ONONDAGA COUNTY – Regular-season action for the Skaneateles and West Genesee girls swim teams closed Wednesday night with defeats against tough competition.
For the Lakers, it was quite successful in most aspects of last Wednesday’s meet against Cicero-North Syracuse at Nottingham High School, yet still fell just short in a 91-89 defeat to the Northstars.
Immediately, Skaneateles got an exciting victory in the 200-yard medley relay when Ari Matthews, Ana Nichols, Landyn Bennett and Olivia Springer went two minutes 5.25 seconds to edge C-NS’s 2:05.74.
Matthews went from there to a pair of impressive individual efforts, going 5:33.51 to dominate the 500 freestyle after she was victorious in the 200 individual medley in 2:27.30.
Springer went 2:13.68 to top Cassidy Payrot (2:16.81) in the 200 freestyle, then won the 100 freestyle in 59.16 seconds, more than six seconds clear of any challenger and, with Matthews, Bennett and Caylinn Grady was victorious in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:49.26.
A close diving competition may have made the two-point difference, Skaneateles’ Phoebe Bedard excelling with 243.15 points but just behind C-NS’s Sophia Sugrue who had 247.25 points. Mattie Bales was third and Arianna Cirincione fourth.
Marcellus swimmer Vivian Pilon roared to a time of 25.34 seconds in the 50 freestyle to beat the 26.08 of the Northstars’ Leah Benedict before she beat the field in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.13.
Bennett, who was runner-up to Pilon in the 100 breaststroke (1:20.31), also was second in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.09, with Nichols second in the 100 backstroke going 1:09.61.
In West Genesee’s case, it faced Liverpool, one of the top Salt City Athletic Conference side, and fell to the Warriors 102-82, though it still nabbed a pair of individual wins.
Maddie Owczarzak beat the field in the 200 freestyle, her 2:12.31 well clear of the field, and she broke the one-minute mark in the 100 freestyle getting third place in 59.88 seconds.
Ki Johnson (1:02.01) was fourth in the 100 freestyle, but later was victorious in the 100 backstroke going 1:14.46 to beat the 1:16.95 from Liverpool’s Abbi Lane.
Rachel Hann’s time of 1:16.93 in the 100 butterfly put her in second place, with Lena Kent second in the 500 freestyle in 6:14.29 not far from Natalie Thompson’s winning 6:11.71 for Liverpool, and Olivia Nabewaniec second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:23.13 edging Makayla Dunham (1:23.65) in third.
Owczarzak, Mary Elizabeth Cornish, Rachel Hann and Clara Hann took second in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:54.05, while in the 200 medley relay Kent, Johnson, Josie Owczarzak and Rachel Hann went 2:14.66 edged by the Warriors’ 2:14.37.
Lena Kent was third in the 200 IM in 2:43.49, a sectional meet-qualifying time, with Rachel Hann third in the 50 freestyle in 28.72 seconds ahead of Julianna Sagneri (29.12) and Clara Hann (29.33). Mia Berrios took third in diving with 153.85 points.
During Saturdays’ Burgos Diving Invitational at Nottingham, Bedard gave Skaneateles a fifth-place finish, earning 387.70 points, while Cirincione finished ninth (303.70) and Bales (288.45) beat out Berrios (267.45) for 12th place.
