ONONDAGA COUNTY – Just when it looked like the Liverpool boys swim team was speeding toward a first-place collision with Baldwinsville, Fayetteville-Manlius got in the Warriors’ way.
All the Hornets did was arrive at Liverpool Tuesday night and, by a 98-88 margin, the Hornets prevailed, entirely based on getting a string of second and third-place finishes to make up for the Warriors winning eight of 13 events.
That included an exciting 200-yard freestyle in the early portion of the meet where Nate Alexander’s one minute, 54.40 seconds matched that of F-M’s Eli Kligerman, but Kligerman got the winning nod and the extra points. Alexander would prevail in the 500 freestyle in 5:15.23.
Not until James Hayden edged Ben Prendergast, 2:15.31 to 2:15.72, in the 200 individual medley did Liverpool get in the win column. Then Colin Gridley ran away with the diving title, amassing 272.85 points.
Jack Cavallerano’s 52.79 seconds in the 100 butterfly was part of a 1-2 finish with Hayden (58.54) and he won the 100 backstroke in 58.20, while Sean O’Neil claimed first in the 100 freestyle in 52.35 to go with a second in the 50 freestyle in 24.17 seconds.
Relays counted plenty as, in the 200 freestyle relay, the Warriors went 1:36.50, but F-M won in 1:36.36 to go with a 200 medley relay win, though the Warriors did take the 400 free relay in 3:29.91. Tristan Vang’s 1:10.85 in the 100 breaststroke trailed only the 1:09.68 from the Hornets’ Anthony Bottar.
As it turned out, Cicero-North Syracuse was about to take on B’ville, and when they did a night later at Nottingham High Schoool the Northstars won six of the 12 events on the card, but still fell to the Bees 95-88.
Caden Griffin, in 23.06 seconds, beat out Alex Nicita (23.67) to win the 50 freestyle, with Jake Griffin taking the 100 freestyle in 50.13 to Caden’s 51.10. Brandon Keil prevailed in the 100 butterfly in 59.24 as Leo Alexander took second in 1:01.64, with Bryson Duncan second in the 100 backstroke in 1:08.11.
In a close 200 freestyle relay, Alexander, Keil and the Griffins went 1:34.22 to edge B’ville’s 1:34.65. A great battle in diving had Nate Ornoski, with 256.70 points, beat out the Bees’ Nick Pompo (245.90), with Carter Canastra (211.30) a strong third.
Top individuals from Liverpool and C-NS both stood out Jan. 12 and 13 in the Griffin Sprint Meet at Nottingham, which also served as the Salt City Dive Invitational.
In the diving portion, Ornoski amassed 449.50 points, just half a point short of the 450 points needed to qualify for the state meet and second behind the 494.00 of Central Square’s Truman Reminicky. Gridley was fifth with 425.65 as Canastra (371.30) got seventh place.
Not only great there, C-NS also won the 200 medley relay in 1:44 flat as Liverpool (1:55.18) was fourth, with Jake Griffin going 54.90 to pull away from Matt Lange (57.66) and the field in the 100 backstroke as Ryan Lasher was fifth.
Going to the 50 backstroke, Griffin’s 25.15 beat the 25.91 from Skaneateles star Gavin Van Kersbergen.Keil gained sixth place in the 25 freestyle,
Cavallerano tore to a season-best 51.98 in the 100 butterfly to beat the 53.13 from Mikey White as Caden Griffin was third in 55.90 and Leo Alexander fifth.
In the 50 freestyle, Cavallerano’s 22.26 was a close second to Fulton’s Logan Ames, who won in 22.18, again with Caden Griffin (22.72) in fifth as Cavallerano was fourth (49.35) in the 100 freestyle and Nate Alexander fifth in the 25 freestyle.
Griffin improved to third in the 50 butterfly in 25.22, with O’Neil fourth in the 100 individual medley in 59.91 ahead of Alexander in sixth and James Hayden in seventh.
