Now it was time for the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt boys swim teams to turn to the regular-season homestretch.
And the Hornets picked up a big win last Tuesday night against visiting Baldwinsville at Cazenovia College, F-M topping the Bees 99-84.
Prior to this, B’ville’s lone defeat had come to first-place Liverpool on Jan. 15, but in this meet the Hornets made up for the Bees’ individual success with a string of second and third-place finishes that piled up points.
It wasn’t until the 100-yard butterfly that F-M won a race, thanks to Lucas Weires, who in 57.01 seconds got away from B’ville’s John Burns (58.64) to take the victory.
Uncontested in diving, F-M had Connor Gleasman gain first place with 235.85 points, with Trevor Villete beating out Liam Hartnett-Waere for second place.
Quinn Smith began a string of four consecutive F-M wins when he took the 500 freestyle in 5:05.70, just ahead of the 5:06.71 from the Bees’ Bailey Ludden. Later, Smith won the 100 backstroke in 58.23 seconds to the 59.46 from B’ville’s Nick Schultz.
Ben Rabin, in 1:08.74, edged teammate Richard Wan (1:09.26) in the 100, the Hornets going 1-2 there as Weires, Rabin, Jason Porter and Eric Bang paired up to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:37.71.
F-M won again on Friday, topping Auburn 84-67 to improve to 6-2-1 on the season, with Rabin, Miguel Aldana and Cooper Hughes both winning twice.
Rabin beat the field in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.72 and won the 100 butterfly in 1:03.82. Aldana, after finishing first in the 200 IM in 2:24.59, had a winning 100 backstroke time of 1:13.58.
As for Hughes, he beat Eddie Eliot, 26.07 seconds to 26.54, in the 50 freestyle and then went 57.85 seconds to win the 100 freestyle. Magee had the quickest 100 breaststroke time of 1;15.19.
That same Friday night, J-D/CBA went head-to-head with Syracuse City and prevailed 93-85 to move its overall record to 7-3.
Lucas Dekaney earned 302.30 points in diving for the Red Rams as Conlan Rourke swept the sprints, going 23.21 seconds in the 50 freestyle and 50.97 seconds to win the 100 freestyle.
Nate Wales would swim the 100 backstroke in 1:02.42 after he won the 200 IM in 2:16.59. Bobby Diel made it to first place in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.98.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Dekaney, Peter Hatton, Gehrig Snyder and Ryan Brazell won in 1:42.84 after Wales, Rourke, Diel and Nathan Chen went 1:49.61 in the 200 medley relay.
All of this followed the Salt City Athletic Conference championships, where in the diving competition on Jan. 18 Dekaney won again for J-D/CBA.
Dekaney finished with 476.10 points, well clear of West Genesee’s Justin Byrne (411.50) in second place. Gleasman was fifth with 385.70 points, with the Rams getting Jack Cahill in seventh place.
