All sorts of history was within the reach of Baldwinsville boys swimming senior Nick Schultz at last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
And Schultz attained most of it, twice breaking the Section III record in the 100-yard breaststroke and getting to the doorstep of a state title.
When Schultz traveled to Long Island’s Nassau County Aquatic Center, he did so as the school-record holder in the 100 breaststroke, having improved his time to 56.80 seconds.
This made Schultz the no. 4 seed going into the state meet, less than a second behind the top state time of 56.04 posted by Dansville’s Aidan Kreiley.
In the prelminarly round last Friday afternoon, Schultz hoped to match or top the sectional record of 56.41 seconds set by Liverpool’s Garrett Clarke in 2013. In one special performance, he did so.
Schultz made it through 50 yards in 26.89 seconds and, when he touched the wall at the finish, he had gone 56.36 seconds to break Clarke’s mark by five-hundredths of a second.
Not only that, but it qualified Schultz second for the state final, behind only the 55.25 from Kreiley. No other NYSPHSAA swimmer was under 58 seconds.
Going after the state championship on Saturday, Schultz would prove far faster in the opening 50 yards, his time of 26.28 seconds not far from Kreiley’s 26.05 opening split.
In the final 50 yards, Schultz kept it going as he finished in 56.14 seconds, shaving 0.22 seconds off the previous sectional mark he had set less than 24 hours earlier.
Kreiley proved too difficult to catch, pulling away for the state championship in 55.03 seconds. But the 56.14 from Schultz left him just 0.21 seconds from earning automatic All-American honors.
side from all this, Schultz also swam in the 100 butterfly at the state meet. Having gone exactly 53 seconds during the season, he improved to 52.97 seconds to finish 26th among qualifiers, though he chose not to race in Saturday’s final.
B’ville’s Bailey Ludden was in the 200 freestyle, where he had gone 1:46.30 this season. Though his time fell off a bit, to 1:46.70, Ludden still claimed 38th place, improving from the 46th spot he held heading into the meet.
Schultz and Ludden, paired with John Burns and Quinn Gruppe, represented B’ville in the 200 medley relay, where their time of 1:39.36 during the Feb. 15 state qualifier left them ranked 28th going into the state meet, but they could only manage 1:42.66 here to finish 48th overall.
