CENTRAL NEW YORK – Armed with some new faces making an immediate impact, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls swim set off on the 2024 season with yet another reminder that the path to large-school glory in this area goes through them.
The Hornets faced Cicero-North Syracuse in Tuesday night’s meet at Nottingham High School, where familiar faces mixed with new stars and F-M roared past the Northstars 97-79.
Just a freshman, Meghan Groshans immediately found the win column when she went two minutes, 10.93 seconds to win the 200-yard freestyle, with fellow ninth-grader Audrey Fetterman taking second in 2:19.79.
Later, in the 500 freestyle Groshans pulled away and won in 6:00.73, well clear of the 6:23.27 from Gabby Dardis, who would also get second place in the 100 backstroke in 1:11.55.
Elise Wratney began her junior season with two titles, swimming the 200 individual medley in 2:29.51 ahead of Emme Prendergast (2:36.08) and then winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.14, again followed by Prendergast in 1:18.15.
Wratney also paired with Dardis, Eliza Smith and Kelly Liu to take the opening 200 medley relay in 2:02.45 to C-NS’s 2:06.42, while in the 400 freestyle relay Wratney, Dardis, Groshans and Fetterman finished in 4:28.98.
A sweep of the 100 freestyle had Liu win in 1:01.51 over Fetterman (1:04.52) and Callahan Frazee (1:05.62), while Keegan Nicolette was second in diving with 181.35 points and Smith got second in the 100 butterfly in 1:11.38.
Before all this, Jamesville-DeWitt earned its first win of the season last Monday night, the Red Rams taking on Oswego and swimming past the Buccaneers 97-73.
J-D diver Kayla McQuaid, returning from a 2023 season where she won sectional honors and was 14th in the state championships, earned 248.30 points, well clear of teammate Zoe McCarthy’s 168.45 and Kaia Etuale’s 163.20.
Thearyn Wales swept the sprints for J-D, going 26.46 seconds in the 50 freestyle as Lila Schroth (27.61) was second before a 100 freestyle where Wales claimed victory in 59.18 and, again Schroth (1:02.86) was runner-up.
Evelyn Jones was victorious in the 200 freestyle in 2:06.41 to Nora Barnello’s 2:15.78. A close 200 IM had Helena Sofinski, in 2:34.33, edge the 2:36.36 from Cora Bright.
Barnello got her turn at the top winning the 500 freestyle in 6:09.36 to Sofia Koenig’s 6:12.68, with Emma Paul going 1:10.74 to take the 100 backstroke and Maggie Lister winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.29. J-D also went a quick 2:03.02 in the 200 medley relay as part of a relay sweep.
Three days later J-D prevailed again, 94-74, over Syracuse City at Nottingham, Lister getting her turn in the 50 freestyle and winning in 28.66 seconds to Mary Jane Scott’s 29.32 before taking the 100 freestyle in 1:02.15 with Helena Sofinski (1:04.07) second before she won the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.94.
Wales was victorious in the 200 freestyle in 2:07.22 before going 5:42.92 to claim victory in the 500 freestyle. Jones went 2:28.65 to finish first in the 200 IM and Maria Fisher swam the 100 butterfly in 1:07.64 and Ansukha Joardar went 1:14.94 to beat the field in the 100 backstroke. McQuaid earned 224.05 points to again prevail in diving.
