ITHACA – Bringing a lot of experience in big meets, Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy boys swimmer Misha Kabunov aimed to reach the medal podium in last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
With his season-best time of one minute 46.43 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle, Kabunov was the sixth-fastest swimmer in the state going into the meet at Ithaca College.
Concentrating on this event and not going in the 500 freestyle, Kabunov tore to a time of 1:39.90 and was third going into the finals. Only Archbishop Malloy’s Sean Green (1:37.24) and Bellmore Merrick’s Will Siegel (1:39.44) were quicker.
The championship race would see Kabunov do even better. Posting 1:39.25, Kabunov beat the time of 1:39.81 needed for All-American consideration and finished second only to Siegel’s victorious 1:38.82, less than half a second from a state title.
As for his brother, Lesha Kabunov, he also swam in the 200 freestyle looking to improve upon a 1:47.20 – which he did with 1:44.90 to finish 16th in the qualifying round and then getting 1:44.28 in the finals to tie for 13th place.
In the 100 butterfly Kabunov posted 52.26 seconds, quicker than his previous 52.96 that put him 20th going into the finals, where in 52.36 he made his way to 16th place.
Then there was the Red Rams’ diving duo of Cameron Corona and Garrett Fuller, both of whom were part of a strong Section III contingent where Corona entered as the no. 9 seed with a 534.55-point effort during the season.
Fuller did not advance to the finals and settled for 25th place but Corona did so, eventually taking 16th place with 431.1 points. Baldwinsville’s Alex Pompo got on the podium with his fifth-place score of 516.80 points.
Fayetteville-Manlius, who won the Section III Class A team title in mid-February, brought its 200 medley relay team of James Cao, Neil Adamski, Ben Prendergast and Derek Wang to the state meet with a 1:38.82 posted earlier this season, but they were disqualified in their heart
On his own, Adamski had broke the one-minute mark in the 100 breaststroke by going 59.98 in the sectional Class A meet, and improved to 59.58 here to get to the final in 20th place. In the consolation final Adamski’s 59.46 put him second in that face to a 59.33 from Scarsdale’s Kieran Lee and 12th overall.
Manlius Pebble Hill swimmer Sun-Jin Shah also swam in the 100 breaststroke, where he went 59.95 seconds to finish 24th among qualifiers. this winter. In the 100 freestyle, Shah posted 48.11 to reach the championship round in 19th place, then in the finals remained in that 19th spot with his clocking of 48.32.
