverpool took on West Genesee last Tuesday night and, with a late surge, defeated the Wildcats 105-81 to improve to 2-1 on the season.
With four races to go, the Warriors trailed WG 65-61, but went in front when Jessica Testone, Sophia Russo, Kaitlyn Thompson and Delaney Gellert swam the 200-yard freestyle relay in one minute, 48.58 seconds to beat out the Wildcats’ 1:50.72.
Thompson returned to the pool minutes later and won the 100 backstroke in 1:08.62. Then Delaney Gellert, in 1:14.58, prevailed in the 100 breaststroke and to cap it off, Thompson, joined by Domenique DeRuijter, Delaney Gellert and Emerson Gellert, was first in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:07.92.
Earlier in the meet, Delaney Gellert had finished first in the 200 individual medley in 2:23.91, with Testone beating the field in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.57. Liverpool had also gone 1-2 in diving as Sophia Recuparo, with 202.70 points, beat out Macy Moore (174.00).
Also, Thompson was second (27.09 seconds) to WG’s Hannah Murdock (26.52) in the 50 freestyle, with Russo (1:00.83) just behind Murdock (1:00.05) in the 100 freestyle as DeRuijter was second in the 200 freestyle in 2:15.50 and Chloe Brown got second place in the 500 freestyle.
Cicero-North Syracuse has spent years in Liverpool’s current predicament, with home meets at Le Moyne College, which Christian Brothers calls home, too.
Those two met last Tuesday night and, remarkably, the meet ended with each side sporting 92.5 points, and this with the Northstars only claiming a single race – the 200 medley relay, won only because CBA’s top side was disqualified.
Madeline Thorne (237.0 points) and Kaitlyn Carroll (220.05 points) did go 1-2 in diving, but otherwise C-NS maintained a lead throughout the meet because it finished second in every single individual race.
Brittany Wood (200 IM, 100 breaststroke), Bryn Myers (50 and 100 freestyle) and Kate Gucciardi (100 butterfly and backstroke) each had a pair of runner-up finishes, with Grace Devinney second in the 200 freestyle and Jeanne Vinette second in the 500 freestyle.
Finally, the Northstars’ 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams got second and third in both of those races, giving C-NS enough points to prevent CBA from passing them.
C-NS won again on Thursday, topping Oswego 99-86 as, again, it used a series of second and third-place finishes to make up for the Buccaneers claiming most of the individual events.
Gucciardi nearly won twice, taking the 200 freestyle in 2:09.67 before going 5:49.39 in the 500 freestyle, inches behind Oswego’s Ciarrah Tynan (5:49.10). In the 200 freestyle relay, Gucciardi, Myers, Alayna Harbaugh and Cassidy Svoboda prevailed in 1:49.05.
Harbaugh took second in the 50 and 100 freestyle, with Devinney runner-up in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke. Wood did win the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.56 as Thorne scored 170.0 points in diving.
Now the Northstars could look ahead to two tough meets this week, welcoming both Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt to the Le Moyne pool. Before returning to Fulton on Oct. 2 to face Jamesville-DeWitt, Liverpool would go to New Hartford this Tuesday
