Skaneateles swimmer Van Kersbergen qualifies for state meet

With two outstanding performances at last Saturday’s Yeti Invitational at Webster Aquatic Center, Skaneateles boys swimmer Gavin Van Kersbergen assured his presence in March’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.

Van Kersbergen, who competes with the Weedsport team during the regular season, got going in the 100-yard butterfly where, in 52.45 seconds, he went 1.5 seconds quicker than the 53.95 needed and was second to the 50.84 from Pittsford’s Tim Fan.

Later, swimming in the 100 backstroke Van Kersbergen needed 54.82 seconds – and went 54.64, a 3.4 percent improvement upon his previous best this winter and good enough to advance. He was just behind Rochester McQuaid’s Ian Miller (54.60) as Frewsburg’s Conner Dean swam 52.92 to prevail.

As Van Kersbergen retuned to his Weedsport squad, West Genesee found itself at Liverpool Tuesday night, unable to win any of the races despite some close calls in a 100-81 defeat to the Warriors.

At the outset, in the 200 medley relay, the Wildcats’ quartet of David Martin, Sean Putnam, Brady Smith and Matt Keiling finished in 1:54.35, just beaten by Liverpool’s 1:52.37.

Martin would later swim the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.88, a close second to the 1:05.61 from the Warriors’ Joey Lisi, who also won the 100 butterfly as Jack Cavallerano got the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke and Nate Alexander the 200 individual medley and 100 freesetyle.

Smith, in 1:06.15, earned second place in the 100 butterfly. Seth Burlingame got second place in diving with 161.75 points as Brady Lee was third and Anthony Kotlyarov fourth, Lee also getting fourth in the 100 butterfly.

Martin also was third in the 200 IM in 2:19.05 as Putnam finished third in the 200 freestyle in 2:05.87. Owen Kane went 25.74 seconds for third and Keiling was fourth (26.01) in the 50 freestyle.

In 58.57 seconds, Ben Korzeniewski took third in the 100 freestyle, with Mason Reichert fourth in 59.29. Keiling took third place in the 500 freestyle in 6:01.31 and Putnam was third in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.63.