LIVERPOOL – Just about the only thing more satisfying for the Baldwinsville boys swim team than an undefeated record and Salt City Athletic Conference regular-season title was wrapping it all up at Liverpool’s expense.
By a 99-84 margin Tuesday night at LHS, the Bees did exactly this, moving to 7-0 overall and again establishing itself as the favorite for the Section III championships to take place in mid-February at Nottingham.
Dominant in the opening 200-yard medley relay, the Bees had Lucas Clay, Mikey White, Matt Lange and Alex Nicita finish in one minute, 42.22 seconds, well clear of the Warriors’ best of 1:56.32.
Then it was off to individual events, where Clay would go 2:00.46 to beat back a good challenge from the Warrior’s Joey Lisi (2:04.67) in the 200 individual medley and then, in the 100 baackstroke, go 1:00.99 as part of a 1-2 finish with Nicita’s 1:06.76.
White also prevailed twice, needing 1:51.68 to hold off Liverpool’s Nate Alexander (1:54.26) in the 200 freestyle and then, in the 100 freestyle, cruise to a time of 51.12 seconds as the Warriors’ Sean O’Neil (52.25) was a close second and Mason Stever, in 52.76, gave the Bees a strong third-place effort.
Lange dueled with Lisi in the 100 backstroke and both swam well, but Lange won it with 55.78 seconds to Lisi’s 56.11. He also was second in the 100 butterfly in 58.19 to the 52.50 from Liverpool’s Jack Cavallerano, who also won the 50 freestyle in 22.45 as Nicita (23.41) and Stever (23.55) followed.
Nick Pompo won in diving, getting 287.10 points to the 218.15 from Liverpool’s Colin Gridley, while in the 500 freestyle Jayden Miranda went 5:25.74, second to the 5:12.50 from Alexander.
Though Stever, Zach Nicita, Marco VanCour and Danny Sima finished second in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:36.86 to Liverpool’s 1:33.95, the main quartet of White, Lange, Clay and Stever eturned to close out the meet with a winning 400 freestyle relay time of 3:29.56.
Pompo went from here to compete in Saturday’s Burgos Dive Invitational at Nottingham, where with 471.25 points he easily reached the 450-point standard needed to qualify for March’s state championship meet and beat everyone except Central Square’s Truman Reminicky, who won with 490.05 points.
