ONONDAGA COUNTY – Coming off its first defeat of the season to Fayetteville-Manlius on Jan. 3, the Baldwinsville boys team quickly made its way back to the win column back home.
Meeting Oswego last Tuesday night at Baker High School, the Bees claimed seven of the 11 events on the card and was runner-up in the other four while defeating the Buccaneers 49-43.
Alex Nicita and Alex Atherton won two events apiece, Nicita first converting in the 200-yard freestyle by going one minute 51.93 seconds well clear of the 2:02.52 from teammate Marco VanCour.
Moving to the 100 freestyle Nicita was quick and took the event in 51.14 seconds, nearly five seconds ahead of the 56 flat of Oswego’s Liam Sugar as Brayden Anders was third in 56.21 and Aiden Tallarico (58.65) fourth.
For his part, Atherton earned first-place points in the 200 individual medley in 2:18.41, though Manlius-Pebble Hill standout Sun-Jin Shah prevailed in 2:02.32. Much the same thing happened in the 100 butterfly, Atherton going 59.19 seconds ahead of all the Bucs’ swimmers but behind Shah’s 56.12.
Adrian Clay swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.23, with Ethan Gramiak (1:15.53) in third. VanCour would prevail in the 500 freestyle in 5:32.23 to the 5:45 flat of Oswego’s Jack Canale Giberson.
Owen Nizar won the 100 backstroke in 1:02.48 edging Dylan Danesco’s 1:04.38, with Myles Reynolds (1:12.10) beating out Tallarico (1:13.74) for third place. Brayden Anders was second in the 50 freestyle in 25.18 seconds edging Clay’s 25.13 behind the 24.01 of Oswego’s Cooper Dawson.
The Bees also took the 200 medley relay in 1:52.60 to the Bucs’ 1:55.87 and claimed the 400 freestyle relay in 3:40.26 beating Oswego’s 3:43.36. B’ville went 1:38.63 in the 200 freestyle relay behind the 1:37.01 from the Bucs.
Nick Pompo did not dive in this meet, but when he did compete Saturday in the Salt City Dive Invitational at Nottingham High School he again went to the top of the standings.
Having qualified for March’s state championship meet in late December at a similar meet in Mexico, Pompo earned 541.55 points this time around, beating out Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Cameron Corona, whose 497.90 also put him in the state meet as Cicero-North Syracuse’s Nate Ornoski was third with 493.10.