DEWITT – Finally in the pool more than six months after their seasons were supposed to start, the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt girls swim teams opened with an exciting meet against each other.
Unlike in boys swimming, the CBA and J-D programs operate on their own, so their head-to-head meet last Wednesday brought a special intensity – and no resolution until the final race, when the Brothers pulled it out 94-91.
With one race to go, the Red Rams were in front 87-84, but in the 400-yard freestyle relay CBA got 10 out of a possible 14 points for the fifth and final lead change of the meet.
And that race was quite close, too. Darien Tompkins, Kayla Newman, Kathryn Nardella and Jenna Filahn finished in four minutes, 3.82 seconds, inches ahead of the 4:03.88 from J-D’s quartet of Emily Ninestein, Claire Huyck, Kathryn Donaghue and Gwen Lister.
Already, Tompkins had won back-to-back individual races, going 1:01.98 to beat Ninestein (1:06.37) in the 100 butterfly and then taking the 100 freestyle in 57.56 seconds, the only time under one minute.
Newman had blazed to 2:01.42 to dominate the 200 freestyle and then, in the 500 freestyle, rolled to victory in 5:22.51.
This was right before Newman, Filahn, Lauren Kelly and Madison Ceclia put up 1:52.07 in the 200 freestyle relay, half a second ahead of the Rams’ 1:52.57 put up by Donaghue, Sofia Bebla, Lucy Heflin and Audrey Norden.
Not only did Kelly give the Brothers a win in the 50 freestyle in 25.30 seconds to Lister’s 26.34, she won the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.75 and paired with Tompkins, Nardella and Zaryski to win the 200 medley relay in 1:59.74.
Huyck won twice for J-D, her 2:28.95 in the 200 individual medley just ahead of Filahn’s 2:33.11 before she posted 1:03.88 to claim the 100 backstroke over the 1:08.64 from CBA’s Ella Zaryski.
J-D’s Abby McGuire earned 190.60 points on the diving board, beating the 185.80 put up by CBA’s Sophie Menar. Lister took second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.36, while Donaghue was second in the 200 freestyle in 2:18.06.
On Saturday, J-D swam again at Mexico and could not keep up with the Tigers in a 114-71 defeat.
Not until Huyck swam the 100 backstroke in 1:04.81 did the Rams win a race, with Lister second in both the 200 IM (2:23.52) and 100 breaststroke, where she posted 1:11.41.
To lead Mexico, Alexa von Holtz was victorious in the 50 freestyle in 24.55 seconds and went 1:09.51 in the 100 breaststroke to edge Lister, with Carolyn Zedack going 2:18 flat in the 200 IM and 1:02.98 in the 100 butterfly.
In between these meets, Fayetteville-Manlius made its 2021 debut Friday against Cicero-North Syracuse, utilizing its depth throughout the evening’s meet to pull away and beat the Northstars 94-83.
Grace Reyna, in 2:13.04, edged Addie Antshel (2:13.26) in a close 200 freestyle to get the Hornets going as Emma Luttrell dominated the 200 IM, prevailing in 2:17.02 before she won the 100 butterfly in 1:00.17.
Katie Ottaviano, second in the 200 IM, beat the field in the 100 breaststroke in 1:16.65, with Meghan Seidberg first in the 100 freestyle in 1:00.11.
Morgan Kingsley took the 50 freestyle in 25.68 seconds before Kate Milson went 5:53.36 in the 500 freestyle and Jessey Eisenhut won the 100 backstroke in 1:09.66.
Of the three relays, F-M only prevailed in the 200 freestyle, where Kingsley, Luttrell, Seidberg and Georgia Langan paired up to post a time of 1:46.10.
