ITHACA – Few Section III boys swimmers were as busy as Cicero-North Syracuse sophomore Jacob Griffin during last weekend’s’ New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Ithaca College.
Not only did Smith vie for honors in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle, he was in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Northstars teammates Caden Griffin, Anthony Gabrielli and Connor Burke.
Griffin had set school records twice in the 50 freestyle (21.71 seconds) and 100 freestyle (48.24) during the Section III Class A and state qualfying meets on Feb. 16 and 18, earning Ourstanding Swimmer honors in the latter event.
It was in the 100 freestyle where Griffin would have his best moment. A time of 48.30 seconds in last Friday’s preliminary round put Griffin in the final.
And it was there that Griffin, in 48.22 seconds, set the school record for the third time in less than three weeks, ultimately placing 20th among NYSPHSAA swimmers. Corning’s Ryan McNutt was the state champion in 45.58.
In the 50 freestyle, Griffin went 21.93 seconds in the preliminary round and advanced to the finals, where he improved to 21.89 and would take 21st place in the NYSPHSAA division, won by Happuage’s Jake Neilsen in 20.68.
Gabrielli, Burke and the two Griffins would have their best 200 freestyle relay time of 1:31.91 in the preliminary round. Then they went 1:32.14 in the finals, good for 23rd place in NYSPHSAA, with Horace Greeley taking the title in 1:25.85.
