Once again, Liverpool boys swimmer Griffin Merkling inserted himself intothe program’s record books.
Merkling’s latest star turn came in last Saturday’s meet against Cicero-North Syracuse, where the Warriors, remaining undefeated, handled the Northstars 100-64.
It came in the 200-yard individual medley, where Merkling tore to a time of one minute, 56.02 seconds, breaking the Liverpool pool record for that event.
Already with the state’s second-fastest 100 backstroke time this winter, Merkling would win that race here, too, in 56.24 seconds, also pairing with Jack Andrejko, Ian Denny and Nathan Alexander to tear to a time of 1:43.75 in the meet-opening 200 medley relay.
Andrejko swept the sprints, going 23.39 seconds to hold off C-NS’s Jacob Griffin (23.58) in the 50 freestyle and then claiming the 100 freestyle in 51.45 seconds to Griffin’s 53.20, with Denny (53.42) third.
Alexander was victorious in the 200 freestyle in 2:00.35 and won the 500 freestyle in 5:33.05, while Geoff Race went 1:00.06 to edge teammate Jack Cavallerano (1:00.96) in the 100 butterfly.
Colin Gridley earned 178.63 points in diving as Merkling, Andrejko, Denny and Trevor Selig put up 1:31.66 in the 200 freestyle relay. Race, Selig, Finn Carroll and Logan Herrmann covered the 400 freestyle relay in 3:48 flat.
On C-NS’s side, Reece Balduzzi was victorious in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.63. John Harbaugh was second in the 200 freestyle in 2:01.42 and third in the 500 freestyle, with Connor Burke second in the 500 freestyle in 5:48.53.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Harbaugh, Josh Kubala, Jacob Griffin and Caden Griffin finished in 1:37.03 after Kubala, Burke and the Griffin brothers went 1:49.30 in the 200 medley relay.
Prior to this, Liverpool swam against West Genesee last Friday, prevailing in that meet. Just as they would against C-NS, Merkling (200 IM, 100 backstroke) and Alexander (200 and 500 freestyle) won two races apiece.
