CAZENOVIA –
When two undefeated boys swim teams squared off on the last Friday of January at Cazenovia College, it was Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy getting the best of Fayetteville-Manlius.
The Red Rams led from start to finish and, paced by the duo of Misha Kabunov and Nathaniel Wales, earned a 103-83 victory over the Hornets.
J-D/CBA entered the meet at 10-0, with F-M at 6-0. And it was the Rams immediately getting the jump in a close 200-yard medley relay that set the tone.
In one minute, 44.33 seconds, Wales, Kabunov, Mark Bratslavsky and Bobby Diel held off the 1:45.06 put up by the Hornets’ quartet of Quinn Smith, Ben Rabin, Jason Porter and Cooper Hughes.
Moving on to the 200 freestyle, Misha Kabunov, in 1:52.16, went 1-2 with Lesha Kabunov’s 1:55.74, with Misha later edging Rabin, 1:06.36 to 1:07.08, to win the 100 breaststroke and Lesha pulling away to take the 500 freestyle in 5:14.11.
As for Wales, he would go 50.71 seconds in the 100 freestyle to beat out Bratslavsky’s 51.02, and then claim a 100 backstroke classic, his 54.90 seconds just beating out Smith’s 55.40 as F-M’s Carter Page (1:00.31) was third.
In the 50 freestyle, Bratslavsky won in 23.21 seconds to Rabin’s 23.97, with Hughes (24.48) in third place, and J-D/CBA closed out the meet by going 3:30.18 in the 400 freestyle relay as Smith, Porter, Eddie Elliott and Eli Kligerman went 3:31.55 for the Hornets.
F-M did get a victory from Smith in the 200 individual medley, his 2:05.18 beating out the 2:14.46 from Porter, who went on to take the 100 butterfly in 57.69 seconds as J-D/CBA’s Luke Marino (1:00.13) was second.
Connor Gleasman picked up 297.70 points in diving to win, but the Rams had the next three finishing spots as Cameron Corona, with 250.90 points, beat out Garrett Fuller (231.80) and Sean Rigdon (227.75).
In the 200 freestyle relay, the Hornets won when Rabin, Hughes, Kligerman and Elliott posted 1:37.58 to top the 1:40.32 from the Rams’ quartet of Matt Cappella, Michael DiBiase, Matt Trivelpiece and Matt Radford.
Once this was done, J-D/CBA only had one meet left to complete a perfect regular season. It came Tuesday, against visiting Liverpool, and the Rams were able to put away the Warriors 95-84 to finish at 11-0.
Wales would swim the 100 backstroke in 55.59 seconds after he went 22.98 seconds to win the 50 freestyle. Bratslavsky, second in that event (23.26), would edge Liverpool’s Jack Cavallerano, 52.11 seconds to 52.25, in the 100 freestyle.
Misha Kabunov went under five minutes (4:59.03) in the 500 freestyle and swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.78, with Lesha Kabunov edging Nate Alexander, 1:57.03 to 1:57.40, in the 200 freestyle. Corona earned 243.65 points in diving, beating out the 226.25 from Rigdon.
The meet opened with Wales, Diel, Bratslavsky and Kabunov swimming the 200 medley relay in 1:47.39, and in the 200 freestyle relay Bratslavsky and Kabunov joined Jamey Turo and Lucas Holmquist to win in 1:38.69.
