Earlier in this decade, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls program was close to an empty shell, with low participation and enthusiasm.
Now, though, the Hornets are unstoppable, having rolled to another Salt City Athletic Conference title and then added a fourth consecutive Section III Class A championship Friday at Nottingham High School.
And this one might have proven the most impressive of all.
Not only did F-M pick up 556.5 points to pull far away from runner-up Liverpool (322 points), its swimmers qualified for seven different events for the Nov. 22-23 state championships at Ithaca College.
Named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer, Lindsay Mathews got going in the 200-yard individual medley where, in two minutes, 10.36 seconds, she beat the state qualifying standard by more than two seconds.
In that same race, Addie Antshel finished second in 2:16.47, with Kate Ottaviano (2:20.43) and Jessey Eisenhut (2:24.83) also finished in the top five.
Moving to the 500 freestyle, Mathews went hard all the way to the end and, in 5:13.57, again just was faster than was needed since the state qualifying time was 5:14.65. Emma Luttrell got second place in 5:21.30 and Grace Reyna was sixth in 5:47 flat.
Though hailing from nearby Cazenovia, Morgan Kingsley qualified for four different races at the state meet. By herself, she went 24.78 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle to beat the state qualifying standard of 24.84 and then hold off Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bryn Myers, who was second in 25.17 seconds. Eighth-grader Georgia Langan took third place in 25.35 seconds.
Also, in the 100 breaststroke, Kingsley entered as the top seed with her regular-season time of 1:10.13, but she needed 1:08.60 to reach the state meet – and got there, her 1:08.37 well clear of Liverpool’s Delaney Gellert (1:09.98) in the runner-up spot. F-M’s Katie Ottaviano was third in 1:10.55, with teammates Meghan Seidberg and Caitlin Rameas fifth and sixth, respectively.
Luttrell reached the state meet in the 100 butterfly, where her time of 59.95 seconds just was enough since 1:00.02 was needed. Antshel again finished second, in 1:01.31, while Hali Seidberg was sixth in 1:02.98.
F-M also qualified for the state meet in two different relays. Kingsley, Luttrell, Langan and Hannah Kellogg went 1:40.16 to win the 200 freestyle relay over Oswego (1:41.61), while Mathews joined Kellogg, Kingsley and Luttrell to go 3:42.29 and win the 400 freestyle relay when 3:42.73 was needed for the state meet.
On her own, Kellogg won the 200 freestyle in 1:58.66 to beat out Oswego’s Sydney DeLapp (1:59.48). Meghan Seidberg was sixth in 2:05.47 and Reyna (2:08.85) took eighth place.
Kellogg also finished third in the 100 freestyle in 54.57 seconds, while Langan was fourth in 55.98 seconds after she had helped Antshel, Ottaviano and Mathews win the 200 medley relay in 1:52.99 to Liverpool’s 1:53.28.
Back on Thursday, at the sectional Class A diving championships, F-M’s Alessandra Manicone had a strong showing, getting to third place with 379.00 points as Cicero-North Syracuse’s Maddie Thorne won with 443 points.
Grace VanBramer finished sixth with 324.10 points as Meghan Maloney, with 295.80 points, beat out Natalie Roswick (293.65) and Noelle Anthis (289.60) for ninth place.