ONONDAGA COUNTY – Leave it to the Liverpool girls swim team to deal with its most challenging regular-season assignment right at the outset.
The Warriors welcomed defending league and sectional champion Fayetteville-Manlius in its Sept. 2 opener, and had some fine performances, but still took a 95-82 defeat to the Hornets.
Liverpool’s lone event win came in diving, where Aija McIntyre picked up 173.95 points, less than two points ahead of the 172.00 from Makenna Dudley.
Arianna Kuznia swam the 100-yard freestyle in 58.19 seconds, which put her second behind the 56.41 from F-M’s Georgia Langan.
Similarly, Kailtyn Thompson’s 1:07.72 in the 100 backstroke trailed only the 1:05.16 from the Hornets’ Hali Seidberg.
Emerson Gellert, Kerry Hunter, Morgan Kenna and Nicole Testone swam the 200 medley relay in 2:04.89, with F-M prevailing in 1:59.10. Thompson, Kuznia, Sarah Colwell and Julia King were second in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:04.61.
To lead the Hornets, Emma Luttrell broke two minutes in the 200 freestyle, winning in 1:59.10, and got a 100 butterfly time of 58.74 seconds as Langan added the 50 freestyle (25.15) to her sprint sweep.
Eight days later, Liverpool hosted Syracuse City and would easily get its first win of the season by a 116-58 margin.
Thompson would sweep the sprint, going 26.22 seconds in the 50 freestyle and 58.94 seconds in the 100 freestyle, while Kuznia claimed first in the 200 freestyle in 2:12.02 and the 100 butterfly in 1:13.16.
Gellert, in 2:41.92, edged Hunter (2:41.99) in a close 200 IM as Dominique DeRujter was first in the 500 freestyle in 5:55.12. Hunter prevailed in the 100 breaststroke in 1:20.98 as McIntyre improved to 179.60 points in diving, just ahead of Dudley’s 174.30.
Cicero-North Syracuse opened its season the night before, at Skaneateles, and found itself taking a 95-86 defeat to the Lakers.
It started well for the Northstars when the quartet of Kate Gucciardi, Cassidy Svoboda, Brittany Wood and Kaitlyn Carroll put up a top time of 1:59.48 in the 200 medley relay.
However, Skaneateles claimed each of the next six races on the card before Gucciardi, who was second in the 100 freestyle (58.01 seconds), got the win in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.33.
Svoboda added a 100 breaststroke title in 1:15.44 as Carroll went on to the diving competition and, with 254.75 points, earned an impressive victory. Wood was second in the 200 individual medley in 2:34.48.
C-NS will have home meets at Nottingham High School this season, starting with Thursday’s visit from Christian Brothers Academy which takes place as Liverpool hosts West Genesee.
