Though denied by weather of its opportunity to clash with Baldwinsville, the Liverpool boys swim team still had an opportunity to compete before the holiday break.
The Warriors traveled to Fulton last Friday night, three days after its scheduled showdown with B’ville got postponed and pushed back to mid-January, and defeated the Red Raiders 101-84 to improve to 2-0 overall.
Griffin Merkling led Liverpool as he took part in four different winning efforts. On his own, Merkling tore through the 100-yard backstroke in 55.43 seconds and also won the 200 individual medley in 2:00.66, just missing out on the state qualifying standard of 2:00.63 by three-hundredths of a second.
Merkling also helped Jack Andrejko, Curtis Merrick and Brandon Nguyen put up a quick time of 1:43.84 in the 200 medley relay. In the 200 freestyle relay, Merkling, Nguyen, Merrick and Julien Brownlow won in 1:31.61.
Brownlow claimed first place in the 50 freestyle in 22.98 seconds, with Andrejko beating the field in the 100 freestyle in 53.18 seconds as Will Allen was second in the 200 freestyle (1:58.38) and 500 freestyle (5:26.39).
A night earlier, Cicero-North Syracuse faced Oswego and, after three consecutive defeats, the Northstars finally broke into the win column by topping the Buccaneers 94-77.
In a close opening 200 medley relay, the Northstars’ quartet of Logan Petralia, Connor Burke, Sawyer Powell and Josh Kubala went 1:55.67, just ahead of Oswego’s 1:56.21.
Individually, Harbaugh claimed the 200 freestyle in 2:03.97. Burke beat the field in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.83, with Powell taking the 100 backstroke in 1:05.28 as Harbaugh finished second.
Dom Bagozzi was second in both the 50 freestyle (25.09 seconds) and 100 freestyle (55.71 seconds), but C-NS had Harbaugh, Burke, Petralia and Powell post 3:51.56 in the 400 freestyle relay.
C-NS had faced Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA earlier in the week, with the Northstars taking a 95-88 defeat to the Red Rams.
Seaver Schultz was still a part of four winning events for C-NS, starting with the 200 medley relay, where he paired with Harbaugh, Burke and Dillon Johnson to go 1:48.56 to J-D/CBA’s 1:51.54.
Schultz got the 50 freestyle in 23.07 seconds, with Harbaugh (24.79) third, and in the 100 freestyle Schultz won in 51.17 seconds to the 51.72 from the Rams’ Conlan Rourke.
And to close out the meet, in the 400 freestyle relay, Schultz, Burke, Bagozzi and Kubala would put together a time of 3:44.19 as J-D/CBA was second in 3:45.96.
Elsewhere, Johnson would pull away to win the 100 backstroke in 1:06.30, with Burke second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.78 and runner-up in the 200 individual medley in 2:21.34.
Petralia, with a time of 1:56.44, edged the Rams’ Nate Wales (1:56.77) in the 200 freestyle, with Harbaugh second in the 100 butterfly in 59.82 seconds. Kubala, Bagozzi, Harbaugh and Petralia were second (1:38.72) to J-D/CBA (1:36.50) in the 200 freestyle relay.
