The Shaker boys swim team fended off Shenendehowa to win the Section 2 Division 1 title 506-505 Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Shenendehowa Aquatic Center.
The Blue Bison’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Andrew Semmes, John Fitzgerald, Frank Miao and George Enright placed second with a state meet qualifying time of 3:18.03 to earn just enough points to edge Shen, which earned a victory in the event with a time of 3:13.15.
Shaker’s other two relay teams won their finals to help the Blue Bison build a 10-point lead on Shen with two events to go. The 200-yard medley relay team of Nicholas Buff, William Matz, Zeeshan Irani and Mark Enright finished with a winning time of 1:37.92, while the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Irani, Matz, Semmes and Mark Enright earned its victory with a time of 1:27.52.
Matz was one of the top individual swimmers of the Division 1 meet. The junior earned victories in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:54.33 and the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 51.37 seconds. Mark Enright added a victory in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.61 seconds.
A significant portion of Shaker’s points came from swimmers who placed in the top three of their events, also. Semmes was second in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles, Irani and Mark Enright tied for second place in the 50-yard freestyle, Buff and Irani were a respective second and third in the 100-yard backstroke and Steven Yu finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Shaker is sending seven individuals, plus its three relay teams, to the state meet Feb. 27 and 28 in Ithaca.
