Liverpool’s boys swim team pushed West Genesee hard and nearly grabbed the top spot in Friday’s Section III Class A championship meet at Nottingham High School. The Warriors finished with 324.50 points, topping everyone except the Wildcats, who held on to the top spot with 341 points. Fayetteville-Manlius (245 points) was third. Cory Spado led Liverpool’s efforts. He qualified for the March 4-5 state meet at Nassau Aquatic Center on Long Island, nearly winning the 200 individual medley as, in a time of 1:59.78, he was second to F-M’s Jack Robinson (1:59.46). Also, Spado reached the state meet in the 100 butterfly, speeding to third place in 52.82 seconds behind F-M’s Kevin Koh (52.02) and West Genesee’s Carson Elias (52.47). Alex Perfitt did the same in the 100 backstroke when he finished fourth in 55.88 seconds, beating the state qualifying standard by 0.03 seconds. Twice, the Warriors qualified for the state meet in relay events. In the 400 freestyle relay, Jake Burns, Drew Henry, Dan Hens and Shane Donovan tore to a time of 3:17.23, second only to Oswego, who won in 3:16.40. In the 200 medley relay, the Warriors’ quartet of Spado, Perfitt, Burns and Phil MacLeod worked their way to a time of 1:40.16, good for third place – and beating the state qualifying standard by more than a second. On his own, Donovan rose to fourth place in the 500 freestyle in 5:02.30, with teammate Nick Hens seventh in 5:17.28 as Dan Hens was eighth and Steve Rogers 10th. Donovan also took sixth in the 200 freestyle in 1:49.97. Liverpool also had three top-10 finishes in the 100 breaststroke, where Burns was fifth in 1:04.46, just ahead of Garrett Clarke in sixth (1:04.54) as Brian Alsever was 10th in 1:06.88. Perfitt tied for sixth in the 100 freestyle in 49.81 seconds, with MacLeod eighth in 50.28 seconds after he got seventh in the 50 freestyle in 22.78 seconds. Perfitt, MacLeod, Donovan and Spado rose to fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:34.16. Brandon Frush was ninth in the 100 backstroke. Cicero-North Syracuse finished with 94 points in the Class A team event, but saw Billy Werksman win the diving competition. Werksman picked up 471.05 points, beating Nottingham’s Kalonji Cole (401.05 points) by exactly 70 points. Liverpool’s Dan Roche was fourth with 393.65 points, with Dan Whaley in 12th place. Werksman also helped Tyler Smith, Tom McAndrew and Jamie Fisher get sixth place in the 200 medley relay in 1:50.21 and, by himself, got 12th place in the 100 backstroke. Smith, Fisher, Ben Mozo and Ricky Blackburn were seventh (1:37.01) in the 200 freestyle relay. All this led to Sunday’s state qualifier, where Liverpool again took the runner-up spot, earning 263 points as West Genesee (332 points) maintained possession of the George Falwell Cup. Spado, as on Friday, was second to Robinson in the 200 IM, finishing in 1:59.70, and he also repeated that third-place effort in the 100 butterfly in 52.85 seconds. The Warriors managed the exact same time (1:40.16) in the 200 medley relay, finishing third, and was fourth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:17.98) while claiming fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:34.67. Roche improved his diving score to 414.55 points and qualified for the state meet, as Werksman, with 487.70 points, was second to Mexico’s Nick Rodriguez (511.55 points). Perfitt improved his 100 backstroke time to 55.83 seconds and took fourth place, adding a sixth in the 100 freestyle (49.81 seconds) ahead of McLeod in eighth. Donovan hit 1:50 flat in the 200 freestyle, earning sixth place as he also got seventh (5:13.38) in the 500 freestyle. Clarke again took sixth in the 100 breaststroke, finishing in 1:04.33 as Burns was eighth in 1:05.43.