SYRACUSE – Even with a steady stream of strong individual performers on hand the Liverpool girls swim team had not put it all together for a Section III championship since 2007.
This drought ended Wednesday at Nottingham High School where the Warriors, steady in all the races and tops on the diving board, picked up 374 points to go to the top in the nine-team field and beat Fayetteville-Manlius (331 points) for top honors.
When they had gone head-to-head Oct. 11 F-M had prevailed 99.5-86.5, but amid the larger sectional field the Wariors’ depth and balance won out, especially in two relay races.
Working together in the 200-yard freestyle relay Arianna Kuznia, Elizabeth Manley, Izzy Akley and Brielle Bryant went one minute 45.02 seconds to edge West Genesee (1:45.09) by seven-hundredths of a second.
This same quartet returned for the closing 400 freestyle relay and, finishing in 3:54.27, the Warriors topped Baldwinsville’s 3:56.96 for the top spot.
Individually, the best finish in a race was shared four ways. Kuznia was second in the 50 freestyle in 26.63 seconds before Natalie Thompson got second in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.15, Bryant took second in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.72 and Ruby Brown was runner-up in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.99.
Manley made her way to third place in the 200 freestyle going 2:09.45, with Akley third in the 500 freestyle in 5:50.79 right after Kuznia’s 56.26 seconds in the 100 freestyle got her to third place.
Also, a trio of divers from Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse will both represent Section III when the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships take place at Webster Aquatic Center next weekend.
The Warriors’ June Piorkowski and Molly Murphy both claimed their spots before the Northstars’ Sophia Sugrue earned her spot last Tuesday at Nottingham High School in the sectional state qualifier.
It was Piorkowski and Murphy earning their spots in the Nov. 2 sectional meet, each of them exceeding the state qualifying standard of 450 points in doing so.
With 474.15 points, Piorkowski prevailed over the 469.95 from Jamesville-DeWitt’s Kayle McQuaid, while Murphy stepped up and earned third place with 459.65 points to secure her state meet berth.
Sugrue, who finished fourth at the sectional meet with 437.25 points, would need to improve on that mark at the state qualifier, and she did so by less than a point.
Helped by a strong start, Sugrue carried that momentum through the rest of her dives until she finished on 450.6 points, fifth in the competition but still good enough to advance.
Murphy continued her upward trajectory, too, and set a personal mark with 492.75 points that beat out Piorkowski’s total of 486.25 in third place. McQuaid won with 510.3 and Christian Brothers Academy’s Sophia Osvoldik (457.5) also advanced.
Then, at the sectional meet, C-NS’s Leah Benedict won twice early, starting in the 200 medley relay where she, along with C-NS teammates Cassidy Payrot, Molly Gucciardi and Katelyn Stewart, sped to a time of 1:58.10 edging the 1:58.78 from Fayetteville-Manlius.
Two races later, Benedict gave the Northstars a victory in the 200 individual medley, going 2:19.42 to beat out the 2:21.09 from Baldwinsville’s Olivia McManus, while Payrot won the 100 backstroke going 1:02.76 as Benedict took second in the 100 freestyle in 56.12 seconds.
Moving on to the sectional state qualifier on Friday, Liverpool’s team total of 221 points was second only to Jamesville-DeWitt’s 276 in the race for the George Falwell Cup as C-NS was fifth with 139 points.
Payrot’s 1:02.27 in the 100 backstroke was second to the 59.38 from J-D’s Thearyn Wales. Benedict went 57.02 seconds in the 100 freestyle to finish third, adding a 2:20.69 in the 200 IM as Liverpool’s best finish came when Kuznia, Manley, Akley and Bryant went 1:44.54 in the 200 freestyle relay topped only by New Hartford’s 1:43.37.
