Neighborhood bragging rights, not to mention placement in the standings, was at stake when the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA and Fayetteville-Manlius boys swim teams squared off Thursday night.
And once the Red Rams seized an early advantage, it never let go, ultimately earning a 100-86 victory over the Hornets.
Early on, it was volatile, J-D going 1-2 in the 200-yard medley relay as Conlan Rourke, Nathan Chen, Jamey Turo and Mike Bratslavsky won in one minute, 51.56 seconds.
F-M caught up in points in the next two races, Quinn Smith winning both of them as he went 1:56.49 in the 200 freestyle and edged Jason Porter, 2:13.15 to 2:14.96, in the 200 individual medley.
But when Rourke (23.41 seconds) and Lucas Holmquist (25.50) swept the top spots in the 50 freestyle, the Rams went in front for good as Lucas Dekaney earned 294.60 points in diving, well clear of the Hornets’ Connor Gleasman (197.95).
Three more J-D/CBA wins followed, with Rourke taking the 100 freestyle in 51.17 seconds, Nate Wales going 5:22.43 in the 500 freestyle and the quartet of Rourke, Holmquist, Chen and Peter Hatton posting 1:35.99 in the 200 freestyle relay, just ahead of F-M’s 1:36.45.
To close out the meet, the Hornets’ Richard Wan, in 1:06.91, went 1-2 with Max Vidakovic (1:10.94) in the 100 backstroke, with Chen winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.93.
F-M had Ben Rabin take second (1:09.25) behind Chen in the 100 breaststroke, with Lucas Wieres second in the 100 freestyle in 54.15 seconds and Miguel Aldana runner-up in the 500 freestyle in 5:33.32.
Two nights earlier, the two sides had diverging results, F-M defeating New Hartford by that same 100-86 margin at Cazenovia College, but J-D/CBA taking a 99-87 loss to Fulton.
Against New Hartford, the Hornets saw Smith, Rabin, Wieres and Jason Porter open with a winning time of 1:48.18 in the 200 medley relay. Later, Porter, Smith, Eric Bang and Michael Magee wonthe 400 freestyle relay in 3:41.82.
Wieres finished first in the 100 freestyle in 51.86 seconds as Smith swam the 100 backstroke in 58.75 seconds, with Porter winning the 100 butterfly in 58.95 seconds.
In the 50 freestyle, Wieres (23.54 seconds) was one-hundredth of a second behind New Hartford’s Gavin Schiavi (23.53), with Rabin second in the 200 freestyle and Gleasman earning 246.00 points in diving, behind the Spartans’ Moaz Elazzazi, who had 272.30 points.
As this went on, J-D/CBA got beat at Fulton, though Dekaney, already qualified for the state meet in diving, won again thanks to his total of 274.15 points. But the Red Raiders won every individual race until Rourke took the 100 freestyle in 52.53 seconds.
Wales, after winning the 500 freestyle (5:24.52), helped Rourke, Chen and Hatton take the 200 freestyle relay in 1:37.39. Chen also would prevail in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.80 as Wales, in 1:59.11, was just behind Fulton’s Bryce Rogers (1:58.98) in the 200 freestyle.
Even after beating F-M, J-D/CBA had to deal with first-place Liverpool and Watertown on Saturday afternoon.
J-D/CBA ended up with a split, beating the Cyclones 101-78, but losing 101-77 to the Warriors. Dekaney earned 292.20 points in diving, with Wales beating Liverpool in the 500 freestyle, posting 5:19.84 after his time of 1:57.88 was just behind Liverpool’s Will Allen (1:57.24) in the 200 freestyle.
The Hornets face Syracuse City next Tuesday while the Red Rams go to Mexico. Then they all would gather at Nottingham next weekend for the Salt City Athletic Conference meet.
