CENTRAL NEW YORK – A new year has arrived and, in area high school boys swimming, it was time to get back to meet action after teams from Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy and Fayetteville-Manlius rested during the holiday school break.
J-D/CBA’s first meet of 2024 was against Auburn Wednesday night, and with its superior depth the Red Rams had little trouble pulling away for a 100-68 victory over the Maroons.
Again leading the way, Misha Kabunov swam the 200-yard individual medley in two minutes, 16.23 seconds, going 1-2 with Kyler Huyck (2:33.91), before he won the 100 freestyle in 53.63 seconds to Malcolm Britz’s second-place 56.12.
The Rams were 1-2-3 in the 100 butterfly, Matt Capella winning in 1:03.83 over Ryan Bannon (1:09.20) and Matt Trivelpiece (1:14.24). a similar sweep in the 100 backstroke had Huyck win in 1:03.26 over Jonas Sarmast (1:07.71) and Zach Curle’s 1:11.85.
A close 500 freestyle had Lucien Zens go 5:21.24, but just get beat out by Riley Fitzgerald’s 5:18.98 for Auburn, but Zens recovered to win the 100 breaststroke in 1:19.16 as Daniel Luo was second in 1:12.77.
Also, J-D/CBA was victorious in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:56.19 and 200 freestyle relay in 1:40.59 as Britz, in 25.41 seconds, was second and Jamey Turo third (26.05) to the Maroons’ Logan Hall (25.13) in the 50 freestyle. Bannon also took second in the 200 freestyle in 2:02.43, with Fitzgerald winning in 1:56.08.
F-M was back in action Thursday night, taking on Syracuse City at Nottingham High School, and prevailing by a 93-72 margin as Jack Prendergast and Max Vidakovic earned a pair of individual titles.
To start with, Prendergast went 2:00.01in the 200 freestyle ahead of Zach Winans’ 2:09.54. Moving on to the 500 freestyle, Prendergast needed 5:44.30 to hold off the 5:45.43 from Silas Kligerman.
This was in addition to a 200 freestyle relay where Prendergast, joined by Derick Wang, Ben Matthews and Anthony Bottar, rolled to victory in 1:38.12 over a 1:42.64 from Eli Kligerman, James Cao, Michael Wilson and Vlad Roman.
Vidakovic edged Syracuse’s Sean Finnerty 24.42 seconds to 24.62 in the 50 freestyle and also had the quickest time in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.14 ahead of a 1:07.34 from Zach Mangoba. In the 200 medley relay, Vidakovic, Bottar, Wang and Cao were victorious in 1:47.03.
Eli Kligerman needed 2:19.81 to beat Wang’s 2:25.74 in the 200 IM. Connor Cuddy had 144.75 points in diving as Bottar went 1:09.70 in the 100 breaststroke and Ben Prendergast swam the 100 butterfly in 1:00.74. To close the meet, the Hornets’ 400 freestyle relay quartet of Vidakovic, Winans, Prendergast and Connor Kelly finished in 3:49.69.
