ONONDAGA COUNTY – For just their second meets of the season, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls swim teams battled one another, renewing the rivalry between the two schools.
And led by the trio of Natalie Thompson, Arianna Kuznia and Izzy Akley, the Warriors had firm command of Thursday night’s meet, eventually defeating the Northstars 100-71.
Thompson was in a close 200-yard individual medley with teammate Brielle Bryant and won in two minutes, 27.33 seconds to Bryant’s 2:27.49 before she rolled to first in the 100 butterfly in 1:05.36 to Molly Gucciardi’s 1:13.38.
Kuznia swept the sprints, going 26.78 seconds in the 50 freestyle as Cassidy Payrot (27.27) took second for the Northstars. Then, in the 100 freestyle, Kuznia’s 58.75 beat Leah Benedict’s 59.38 as Elizabeth Manley (1:01.84) was third.
Akley, in 2:13.37, pulled away from Victoria Erardi (2:23.65) as Liverpool went 1-2 in the 200 freestyle before a 500 freestyle domianted by Akley’s time of 6:05.49.
A high-quality duel in diving unfolded, too, with the Warriors’ June Piorkowski winning with 247.50 points, C-NS getting Sophia Sugrue second in 233.90 as Molly Murphy (225.40) was third for the Warriors.
Not until the 100 backstroke did C-NS win an individual event, Payrot doing so in 1:06.42 to beat Bryant’s 1:08.71 as the Warriors had Claudia Huegel (1:17.63) top Ruby Brown (1:20.88) in the 100 breaststroke.
Kuznia, Thompson and Akley paired with Manley to go 1:51.26 in the 200 freestyle relay to the 1:56.63 from Gucciardi, Benedict, Payrot and Katelyn Stewart, with Bryant and Huegel joining Akley and Abbigail Lane to swim the 200 medley relay in 2:09.11.
Perhaps it was appropriate that C-NS got its season underway two days earlier against a program in the similar position of having to stage “home” meets far from their actual home.
The Northstars are still using Nottingham High School as a home venue, which is where it faced Fayetteville-Manlius Tuesday night and took a 96-78 defeat to the Hornets.
Despite the loss, Benedict had a tremendous meet, winning twice on her own starting with the 50 freestyle where, in 27.01 seconds, she went 1-2 with Payrot.
Later, in the 100 butterfly Benedict prevailed in 1:06.68, well clear of Eliza Smith’s 1:11.38 for F-M, and in the 200 freestyle relay Benedict and Payrot, joined by Stewart and Gucciardi, were victorious in 1:53.99 to the Hornets’ 1:55.97.
Payrot gained her own individual title when, in the 100 backstroke, she posted 1:06.38 to pull away from F-M’s Gabby Dardis (1:11.55) by more than five seconds. Sugrue’s total of 239.55 points gave her diving honors.
Gucciardi was third in the 200 individual medley in 2:37.68 and Brigid Gill got third in the 200 freestyle in 2:28.60. To start the meet, Benedict, Payrot, Stewart and Gucciardi were second (2:06.42) to the Hornets (2:02.45) in the 200 medley relay.
