SYRACUSE – All attention for the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls swim teams turned to Nottingham High School for Wednesday’s Section III Class A championships and the state qualifier that followed two days later.
Before all of this happened, though, the Warriors managed to see sophomore Molly Murphy join teammate June Pioroeski in earning the point total necessary to advance to the Nov. 17-18 state and Federation championships in Webster.
Pioroeski already had earned the 440-point standard needed for the state meet, but Murphy, a one-time gymnast and soccer player who only took up diving in the summer, stepped up at Tuesday’s state qualifier.
Finishing with 446.15 points, Murphy got third place and earned enough points to make it to Webster, beating Pioroeski’s 421.80 in fifth place as C-NS’s Sophia Sugrue was in between them, taking fourth place with 422.00.
Sugrue’s teammate, Isabella Moya, finished eighth with 379.10 points, with Liverpool’s Sofia Valente (354.10) getting to 10th place.
Back on Oct. 28, the sectional Class A diving championships had Pioroeski earn second place with 414.2 points and Sugrue third with 402.7, trailing the school-record 445.00 from West Genesee’s Lily Mauro, who would improve to 492.4 in the state qualifier to beat out Jamesville-DeWitt’s Kayla McQuaid (474.9).
Murphy got the Warriors a fourth-place finish with 400.95 points, with Moya seventh at 336.45 just ahead of an eighth–place 332.70 from Valente.
When these points were added to what took place in Wednesday’s sectional races, Liverpool had 369 points, nearly getting to the top, but denied by Fayetteville-Manlius (405 points) winning Class A for the eighth year in a row as C-NS, with 312 points, gained third place.
Twice, the Warriors prevailed in relays, and with the same quartet in the same order – Arianna Kuznia starting out, Sarah Colwell and Elizabeth Manley handling the middle legs and Kaitlyn Thompson anchoring it.
In the 200 freestyle relay, this Liverpool quartet went one minute, 43.83 seconds, pulling away from C-NS’s Leah Benedict, Kate Gucciardi, Cassidy Payrot and Rosie Coleman who were second in 1:45.74.
To close out the meet, the Warriors edged Oswego/Mexico, 3:49.50 to 3:49.73, in the 400 freestyle relay, having already seen Colwell finish third in the 200 freestyle (2:08.86) and 500 freestyle (5:45.49) as Thompson was third in the 50 freestyle in 25.31 seconds and Kuznia got third (57.02) in the 100 freestyle.
Unlike Liverpool, C-NS did win an individual race when Benedict, in the 200 individual medley, went 2:21.77 to edge the 2:22.26 from Baldwinsville’s Olivia McManus.
Benedict also was third in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.81, with Gucciardi third in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.68. Coleman, Benedict, Kate Gucciardi and Molly Gucciardi were third in the 200 medley relay in 2:00.09, not far from F-M’s winning 1:59.81.
Switching to Friday’s sectional state qualifier, Liverpool earned 219 points to finish third in the race for the George Falwell Cup behind New Hartford (260) and Jamesville-DeWitt (228.5), the Warriors edging Christian Brothers Academy (218) for that spot as C-NS was seventh with 167.
Nearly winning the 200 freestyle relay, the Warriors had Thompson, Kuznia, Colwell and Manley improve to 1:42.97, only to get beat out by New Hartford’s 1:42.85 as C-NS tied Skaneateles for fourth with 1:46.26. Liverpool added a fourth in the 400 freestyle relay, posting 3:52.92.
Kuznia led the Warriors’ individuals, getting third place in the 100 freestyle in 56.60 seconds. Thompson was fourth in the 50 freestyle in 25.67 and eighth (1:05.73) in the 100 backstroke, with Colwell eighth (5:47.21) in the 500 freestyle.
As for C-NS, Benedict, Coleman and the Gucciardis improved to 1:58.02 in the 200 medley relay and finished third, with Benedict adding a third in the 200 IM in 2:21.34 and a fifth in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.29. Kate Gucciardi took sixth in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.53
