So far this winter, the Baldwinsville boys swim team had proven itself better than anyone in front of them in the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division – except one.
When Liverpool showed up last Wednesday night, the Bees were quite close in several events, but also saw the Warriors break two different Baker High School pool records on the way to prevailing 57-36.
Twice, B’ville did win races, starting with Bailey Ludden’s effort in the 200-yard freestyle as he posted a time of one minute, 49.68 seconds, well clear of Liverpool’s Will Allen (1:57.48) and John Burns (1:59.00) in third.
Even more exciting was the 100 butterfly showdown between Nick Schultz and the Warriors’ Curtis Merrick. It went to the wire as Schultz, in exactly 55 seconds, was just ahead of Merrick’s 55.08, with Burns (58.28) again in third place.
Schultz also went 2:01.84 in the 200 individual medley, a close second to Griffin Merkling’s pool-record 1:59.89, while Tristan Miranda was second in the 500 freestyle in 5:18 flat.
Of particular excitement was the closing 400 freestyle relay. Schultz, Burns, Ludden and Quinn Gruppe went 3:28.09, but Liverpool’s quartet of Merkling, Brandon Nguyen, Jack Andrejko and Josh Foley beat them in 3:27.71.
Earlier, Schultz, Burns, Ludden and Gruppe went 1:35.08 in the 200 freestyle relay to Liverpool’s 1:33.66. Individually, Gruppe finished third in the 50 freestyle in 24.74 seconds and Miranda was third in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.26.
B’ville faced Liverpool again on Friday as part of the Salt City Athletic Conference championships at Nottingham, where Schultz was victorious in the 50 freestyle, his time of 22.48 seconds ahead of Merrick (22.63) in second place.
And in the 400 freestyle relay, Schultz, Ludden, Burns and Gruppe prevailed in 3:28.76, well clear of Fulton’s second-place 3:37.22.
Ludden, going 1:47.28 to set a new season mark in the 200 freestyle, was second to Merkling’s first-place 1:44.99. Then, in the 100 freestyle, Ludden tied Oswego’s Casey DeLapp for second, each finishing in 49.67 seconds ahead of Schultz (49.81) in fourth place.
Burns improved to 56.83 seconds in the 100 butterfly and finished third, with Gruppe eighth in 1:00.93 before he helped Ludden, Burns and Schultz finish fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.42. Aidan Solomon rose to fourth place in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.65, with Mason Isbell 10th in 1:07.60.
Remaining busy this week, B’ville would take on Fayetteville-Manlius Tuesday at Cazenovia College before returning home Thursday to face Cicero-North Syracuse.
