SYRACUSE – With its just-right mix of youthful talent and veteran poise, with plenty of depth to spare, it was the Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy boys swim team adding a Section III Class A championship to an undefeated regular season.
With 388 points, the Red Rams fended off a strong challenge from Fayetteville-Manlius, who took second with 349.5 points but featured the meet’s top swimmer in Cazenovia senior Quinn Smith.
A big key to J-D/CBA’s victory was the contributions, from beginning to end, by freshman Misha Kabunov, who won twice on his own and also helped in a pair of victorious relays.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Kabunov joined senior Bobby Diel and juniors Nathaniel Wales and Mark Bratslavsky to prevail in one minute, 43.26 seconds as F-M’s quartet of Smith, Cooper Hughes, Jason Porter and Carter Page were second in 1:44.88.
A few minutes later, in the 200 freestyle, Kabunov matched his season-best 1:48.34 as Wales got second place in 1:51.73 and eighth-grader Lesha Kabunov was fifth in 1:54.13 behind the Hornets’ Eli Kligerman (1:53.74) in fourth.
Already qualified for the March 4-5 state championship meet at Ithaca College in the 500 freestyle by going 4:51.10 earlier this season, Misha Kabunov won here in 4:56.51 and Lesha Kabunov grabbed second in 5:09.39, with Lucien Zens in 10th place.
And it was Wales helping J-D/CBA pull away in the closing 400 freestyle relay, swimming the anchor leg after Kabunov, Bratslavsky and Luke Marino took the first three legs, the Rams winning in 3:20.99 as F-M (3:24.98) settled for third place with the quartet of Smith, Porter, Kligerman and Eddie Elliott.
No one could beat Smith, though, in his two strongest events, as he blazed to a time of 1:57.53 in the 200 individual medley to qualify for the state meet and did so again in the 100 backstroke, roaring to a school-record 53.04 seconds to beat Wales, who at 53.84 also earned a state meet berth. Page was third in 58.34 as the Rams’ Kyler Huyck got fifth place in 59.75, just ahead of Jamey Turo’s seventh-place 1:00.05.
Two days later, in the sectional state qualifier, Smith again won twice, improving to 52.69 seconds in the 100 backstroke to beat Wales’ 54.94 and taking the 200 IM in 1:58.59.
As for Misha Kabunov, he advanced to the state meet in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:46.86, a close second to the 1:46.21 from Fulton’s Bryce Rogers. And in the 400 freestyle relay, Kabunov, Bratslavsky, Marino and Wales won in 3:19.85 to also reach the state meet in that event.
Back in the Class A meet, Bratslavsky was fourth in the 50 freestyle in 22.89 seconds, with Marino fourth in the 100 butterfly in 58.06 seconds, just behind F-M’s Max Vidakovic (57.94 seconds) in third place, with Porter earning third place in the 200 IM in 2:10.23, beating out Marino (2:10.49) in fourth place.
Porter added a sixth-place finish in the 100 butterfly in 58.34 seconds. beating out Diel (eighth) and J-D/CBA teammate Matt Capella (ninth), while teammate Anthony Bottar grabbed sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.93, with Kligerman seventh, Elliott eighth and Nathan Walz ninth in the 500 freestyle for the Hornets. James Cao was ninth and Zach Mangoba 10th in the 100 backstroke as F-M took fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:37.65.
Earlier, in the diving competition, F-M’s Connor Gleasman reached the 450-point mark needed to advance to the state meet, taking third place overall with 505.2 points. Only Mexico’s Kian Long (537.4) and West Genesee’s Bryan Reichert (508.9) fared better.
