BALDWINSVILLE – Any chance to see the Baldwinsville boys swim team in action is a special one this winter, because it’s bound to feature a full complement of standout performances and times that improve as the season goes along.
The Bees demonstrated this again in its first meet of 2024, where it hosted West Genesee and excelled at both an individual and collective level and broke four more pool records while on the way to a 51-42 victory over the Wildcats.
Spending its entire season on the road due to renovations at its home pool in Camillus, WG had roared out to a 4-0 start and would even win the first race on the card here, taking the 200-yard freestyle relay in one minute, 51.17 seconds to the Bees’ 1:54.43.
From there, though, it was all B’ville, and it was at a high level.
Mikey White got it going, his 1:44.43 a new season mark in the 200 freestyle, where he had already qualified for March’s state championship meet, but he would later go 48.24 seconds to win the 100 freestyle.
Not to be outdone, Lucas Clay would move his 500 freestyle time to 4:43.78, improving his previous pool record by 2.4 percent in an event where he, too, has already advanced to the state meet.
In the 50 freestyle, Clay’s 22.64 seconds beat out Matt Lange’s 22.93, but Lange had no equal in the 100 backstroke, winning in 55.39 as he inched closer to the state qualifying standard of 54.82.
That was something the Bees did achieve in the 200 freestyle relay. Clay, White, Lange and Alex Nicita would tear to a time of 1:29.49, yet another pool mark and under the 1:30.12 needed to give B’ville one more state meet entry as that same quartet went 3:19.81 in the 400 freestyle relay to near the 3:18.87 state meet standard.
Nicita would win on his own in the 200 individual medley in 2:10.55, well clear of the 2:17.98 from WG’s David Martin, though Martin did win the 100 breaststroke (1:06.06) over Ian Clay’s 1:14.36 and Adrian Clay’s 1:15.02.
Treygan St. John swam the 100 butterfly in 1:06.81, second to a 1:04.02 from the Wildcats’ Matt Keiling. St. John, Mason Stever, Jayden Miranda and Adrien Clay went 1:54.53 in the 200 medley relay as WG won it in 1:51.17.
With its 5-0 record, B’ville would go to Webster Aquatic Center for Saturday’s Yeti Invitational, where Clay won both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke while setting two personal marks.
At that same meet, the Bees, for the first time in 15 years, would have a diver in competition – Nick Pompo, who would earn a third-place finish.
The Bees then returned to league action Tuesday against Syracuse City before weekend appearances in the Griffin’s Guardians Sprint Meet at Nottingham and the Watertown Invitational.
