SYRACUSE – From an individual race standpoint, the West Genesee boys swim team got the best of last Saturday’s meet against Fayetteville-Manlius at Le Moyne College.
Eight of the 12 events went in the Wildcats’ favor, including several close and hard-fought race wins, but the Hornets, with 10 third-place finishes to WG’s two, was able to prevail by a score of 95-89.
It was exciting right from the outset, a close 200-yard medley relay seeing Sean Putnam, Brady Smith, David Martin and Ryan Goshow go one minute, 47.22 seconds to edge out F-M’s 1:47.67 by less than half a second.
The 200 freestyle had close to the exact same outcome, with Gavin Flanagan’s 1:55.15 just ahead of the 1:55.46 from the Hornets’ Jack Prendergast before a 200 individual medley where Martin, in 2:16.70, went 1-2 with Putnam in 2:17.79.
Goshow maintained this streak in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.59 seconds to the 23.68 from F-M’s Ben Mathews and 23.87 from Derick Wang, and completed a sprint sweep in the 100 freestyle with 52.44 to Prendergast’s 52.78 and Mathews’ 52.81.
Only in two races did WG win going away, Flanagan’s 5:13.59 more than half a minute clear of the 5:46.87 from the Hornets’ Silas Kligerman and Martin’s 1:05.35 in the 100 breaststroke well clear of Anthony Bottar’s 1:12.15 and Vlad Roman’s 1:13.99.
But F-M did go 1-2 in the 200 freestyle relay for valuable points aside from a close 100 backstroke where Putman tore to a time of 1:00.06, but fell to the 59.74 from the Hornets’ James Cao.
Seth Burlingame finished second in diving with 172.60 points as Brady Lee (157.50) edged Anthony Kotlyarov (155.60) for third place. Matt Keiling got third place in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.08 as Smith (1:05.04) was fourth. Goshow, Martin, Flanagan and Putman swam the 400 freestyle relay in 3:37.91 to F-M’s 3:35.95.
Skaneateles swimming star Gavin Van Kersbergen, again competing with Weedsport in last Saturday’s meet against Oswego, swam the 200 IM in 2:03.76 and rolled to first place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.57.
Another Lakers swimmer, Liam Byrons, was victorious in the 500 freestyle in 5:24.80 and added a 100 backstroke title in 1:06.87. Jacob Gordon was third in the 50 freestyle in 24.84 seconds and third in the 100 freestyle in 57.62.
