LIVERPOOL – For a long time, the Baldwinsville boys swim team would find that it could not keep pace with its neighbors from Liverpool, who long dominated the local large-school scene.
All of this made Tuesday’s 92-84 victory by the Bees over the Warriors that much more satisfying, as B’ville trailed most of the meet but staged a strong comeback.
And it was capped in the last race, the 400-yard freestyle relay. B’ville still trailed 82-80 going into that race, but went in front by sweeping the top two spots.
Mikey White, Ben Webster, Harrison Meyers and Matt Lange won the race in three minutes, 35.03 seconds, second-fastest in Section III so far this season, while the quartet of Jayden Miranda, Trevor Kantak, Nathan Saint and Alex Lamkoski was second in 3:59.03.
Before all this, White kept the Bees close with a pair of sprint wins, going 23.02 seconds to win the 50 freestyle as Webster was third and Kantak fourth.
Even more important was the 100 freestyle, with White winning in 51.13 seconds, but Meyers (53.78) and Webster (55.56) able to complete a 1-2-3 Bees sweep which made up ground after it trailed 48-36.
A similar thing happened in the 100 backstroke. Though Liverpool’s Jack Cavellerano won to go with his title in the 200 individual medley, the Bees had Lange second in 1:04.83, Lakomski third in 1:09.61 and Keenan Smith fourth in 1:10.23 to pick up key points.
Lange had already finished first in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.35, and he would pair up with White, Webster and Meyers to tear to a time of 1:36.23 in the 200 freestyle relay, beating Liverpool’s 1:39.11.
Smith finished second (1:15.69) and Elijah Bettinger third (1:17.66) in the 100 breaststroke, with Meyers second in the 200 individual medley in 2:16.03, Miranda second in the 500 freestyle (6:07.28) and Treygan St. John going 1:07.56 in the 100 butterfly to edge Brennan Gruppe (1:08.85) as they were second and third, respectively.
Without much time to rest, B’ville took on Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA two nights later, and put up more impressive times even as the Bees lost, 52-42, to the Red Rams.
Needing just 22.80 seconds to win the 50 freestyle, White went on to the 100 butterfly where, in 59.09 seconds, he held off J-D/CBA’s Bobby Diel, who was second in 59.57.
In a close 200 freestyle, Lange, in 1:59.66, edged Lesha Kabunov’s 1:59.94, with Smith taking the 100 breaststroke, edging Elijah Bettinger, 1:17.73 to Bettinger’s 1:17.86.
B’ville did take the 200 freestyle relay when White, Meyers, Webster and Lange posted 1:35.80 to the Rams’ 1:39.72, but even an improvement to 3:33.04 in the 400 freestyle relay could not beat J-D/CBA’s blistering 3:30.95.
Two Rams swimmers who were part of that last relay, Misha Kubanov and Nathaniel Wales, won two races apiece, Kubanov taking the 200 IM before a swift 4:53.98 in the 500 freestyle as Wales won the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
More action follows this week as B’ville would host Pulaski on Tuesday before going to Mexico on Thursday night.
