Brockport swimmers accumulated the highest points among Section V teams at the State Swimming Championships held in Buffalo, placing eighth overall against 65 scoring teams. Section V’s Pittsford placed twelfth and Brighton placed fifteenth for teams in the top 16. Only the top 16 places in each event score points.
In individual events, junior Brandon Amthor tied for second place among the public schools in the 200 freestyle with a 1:40.94. Amthor’s time broke a 20 year old high school record held by assistant coach Dan Hickey. He broke the record three times between sectional and state swims. Amthor’s time at the Class B sectional championships took first place and set a Class B meet record. Coach Hickey said, “Brandon has been working toward this goal for a couple years. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to see the record broken. It was great.” Amthor also swam the 100 freestyle at the state competition taking fourth place in 46.39.
Senior Nate Bartalo had placed first in the 200 Individual Medley at the Class B sectional championships, but chose to swim the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly at the state competition. Bartalo scored points in the 50 freestyle, placing fifteenth in a time of 21.84. Teammate and sophomore Bruce Kane also scored points in the 50 freestyle placing fourteenth in a time of 21.86. Kane’s first place finish at the Class B sectional meet in this event had qualified him for the state competition.
In the state relay event, Brockport’s two relay teams turned in some of the best performances in school history, and the fastest in Section V for the season. The 200 freestyle relay of Bartalo, Kane, sophomore Matthew Dambra and Amthor took second place in 1:26.19, which is an All American Consideration time and the second fastest time in Brockport’s history.
Senior Alex Burrow swam in the relay for the state preliminaries helping set the team up with a third place seed going into finals. The team of Bartalo, Kane, Burrow and Amthor also took first place at the Class B sectional championships while setting the Class B meet record.
The 400 freestyle relay team of Bartalo, Dambra, Kane and Amthor took fourth place at the state competition with a 3:10.21, setting a new high school record, and barely missing the Section V record by less than 1.5 seconds. The same relay team placed first at the Class B sectional championships and broke the Class B meet record.
Head Coach Scott Stepanek said, “The relay teams started the season with their focus on getting state qualifying times early. Our first state qualifying time in the 200 free relay came back in December when junior AJ Regna teamed up with Bartalo, Kane and Amthor and broke the Brockport pool record. We also had a state qualifying team in the 200 medley relay with the team of Burrow, Amthor, Bartalo and Kane with a time of 1:39.48, the third fastest in Section V, but couldn’t swim it at the state competition because swimmers are limited to how many events they can swim at any competition. It’s really been a fun season to coach.”
Several other schools joined with Brockport to give the Westside a strong presence at the state meet. Hilton, Churchville-Chili and Spencerport all had swimmers or divers with state qualifying times competing at the meet. Hilton’s senior Brian Lane placed ninth in the state with a total of 448.90 points in diving. Senior Adam Reitz swam the 200 freestyle and the 100 freestyle in individual events and teamed up with three other Hilton seniors – Max Wagner, Alex Parks and Lee Lohrmann to swim the 200 free relay.
Churchville-Chili’s sophomore Brandon Crist placed sixteenth among public schools in the 200 freestyle with a 1:45.91, and eleventh in the 500 freestyle with a 4:42.07. Crist scored a first place finish in both events at the Class A sectional championships. Teammate and junior Christian Montanez also took a first place finish at the Class A championships in the 50 freestyle. Montanez swam the 50 and 100 freestyle at the state competition. The team of Montanez, junior Kyle Wooding, sophomore Tyler Regelsberger and Crist competed in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle state relay teams.
Spencerport’s senior Max Wersinger had state qualifying times in four events – 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke. Wersinger chose to swim the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke, an event he took first place in at the Class B sectional championships. At the state championships, Wersinger placed nineteenth in the 100 backstroke with a 53.75. Spencerport’s medley relay team of Wersinger, sophomore Andrew Cole, junior Jared Kettinger, and sophomore Nolan Benson also competed at the state championships after taking first place in the relay competition at the Class A sectional meet.
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