Within a span of 48 hours last week, the girls swim teams from West Genesee and Skaneateles took their turns earning meet victories over the small Baldwinsville roster.
The Wildcats’ meet against the Bees last Thursday night featured some close-fought races that, combined with timely sweeps in other events, helped WG prevail by a 97-79 margin.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Hannah Murdock, Maggie Smith, Victoria Senus and Adrianna Gill went one minute, 50.17 seconds to hold off B’ville (1:51.76) and answer a close 200 medley relay where Senus, Taylor McFadden, Devon Burnside and Anna Ivery went 2:07.14, just behind the Bees’ 2:06.49.
WG went 1-2-3 in diving, with Kelsie Bottari earning 175.05 points to edge Julia Turton (174.15) as Alexis Fassinger was third. It was the same in the 100 freestyle, where Murdock finished in 58.39 seconds to top Smith (1:02.17) and Hannah Delpha (1:08.24).
Putnam, a close second (2:09.32) to B’ville’s Clare Burke (2:09.26) in the 200 freestyle, did win the 500 freestyle in 5:47.06 as Burke was runner-up. Also, Gill claimed the 100 breaststroke in 1:22.31.
Second-place finishes were earned by McFadden in the 200 individual medley (2:37.99), Senus in the 50 freestyle (27.43 seconds) and 100 butterfly and Hailey Hann in the 100 backstroke.
Back on Tuesday, when Skaneateles went to B’ville, no diving competition took place, but the Lakers used enough second and third-place finishes to pile up points and defeat the Bees 60-34.
A key to the outcome was two close-fought relays. In the 200 medley, Lily Buchholz, Lili Winkelman, Elizabeth Springer and Caitlin Comer went 2:06.06 to edge the Bees’ 2:06.56.
And the 200 freestyle relay was closer still as Buchholz, Springer, Comer and Grace King needed 1:51.53 to hold off the Bees (1:51.78).
Buchholz had already won the 100 freestyle in 1:00.91 and, in 1:03.60, was just behind B’ville’s Ashley Konz (1:03.00) in the 100 backstroke. Winkelman pulled away to win the 500 freestyle in 6:09.78, with Allison Cirincione second.
In other races, King took second in the 200 freestyle in 2:12.15, with Amelia Musso second and Hope Azzam third in the 200 IM. Springer got second place in the 50 freestyle in 27.03 seconds, Musso adding a runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly as Lilly Marquardt was second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:24.2.
Back home Friday to face Holland Patent and Lowville, the Lakers beat both of them, handling the Golden Knights 113-69 and taking out the Red Raiders 107-76.
Buchholz swam the 100 backstroke in 1:03.56 and the 50 freestyle in 26.35 seconds, with Winkelman prevailing in the 200 IM in 2:31.60 before swimming the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.14. Springer had a top 100 freestyle time of 58.31 seconds.
Comer swam the 200 freestyle in 2:14.04. King, aside from her time of 5:59.03 in the 500 freestyle, helped Winkelman, Buchholz and Springer go 2:00.49 in the 200 medley relay as Comer and Musso joined King and Springer for a time of 1:52.99 in the 200 freestyle relay.
Skaneateles’ lone meet this week is Thursday against the combined Syracuse City team at Nottingham High School. West Genesee would host Oswego Tuesday before a battle with Cicero-North Syracuse Friday at Le Moyne College.
