After a splendid season full of individual and collective accomplishments, the swimmers from Fayetteville-Manlius, Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt were all together in a single place on Sunday afternoon.
The occasion was Section III’s overall championships and state qualifier at Nottingham High School, which also served as the competition for the George Falwell Cup.
And it went to F-M, who picked up 344 points to CBA’s 265 points, with J-D sliding into third place by getting 221 points. All three sides will have plenty of swimmers headed to Ithaca College for the Nov. 22-23 state championships.
CBA’s Lauren Kelly was part of four winning efforts, starting with the 200-yard medley relay, where she paired with Darien Tompkins, Sophia Silver and Ally Howard to go one minute, 50.56 seconds to break the Class B sectional record.
F-M had not yet reached the state meet in that event, but did so here, as Addie Antshel, Katie Ottaviano, Lindsay Mathews and Georgia Langan got second place in 1:52.08, just beating out the 1:52.75 from J-D’s Amelia Hesler, Gwen Lister, Emily Ninestein and Sofia Bebla.
Moving to the 50 freestyle, Kelly, in 24.52 seconds, held off Watertown’s Sarah Kilburn (24.63), with F-M’s Morgan Kingsley getting third place in 24.89 seconds. Langan (25.33) beat out CBA’s Kaitlyn Bushnell (25.60) for fifth place.
Late in the meet, Kelly beat the field in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.03, with Lister (1:09.32) edging Kingsley (1:09.36) for the runner-up spot. Bebla got fourth place in 1:11.37 and Ottaviano was sixth in 1:12.02.
Doing even better in the 200 freestyle relay, F-M’s quartet of Langan, Kingsley, Emma Luttrell and Hannah Kellogg went 1:39.90, well clear of Mexico and Cicero-North Syracuse, both of whom timed 1:41.56 to share second place.
Hesler responded by winning two races, starting with a 200 freestyle where, in 1:54:34, she edged CBA’s Kayla Newman (1:54.71) as F-M’s Hannah Kellogg finished fifth in 1:59.74.
Later, in the 100 freestyle, Hesler did not improve upon her 52.59 seconds from this season, but still won in 53.19, nearly a full second ahead of Watertown’s Sarah Kilburn (54.17). Kellogg again was fifth in 55.19 seconds, with CBA’s Kaitlyn Bushnell sixth in 55.42.
Tompkins emerged victorious in the 100 backstroke, going 1:00.24 to hold off Baldwinsville’s Ashley Konz (1:00.60). She is also going to the state meet in the 100 butterfly, where in 58.37 seconds she was second to Mexico’s Alexa von Holtz (57.47) as F-M had Luttrell fourth in 1:00.03 and Antshel fifth in 1:01.36, with Ninestein seventh (1:04.10) for J-D to go with her eighth in the 100 backstroke.
Newman bounced back from her 200 freestyle defeat by winning the 500 freestyle in a season-best 5:11.21. Two F-M swimmers followed, Mathews taking second place in 5:18.88 and Luttrell finishing third in 5:21 flat.
One more showdown between CBA and F-M took place in the 400 freestyle relay. Kelly, Newman, Bushnell and Tompkins needed 3:37.55 to hold off Mathews, Kingsley, Kellogg and Luttrell, who improved to 3:40.43 to finish second.
Mathews would claim third place in the 200 individual medley, but her 2:12.67 beat the state qualifying meet standard of 2:12.84 as Antshel finished fourth in 2:16.41. Lister got sixth place in 2:20.97, just ahead of Ottaviano’s 2:21.42 in sixth place.
In diving, F-M’s Alessandra Manicone finished fifth in 380.95 points, with J-D’s Abby McGuire getting sixth place by earning 375.55 points. CBA’s Sophie Menar was seventh with 360.95 points.
