Fredonia boys swim gets past Panama on the road
PANAMA — The Fredonia Hillbillies boys swim team got back in the win column after traveling to Panama on Tuesday, winning the meet by a final score of 100-76.
Finn Frerichs came back after missing a couple days of school due to illness and won the 100 yard backstroke (1:10.00) and finished third in the 200 IM.
“Finn has been under the weather but he game back and gutted it out for us,” said Fredonia head coach Bob Ball. “I was very pleased with his performance for us.”
Another Hillbilly of note was Bill Osula, who won two individual events, including the 200 IM (2:16.95) and the 100 freestyle (51.36).
“We moved some people around to get ourselves in the right events,” said Ball. “Finn getting in there for us I thought was key to getting us the win.”
Nick Wittmeyer won the 500 freestyle with his best time of the season, finishing with a 6:19.46.
For Panama, Austin Strong had a nice night in the pool, winning the 200 freestyle (2:00.99) while finishing just behind Osula in the 100 freestyle at (53:50). Elliot Johnson won the 50 freestyle (24.37) while Panama’s 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay teams won each event handily.
In addition, Fredonia’s Matt Brockelbank won the 100 breaststroke (1:10.68), leaving himself just .5 seconds off of the section time he’ll need.
Fredonia’s Ronan Murphy won the 100 butterfly (1:04.93) and the 200 medley relay team consisting of Frerichs, Brockelbank, Murphy and Tyler Donahue won with a time of 2:00.07.
“It’s good to see the times drop,” said Coach Ball. “You don’t want to see them peak too early, so the fact that they’re slowly coming down is a good thing. Getting close to our sectional times is a good thing, but tonight we focused on getting people in the right events to secure a win.”
Fredonia will be back in action on Thursday when they swim in the pool against rival Dunkirk.