By CHRIS BROOKS, sports editor, wellsvillesports.com
WELLSVILLE/CUBA — On back-to-back nights, the Wellsville Lions continue to find their groove in the water, as they built two strong first half leads and held onto them against both Canisteo-Greenwood back on Monday, and over the road at Cuba-Rushford on Tuesday, as they recorded 66-60 and 65-49 wins.
Back on Monday, the team started fast with five straight first place finishes against the Redskins, with the 200 medley relay team of JT Mariotti, Sean Driscoll, Ethan Everett and Ben Jordan kicking off the evening with a 2:01.27 winning time. Mariotti, Everett and Jordan would also further the team’s cause with individual wins of their own later on in the meet, with Mariotti finishing first in the 200 individual, Everett in the 50 freestyle and Jordan in the 100 freestyle.
Rounding off the wins for the Lions was Tyler Rahr off the Diving board, and Landon Cinque in the 500 freestyle.
“We got the win. The boys have been swimming a lot of meets the last few days, and they are responding very well,” Lions coach Steve Hand said. “We keep mixing things up by having them swim different events to try and challenge them. It makes all of their hard work in practice pay off in the end. The experienced boys are really showing the newer guys exactly what it takes to post some faster times.”
Wellsville would follow up the home win with one over the road just 24 hours later in Cuba, as they provided a similar start through the first five events against the host Rebels to grab and hold the upper hand permanently behind a 65-49 victory.
The Lions would lay claim to victory in each of the first six events of the evening with six different swimmers all recording at least one individual win, as Sean Driscoll (200 freestyle), Ethan Crandell (200 individual), Ayden Faulkner (50 freestyle), Tyler Rahr (Diving), JT Mariotti (100 butterfly) and Ethan Everett (100 freestyle) all tallied individual wins to pair with their lead-off relay triumph in the 200 medley.
Cuba-Rushford garnered four first place finishes, all in the second half of the meet, as Elizabeth Drum (500 freestyle), McKennah Patten (100 backstroke) and Avery Little (100 breaststroke) recorded individual wins to pair with their lone relay triumph in the 200 freestyle.
Wellsville hops right back into the water tonight, back home, as they welcome in Olean for a 5:30 p.m. first swim.
