SYRACUSE – With an undefeated regular season and SCAC Metro division title already in the books, the Baldwinsville boys swim team sought much more history – and would get it.
The Bees, led by the quartet of Lucas Clay, Mikey White, Matt Lange and Alex Nicita, would battle its way to the program’s first-ever Section III Class A championship Wednesday at Nottingham High School.
Even with all of the top finishes it was putting together throughout the meet, B’ville found itself in a close battle with Fayetteville-Manlius for the top spot that wasn’t decided until the final race, the 400-yard freestyle relay.
White started off this final meet, followed by legs from Lange and Clay. Finally, Nicita closed it out, and in a time of three minutes, 16.42 seconds, the Bees not only beat F-M (3:21.32) by nearly five seconds, it topped the state meet qualifying standard of 3:18.87.
Back at the start of the meet, in the 200 medley relay, that same star B’ville quartet won with 1:38.41, nearly two seconds clear of Liverpool’s 1:40.17.
Two races later, in the 200 individual medley, Clay was the only competitor to break two minutes, going 1:57.51 ahead of Liverpool’s Joey Lisi (2:00.54) as Nicita, finishing in 2:06.32, gained third place and Jayden Miranda eighth in 2:15.38.
And Clay would win the 100 breaststroke, too, roaring to a time of 57.46 seconds as he would eventually share Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet honors with Liverpool’s Jack Cavallaro, the winner in the 100 butterfly in a blazing 50.07.
White, with his choice of many events, would opt for two freestyle events and beat the field in the 100 freestyle, his time of 47.47 seconds setting a school record and more than a full second clear of the 48.84 posted by Fulton’s Logan Ames.
Before this, in the 200 freestyle, White had a solid second-place finish, his 1:43.79 only topped by the 1:42.49 from Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Misha Kabunov.
Lange would have his best finish in the 100 backstroke, going 55.56 seconds to near the state qualifying standard of 54.82, while Nicita tacked on another third-place effort when he swam the 500 freestyle in 5:06.05, just behind the second-place 5:05.78 from West Genesee’s Gavin Flanagan as Kabunov (4:56.42) pulled away to win.
In the 100 butterfly, Lange’s 55.46 seconds landed him in fourth place, while Mason Stever also earned a podium finish in the 50 freestyle, finishing seventh in 23.37 seconds. In the 200 freestyle relay, Miranda, Stever, Danny Sima and Marco VanCour got to seventh place in 1:39.47.
B’ville followed this up with more wins in Friday’s sectional state qualifying meet, even though, with 232.5 points, it finished second in the race for the George Falwell Cup behind New Hartford’s winning total of 267.
Clay again would win in his specialties, improving to 1:57.13 in the 200 IM, the only time under two minutes, and then speeding to a winning time of 57.20 seconds in the 100 breaststroke, more than two seconds clear of New Hartford’s Troy Luley (59.47).
And in the closing 400 freestyle relay, Clay, White, Lange and Nicita almost matched what they did on Wednesday, winning in 3:16.63 to New Hartford’s 3:18.75.
White nearly caught Kabunov in the 200 freestyle, improving to 1:43.53, less than a second behind Kabunov’s 1:42.94, while also tying Fulton’s Logan Ames for second (47.70 seconds) behind Weedsport’s Nolan Carner (47.33) in the 100 freestyle.
Aside from finishing third in the 500 freestyle in 5:05.13, Nicita was seventh in the 200 IM in 2:07.06 and paired with Clay, White and Nicita in the 200 medley relay, where in 1:39.63 the Bees were a close second to Liverpool’s 1:39.20. Lange swam to sixth in the 100 backstroke in 55.41 and also posted a top-10 finish in the 100 butterfly in 56.40.
All this followed a sectional diving competition where Nick Pompo’s remarkable rise continued.
Having finished second in last Saturday’s sectional Class A event, Pompo returned to Nottingham three days later for the state qualifier and would accumulate 477.15 points.
That would put Pompo in third place as Central Square’s Truman Reminicky continued his winter-long win streak and prevailed with 519.55 points. Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Cameron Corona got second with 490.90 points.
Beside those finishes, though, was the fact that Pompo’s second-place points from the Class A portion of the diving event served as another decisive factor in the sectional team event, since F-M’s best diver, Connor Gleasman, could only manage a 10th-place finish.
