SYRACUSE – Boys swimmers from Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy each would play central roles during Wednesday’s Section III Class A championships at Nottingham High School.
In the case of the Hornets, it would contend for the team title right down to the final race of the meet before falling just short at the expense of fist-time sectional champion Baldwinsville.
Yet it was the Red Rams, who finished fourth in the team event, that got two race wins, each of them from Misha Kabunov.
In the 200-yard freestyle, Misha Kabunov went one minute, 42.49 seconds to beat out the 1:43.79 from B’ville standout Mikey White as Lesha Kabunov, third in 1:47.23, also beat the state meet qualifying standard of 1:47.60.
Later, in the 500 freestyle, no one got close to Misha Kabunov, whose 4:56.42 was the only time under five minutes as West Genesee’s Gavin Flanagan was second in 5:05.78.
Lesha Kabunov’s time of 54.01 seconds in the 100 butterfly put him just short of the 53.95 needed for the state meet, but still put him in second place behind the winning 50.07 from Liverpool’s Jack Cavallerano.
In the 400 freestyle relay, Lucien Zens and Kyler Huyck joined the Kabunovs to get second place in 3:21.32, while Jamey Turo helped Zens and the Kabunovs to third in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:33 flat.
F-M, piling up top-10 finishes throughout the meet, found itself just behind B’ville, who got two individual titles from Lucas Clay and another from White, plus a relay title.
Only in the closing 400 freestyle relay did the Bees clinch it, winning in 3:16.42 as the Hornets’ quartet of Ben Mathews, Eli Kligerman, Jack Prendergast and James Cao were third in 3:23.98.
Individually, Max Vidakovic, a Cazenovia High School senior, had F-M’s best finish, a third in the 100 butterfly in 54.99 seconds, while Cao took fourth in the 100 freestyle in 51.14.
When everyone returned to Nottingham for Friday’s state qualifier, J-D/CBA, with 193 points, beat out F-M (183) for fourth place in the George Falwell Cup standings, and Kabunov was named the meet’s Outstanding Swimmer.
A tense 200 freestyle had Misha Kabunov, in 1:42.94, holding off White’s 1:43.53, with Lesha Kabunov again third in 1:47.88. Mesha then dominated the 500 freestyle, improving from Wednesday’s meet by more than 14 seconds to 4:42.32, with Zens (5:10.38) in seventh place.
Improving to 3:20.42 in the 400 freestyle relay, Zens, Huyck and the Kabunovs finished third as F-M had Wang, Kligerman, Prendergast and Mathews going 1:31.40 for fourth place to go with a fourth (3:23.04) in the 400 freestyle relay.
Vidkaovic, in the 100 butterfly, claimed fifth place in 55.10 seconds. Kligerman got a top-10 200 freestyle finish in 1:53.36 as Mathews was eighth in the 200 IM in 2:07.95 and Wang ninth in the 50 freestyle in 22.75. James Cao was eighth in the 100 backstroke in 58.84.
Manlius Pebble Hill swimmer Sun-Jin Sah was third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.32 and will also go to the state meet, having also taken fifth (1:48.38) in the 200 freestyle.
This followed the sectional Class A diving championships on Feb. 10, where J-D/CBA’s Connor Corona claimed a third-place finish with 440.45 points.
Though 450 points were required to qualify for the state meet, Corona had reached that total (467.00) late in January at the Burgos Dive Invitational. The Rams’ Garrett Fuller was seventh with 415.15 points as F-M’s Oliver Gleasman was 10th (290.55) and Connor Cuddy finished 15th.
Corona did better in last Tuesday’s state qualifier, rising to second place with a a season-best 490.90 points to pass Baldwinsville’s Nick Pompo (477.15) and only trail the winning 519.55 from Central Square’s Truman Reminicky. Fuller finished seventh with 423.50 points and Gleasman (318.70) was 13th.
