ONONDAGA COUNTY – Even before the Liverpool girls swim team would get its chance to face Fayetteville-Manlius with first place in the Salt City Athletic Conference standings at stake, someone else got to the Hornets first.
That someone was Jamesville-DeWitt, who beat F-M 100-83 last Tuesday night at Nottingham High School, knocking the Hornets from the unbeaten ranks.
Besides, Liverpool had its own important meet to worry about last Wednesday night when Christian Brothers Academy, and with its depth evident in several key events the Warriors defeated the Brothers 97-88.
CBA won the first three events before Arianna Kuznia took the 50-yard freestyle in 26.69 seconds and Ruby Brown (27.86) grabbed second place.
Another 1-2 finish followed in diving, June Piorkowski earning 252.30 points and Molly Murphy, with her 237.10 points, edging the 235.45 of CBA’s Sophia Osvoldik.
A close 100 butterfly had Natalie Thompson, in 1:04.36, edge Madison Ceclia’s 1:04.60. Then Kuznia returned to take the 100 freestyle in 58.50 seconds, with Elizabeth Manley’s 1:00.23 putting her second after she was second (2:11.35) in the 200 freestyle.
Kuznia wasn’t done, adding a third title pairing with Thompson, Manley and Izzy Akley to take the 200 freestyle relay in 1:48. 81 with that same quartet winning the 400 freestyle relay in 3:59.64 as Brown took first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:16.71 to hold of Alicia Snyder’s 1:17.58.
Great as all this was, Liverpool hoped it would carry over to the F-M meet on Friday, but the Hornets got the best of it, prevailing by a 99.5-86.5 margin.
A close, back-and-forth battle turned on F-M going 1-2 in both the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke, accumulating points the Warriors could not quite match.
This came despite Kuznia again winning both sprints, going 26.74 seconds in the 50 freestyle to pull away from Brown (27.76) and then winning the 100 freestyle in 59.25 over Manley (59.84), who took the 200 freestyle edging Meghan Groshans 2:10.30 to 2:10.77.
Murphy’s 257.00 points in diving beat Piorkowski’s 228.60, with Thompson pulling away to win the 100 butterfly in 1:06.15. Akley was second in both the 200 IM (2:30.44) and 500 freestyle (5:55.60), with Thompson, Akley, Kuznia and Manley winning both the 200 freestyle relay in 1:52.05 and 400 freestyle relay in 4:02.48.
Before this, Cicero-North Syracuse faced Syracuse City at Nottingham High School and the Northstars, improving to 3-3 on the season, prevailed by a score of 91-85.
Leah Benedict was part of four different winning efforts. On her own, Benedict went 2:07.65 in the 200 freestyle and zoomed to first place in the 100 freestyle in 56.67 seconds.
To start the meet Benedict, Cassidy Payrot, Katelyn Stewart and Brigid Gill swam the 200 medley relay in 2:08.26 and, in the 200 freestyle relay Molly Gucciardi joined Benedict, Gill and Payrot to post 1:57.41.
Gucciardi beat the field in the 200 individual medley in 2:35.84 before Payrot won the 50 freestyle in 27.80 seconds and Stewart went 1:17.13 to finish first in the 100 butterfly.
Later in the meet, Gucciardi and Payrot both won again, with Gucciardi edging Stewart, 1:23.23 to 1:24.13, in the 100 breaststroke and Payrot taking the 100 backstroke in 1:04.90. Sophia Sugrue had an impressive diving score of 235.35 points.
