CENTRAL NEW YORK –
For more than six months, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls swim team waited for a season that was supposed to take place in the autumn.
But with COVID-19 less of a threat than before, and a successful boys season in the books, the Warriors and Northstars both started practicing early in March for a full slate of league meets.
Liverpool would get underway first, taking on Auburn last Wednesday night and putting together an 83-56 victory over the Maroons.
The very first race, the 200-yard medley relay, saw the Warriors’ quartet of Nicole Testone, Julia King, Delaney Gellert and Kerry Hunter go two minutes, 6.34 seconds to prevail.
From there, Testone (2:42.42) and Hunter (2:46.15) would finish 1-2 in the 200 individual medley before Hunter posted the quickest time of 1:22.57 to edge King (1:23.41) in the 100 breaststroke.
Also winning on her own, King took the 50 freestyle in 27.85 seconds as Delaney Gellert won the 100 butterfly in 1:03.17 ahead of Emerson Gellert (1:10.40), who herself edged Chloe Brown, 5:59.89 to 6:03.83, in the 500 freestyle.
Sophia Recuparo led a Liverpool diving sweep, her total of 212.29 points beating out the 189.05 from Aija McIntyre and 159.37 from Makenna Dudley.
Kaitlyn Thompson swam the 100 freestyle in 58.44 seconds to prevail as Delaney Gellert’s 1;08.28 beat Testone (1:11.09) in the 100 backstroke. Gellert got together with Sophia Russo, Rachel Jessie and Samantha Walker to post 1:52.80 in the 200 freestyle relay.
Liverpool would prevail again Friday, at West Genesee, where with its deeper roster the Warriors got away and defeated the Wildcats 99-76.
Prevailing twice, Delaney Gellert went 2:24.32 in the 200 IM ahead of Hunter (2:44.54) and Testone (2:44.65) before she swam the 100 freestyle in 56.47 seconds, three seconds clear of the 59.47 from WG’s Anna Ivery.
Emerson Gellert, in 1:11.72, edged Russo (1:12.60) in the 100 butterfly, while Brown won the 500 freestyle in 6:00.67 to edge the Wildcats’ Allison Putnam (6:01.34) and Hunter had the fastest 100 breaststroke time of 1:22.59.
Recuparo, with 223.65 points, led a 1-2-3 diving sweep with McIntyre (198.15) and Dudley (184.88) as the Gellert sisters, paired with Russo and Hunter, posted 1:50.11 in the 200 freestyle relay.
C-NS started that same night, facing Fayetteville-Manlius at Cazenovia College’s pool, where the Northstars took a 94-83 defeat to the Hornets.
Bryn Myers and Alayna Harbaugh went 1-2 for C-NS in the 100 freestyle, Myers prevailing in 59.23 seconds and Harbaugh (59.86) right behind her. Myers also finished second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.09.
Kaitlyn Carroll, earning 217.65 points, was victorious in diving as Harbaugh took second in the 50 freestyle in 26.89 seconds and Ella Lawrence was second in the 100 backstroke in 1:10.29, ahead of Alexa Kulakowski (1:10.83) in third.
The Northstars also finished first in the 200 freestyle relay, the only side to avoid disqualification as Carroll, Gabriella Svoboda, Jenna Lenweaver and Isabella Moya went 2:16.03.
