To a large degree, the Baldwinsville boys swim team’s appearance in the Section III championship meets at Nottingham High School would feature how senior Nick Schultz fared in his specialty, the 100-yard breaststroke.
Already this season, Schultz had posted a time of 57.68 seconds in this event, shattering the school record and easily qualifying for the March 6-7 state championships on Long Island.
Starting in Thursday’s Class A sectional meet, though, Schultz took aim at new standards.
Through the first 50 yards in the 100 breaststroke, Schultz had posted 26.76 seconds, and he held up long enough in the final 50 yards to finish in 56.94 seconds. Not only was it another school record, it broke the 56.98-second mark needed for All-American consideration.
Two days later, in the sectional state qualifying meet, Schultz improved further on that school mark and set a record for that event by winning in 56.80 seconds, faster than the 56.91 Liverpool’s Garrett Clarke posted in this event in 2013 and closing in on Clarke’s sectional record of 56.41, which he’ll go for during the state meet.
Not only that, but in the 200 individual medley Schultz, by finishing third in 1:59.95, beat the state qualifying standard of 2:00.63 and improved by more than five seconds from the 2:05.61 he had on Thursday.
B’ville picked up 234 points for fifth place in the Class A meet, just behind Fayetteville-Manlius (263), West Genesee (240.5) and Watertown (238) as Liverpool repeated its sectional title, earning 381.5 points.
Bailey Ludden, who will join Schultz at the state meet in the 200 freestyle, improved to 1:46.30 in that event to take third place, not far from the winning 1:43.71 of Watertown’s Nate Carlos as John Burns got fifth place in 1:55.12. Ludden finished fourth in the 100 freestyle in 49.03 seconds.
Schultz also took fourth place in the 200 individual medley in 2:05.61, with Burns making his way to fifth place in the 100 butterfly in 55.21 seconds, just ahead of Quinn Gruppe (59.93 seconds) in 10th place.
By having Schultz, Ludden, Burns and Gruppe go 1:40.85 in the 200 medley relay, the Bees finished fourth, just missing the state qualifying standard of 1:40.67 as that same B’ville quartet improved to 1:32.14 in the 200 freestyle relay and earned fourth place.
With another chance to get to that time in the state qualifier on Saturday, Schultz, Ludden, Burns and Gruippe reached it by a comfortable margin, posting 1:39.36, trailing only Watertown’s 1:37.86 in this race. That same group was fourth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:31.44.
Following that, Ludden was third in the 200 freestyle in 1:47.21 and sixth in the 100 freestyle in 49.02 seconds, with Burns fifth in the 100 butterfly in 54.98 seconds
In the Class A meet, Tristan Miranda earned eighth place in the 500 freestyle in 5:17.33 and, later, swam the 100 backstroke in 1:02.47 for eighth place. Miranda improved to 5:16.22 in the 500 freestyle at the qualifier and finsihed 11th.
Harrison Meyers got 10th in the Class A 500 freestyle in 5:28.77 and 13th in the 200 IM in 2:15.98, with Gruppe 13th in the 50 freestyle in 24.04 seconds and Aidan Solomon 11th in the backstroke in 1:03.66.
