Brockport boys’ swimming started their season with a first place finish at the Hilton Invitational where seven teams competed for best times and a chance to take home the winning trophy. Host Hilton High School created a fun environment for swimmers while giving out t-shirts for each event’s top places. Brockport scored first with 523 points, Hilton second with 434 points, and Spencerport third with 380 points.
Notable performances included a Brockport High School record in diving set by Anthony Guerrieri with a first place score of 449.55 points, barely missing a newly set state cut standard for 11 dives of 450.00 points versus the older 420.00 point standard.
In swimming, Brandon Amthor set Hilton pool and meet records in the 200 freestyle with a 1:44.02 and 100 freestyle with a 47.46 as he led the 400 freestyle relay–both times qualify for the state championship meet. The 400 freestyle relay of Amthor, Matt Dambra, Alex Regna and Bruce Kane swam to first place with a state meet qualifying time of 3:18.55, making them the current leader in the state among posted times for the event.
In their first home dual meet, Brockport took on well-known swimming power Fairport. In a close meet of talented swimmers, both teams stepped up with exciting fast swims. Amthor broke his own pool record in the 200 individual medley in a state cut of 1:58.18, and took first in the 500 freestyle, while teammates Kane took first in the 200 and 100 freestyle, and M.Dambra took first in the 50 freestyle.
Brockport’s early lead was given a large boost when divers Anthony Guerrieri, Dakota Bechtold and Zack Turlington went one, two, three respectively in diving. The lead proved much needed later in the meet when Fairport chipped away the points with fast swims in the butterfly and backstrokes.
Fairport’s Matthew Triaszin won first in the 100 butterfly and Jeff Santillo came first in the 100 backstroke. A crucial win came in the 200 free relay bringing fans to their feet. Sam Coyle, Regna, Nick Dambra, and Kane fought back Fairport’s lead when Kane touched out Fairport by three one-hundredths of a second with one of Section 5’s fastest relay split times. Regna followed with a win in the 100 breaststroke.
Despite Brockport’s wins, Fairport’s depth had closed the lead to within two points going into the last event, the 400 free relay. The meet win would go to the team winning the relay. Brockport’s Zack Kime, Kane, M.Dambra and Amthor touched the wall first with a 3:21.25 making history with Brockport’s first ever team victory over Fairport.
Coaches Stepanek and Hickey both expressed their pride in the tremendous effort the swimmers had put forth at the same time reflecting on a long-time respect for Fairport’s coaches and swimmers. Stepanek indicated, “there were several close swims that went our way; it was just our moment to shine.”
Brockport’s divers and an up-and-coming group of young swimmers helped decide the meet. Additional point contributors for Brockport included Cory Albrecht, Dalton Cunningham, Rylan Donovan, Logan Kime, Alex LaMere, Colby Riexinger and Andrew Scheffer.
Two days later, Brockport improved their record to 2-0 with a 102 to 78 win against Churchville-Chili. Again, records fell in Brockport’s second home meet.
Churchville-Chili’s Brandon Crist set a pool record in a state cut time of 4:42.38, currently the fastest posted time in the state for the 500 freestyle. Other first place finishes for Churchville-Chili include Christian Montanez in the 50 and 100 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle relay of Montanez, Crist, Kyle Wooding and Tyler Regelsberger.
Brockport’s Guerrieri broke the high school six dive record with a score of 274.30, and Brockport’s 200 free relay of Amthor, Kane, M.Dambra, and Regna set a pool record in a state cut time of 1:29.20, also the fastest posted time in the state for the event. Amthor’s lead-off leg of the relay in 21.38 makes it a state leader for the 50 freestyle.
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