SYRACUSE – Both the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys swim teams carried strong expectations into Wednesday’s Section III Class A championship at Nottingham High School.

Led by Jack Cavallerano, Liverpool picked up 258 points to take fourth place and C-NS was sixth with 194 points, all of them chasing Fayetteville-Manlius, who fully utilized its depth to soar to the team title with 416 points.

Cavallerano was victorious in the 100-yard butterfly. Having already qualified for next month’s state meet at Ithaca College in this event, Cavallerano went 50.58 seconds here, just off his season-best 50.47 but well clear of the 53.52 from Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Lesha Kabunov and 54.54 from C-NS’s Brandon Keil, which was the Northstars’ best individual finish in a race.

This came after a dramatic 50 freestyle where Cavallerano and Fulton sprint specialist Logan Ames nearly touched at the same time. Cavallerano’s 21.32 seconds was just one-hundredth of a second behind Ames’ 21.31 and bested his previous mark of 21.94 by more than half a second.

All told, Cavallerano was part of three winning efforts. In the meet-opening 200 medley relay Sean O’Neil, James Hayden and Bryce Shutts joined Cavallerano to prevail in 1:39.80, just ahead of F-M’s 1:40.10 as both qualified for the state meet. Later, in the 200 freestyle relay this same Liverpool quartet pulled away in 1:31.12 from F-M’s 1:32.82

Hayden was victorious in the 100 backstroke, too, his 55.53 seconds more than a second ahead of the 56.60 of West Genesee’s Sean Putnam as Shutts gained third place in 58.48. In the 200 individual medley Hayden finished third in 2:06.99, with Shutts fourth in 2:10.56.

O’Neil went 49.88 seconds for fourth in the 100 freestyle and was seventh in the 50 freestyle posting 23.10 as Ryan Vann added an eighth in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.31.

As for C-NS, it finished fifth in the 200 medley relay in 1:47.08 and sixth in the 200 medley relay (3:38.22) as Keil went exactly 23 seconds for fifth place in the 50 freestyle. Seventh-grader Anthony Aloi was seventh in the 500 freestyle posting 5:23.23, with Ryan Lasher seventh (1:00.35 in the 100 backstroke as Leo Alexander took ninth in the 100 freestyle in 53.45.

Friday’s sectional state qualifier had Liverpool take fifth place with 148 points as New Hartford (354 points) pulled away from F-M to take the George Falwell Cup.

Cavallerano again won the 100 butterfly holding off Skaneateles’ Gavin Van Kersbergen, 50.60 seconds to 50.85, and again took a close second (21.39 seconds) to Ames (21.36) in the 50 freestyle where Keil was 10th in 22.79.

In the 100 butterfly, Keil went 53.99 seconds for fifth place just missing the state qualifying standard of 53.95. O’Neil got sixth in the 100 freestyle in 49.76 while Shutts finished fifth in the 200 in the 200 IM posting 2:10.21, a new season mark, and did the same in the 100 backstroke going 58.88 to finish sixth.

All of this followed the sectional Class A diving meet on Feb. 8 where C-NS’s Nate Ornoski set a new personal mark with 528.8 points, second only to the 574.7 from Baldwinsville’s Nick Pompo, while Carter Canastra was fourth with 487.15 points.

Chris Koegel was sixth with 444.9 points, just missing the state qualifying standards of 450 points. Ornoski and Canastra joined Pompo and J-D/CBA teammates Cameron Corona and Garrett Fuller advancing to the state meet.

Moving on to Tuesday’s state qualifier, Ornoski had 493.2 points which put him in third place, Pompo again in the top spot with a school-record 576.15 points and Corona second with 534.55.

Canastra nearly caught Ornoski but settled for fourth place earning 488.2 points. Koegel claimed seven place, again getting close to the state standard with 437.6 points.