After a fall season full of superlative efforts, a big contingent of area high school swimmers went to Ithaca College last weekend for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
And while none of them earned medals, the swimmers from Fayetteville-Manlius, Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt each would record top-20 finishes and set new season and school marks.
CBA was led by Lauren Kelly, who entered the state meet with an 11th seed in the 100-yard breaststroke with her time of 1:06.41 and had a top-20 seed in the 50 freestyle, too.
In the 100 breaststroke, Kelly went 1:06.84 to qualify 12th, just missing the final by less than half a second. But she won her consolation race in a season-best 1:06.03 to finish 11th in the standings, though her time was faster than two of the 10 finalists.
After going 24.43 seconds in the opening round of the 50 freestyle, Kelly would struggle in the final with 24.94 seconds, but still record a 20th-place finish.
Meanwhile, in the 400 freestyle relay, Kelly, swimming with Darien Tompkins, Kayla Newman and Kaitlyn Bushnell, would get to 17th place in a season-best 3:38.52, this after Kelly, Tompkins, Bushnell and Sophia Silver finished 19th in the 200 medley relay in 1:52.40, off the 1:50.39 it had recorded earlier this season.
Newman had her big moment in the 500 freestyle, improving from 5:10.85 to 5:05.18 in the qualifying round to take 14th place. In the finals, Newman fell back to 5:08.95, but still was 18th overall. This followed a 19th-place finish in the 200 freestyle, where Newman’s qualifying round time of 1:54.90 was better than her 1:56.03 in the finals.
Tompkins had swam the 100 butterfly in 57.29 seconds this season, going 58.03 in the qualifying round and then 58.50 in the finals for a 19th-place finish, also getting 60th in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.06.
F-M’s large contingent included three relay teams, with the 200 freestyle relay quartet of Morgan Kingsley, Hannah Kellogg, Emma Luttrell and Georgia Langan finishing 18th in 1:39.58.
Kingsley, Kellogg, Luttrell and Lindsay Mathews won their consolation race in the 400 freestyle relay, putting up a season-best 3:37.67, nearly three seconds better than the 3:40.58 in the qualifying round. Mathews, Langan, Katie Ottaviano and Addie Antshel were 42nd in the 200 medley relay in 1:56.86.
On her own, Kingsley swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.14 to finish 45th overall, while in the 50 freestyle she went 25.14 seconds for 41st place. Mathews was 31st in the 200 individual medley in 2:10.97and 42nd in the 500 freestyle in 5:14.80, with Luttrell 58th in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.02.
For J-D, Amelia Hesler was the focal point, and she did her best work in the 100 freestyle, going 52.95 seconds in the qualifying round and, by improving to 52.67 seconds in the final, landed in 14th place in both the NYSPHSAA and Federation events.
Hesler posted 1:56.11 in the qualifying round of the 200 freestyle, but chose not to swim in the finals there. But she did go in the finals of the 200 freestyle relay with Gwen Lister, Julia Antoine and Emily Ninestein, finishing 27th in 1:41.11 after a 1:41.08 qualifying race. Sofia Bebla joined Hesler, Lister and Ninestein to go 1:54.12 in the 200 medley relay, finishing 39th.
