When the Liverpool boys swim team claimed the Section III Class A championship one year ago, it did so without winning a single individual or relay race.
That wasn’t the case this time around.
Claiming two relay events plus four individual titles, the Warriors repeated as sectional champions Thursday at Nottingham High School, gaining 381.5 points, well clear of the 263 points earned by runner-up Fayetteville-Manlius.
And it didn’t take long for Liverpool to reach that win column as, in the opening 200-yard medley relay, Jack Andrejko, Curtis Merrick, Griffin Merkling and Brandon Nguyen went one minute, 38.19 seconds to hold off Watertown’s second-place 1:38.70.
On his own, Brownlow swept both sprint races, tearing to a season-best 21.50 seconds to beat out Watertown’s Simon Sratton (22.08) in the 50 freestyle and also winning the 100 freestyle in 47.95 seconds, well clear of his season-best 48.61 as, again, Stratton (48.63) was second and Brandon Nguyen (49.81) took seventh place.
Merkling went 1:57.92 to beat the field in the 200 individual medley, Nguyen earning fifth place in 2:09.27. In the 500 freestyle, Merkling’s 4:51.74 qualified him for the state meet in that race even as he finished second to F-M’s Quinn Smith, who prevailed in 4:48.74.
Curtis Merrick, already in the state meet in the 100 backstroke, prevailed in that race in 54.33 seconds, while Andrejko was third in 58.50 seconds and Jack Hyde got fourth place in 1:00.15. and also finished second in the 100 butterfly in 54.42 seasons, a new season mark, behind Watertown’s Nate Carlos, who posted 52.21 seconds.
Liverpool nearly swept the relays, with Nguyen, Merkling, Andrejko and Brownlow prevailing in the 400 freestyle in 3:19.01 to F-M’s second-place 3:21.67. In the 200 freestyle relay, Merrick, Brownlow, Ian Denny and Josh Foley were second in 1:30.57 to Watertown’s 1:28.35.
Will Allen tied Baldwinsville’s John Burns for fifth in the 200 freestyle in 1:55.12, also getting fifth place in the 500 freestyle in 5:12 flat. Denny was seventh in the 50 freestyle in 23.49 seconds, with A.J. Wagner seventh in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.55 and Ryan Wilhelm 10th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.25.
Uriy Grabovyy finished fifth in the Class A portion of the diving competition with 234.25 points. Then, in last Wednesday’s state qualifier, he ended up with 386.50 points and was 12th out of 16 finalists.
Cicero-North Syracuse had Logan Petralia make his way to third place in the 50 freestyle in 22.44 seconds behind Brownlow and Stratton, with Seaver Schultz fourth in 22.45 seconds. John Harbaugh went 56.71 seconds in the 100 butterfly to finish sixth and Petralia ninth in the 100 freestyle in 50.81 seconds, just behind Schultz in 49.95 seconds.
By having Petralia, Harbaugh, Schultz and Dom Bagozzi go 1:30.54 for third place in the 200 freestyle relay, the Northstars narrowly missed reaching the state qualifying standard of 1:30.12 as it would later post another third-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:37 flat.
Connor Burke, who swam that event with Bagozzi, Josh Kubala and Sawyer Powell, took ninth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.08 as Powell was ninth in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.54.
