AUBURN – Just as winter snow arrived the West Genesee boys swim team went to work on the 2024-25 season, opening Wednesday night at Auburn.
But it was the Maroons prevailing 89-80 over the Wildcats despite tremendous performances by WG teammates Brady Smith and Gavin Flanagan, who each had a part in four victories.
To get it going Smith and Flanagan joined Sean Putnam and Jacob Skardinski to go one minute 53.46 seconds in the 200-yard medley relay, edging out Auburn’s 1:54.98.
Smith went right from there to the 200 individual medley, where his 2:24.82 edged Putnam’s 2:25.10 for the top spot, while in the 100 butterfly Smith got first place in 1:06.40 and Aiden Lounsbury (1:10.65) was second.
As for Flanagan, he followed the medley relay by winning the next race, the 200 freestyle, in 1:59.28, beating the field by more than seven seconds. Then Flanagan pulled away in the 500 freestyle, his 5:21.59 nearly half a minute ahead of anyone else.
To close out the meet, Flanagan and Smith, teamed with Putnam and Owen Kane, would swim the 400 freestyle relay in 3:49.52 to beat the Maroons’ 3:53.26.
Putnam led the field in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.41, with Skardinski second (1:15.83) and Ian Grosser third (1:18.10) in the 100 breaststroke. Owen Kane swam the 50 freestyle in 25.33 seconds for third place as Auburn’s Caleb McMillan (24.96) won to go with a 54.89 he got to take the 100 freestyle.
Each of WG’s four meets in December is on the road, including this Thursday’s trip to Oswego which starts at 5 p.m.
