Right to the last leg of the last race, the West Genesee boys swim team fully owned the Section III championship meet at Nottingham High School. The Wildcats’ conquest came in two parts. First, there was Friday’s Class A meet, where WG, with 341 points, fended off Liverpool (324.50 points) to once again earn the sectional championship. Then came Sunday’s state qualifier, in which the Wildcats added two dramatic relay victories to Ben Seketa’s individual conquests in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke. With 332 points, WG easily outdistanced Liverpool again for the top spot.. In the Class A portion on Friday, WG immediately met with a small dose of disappointment. In a dramatic 200 medley relay, Seketa, Brendan Marks, Carson Elias and Pat Guy finished in 1:37.88 – but Fayetteville-Manlius won in 1:37.87, a difference of one-hundredth of a second. But on Sunday Ian Bushnell took Guy’s place on the anchor leg, and this time the Wildcats won, earning All-American consideration with a school-record time of 1:36.67 as the Hornets (1:37.57) had to settle for the runner-up spot. A few hours later, in the meet-closing 400 freestyle relay, Seketa, a senior heading for Bucknell, began the anchor leg trailing Oswego, who had the fastest Class A qualifying time. Seketa chased down the Buccaneers’ Reeve Callen, and WG won in 3:15.66, another school record. Seketa had already conquered the 200 freestyle, where he held off Auburn’s Adam Zelehowsky, 1:43.02 to 1:43.28. And in the 100 breaststroke, Seketa broke his own school mark with a winning time of 58.44 seconds, more than a second ahead of F-M’s Ryan Kelley. Elias qualified for the March 4-5 state meet on Long Island when he finished second in the 50 freestyle in 21.94 seconds. Oswego’s Drake Becksted, the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer, broke the meet record, winning in 21.02 seconds. Elias got even closer in the 100 butterfly, second in 52.11 to F-M’s Kevin Koh, who won in 52.01 seconds. Also, Josh Byrne rose to third place in diving, and his total of 467.55 points helped him join Nick Rodriguez (Mexico) and Billy Werksman (Cicero-North Syracuse) in the field for the state meet. Collin Zapisek, in a time of 4:58.97, rose to third place in the 500 freestyle. Marks was fifth in the 100 backstroke in 56.11 seconds. Matt O’Donnell was seventh (56.63 seconds) and Tyler Zapisek eighth in the 100 butterfly. Back in the Class A meet, the results were the same. Seketa held off Zelehowsky, 1:44.34 to 1:44.82, in the 200 freestyle, and he won the 100 breaststroke, Seketa won in 58.54 seconds. Elias was second in the 50 freestyle in 22.03 seconds as Oswego’s Drake Becksted broke a 22-year-old sectional meet record when he won in 21.19 seconds. It was similar in the 100 butterfly, where Elias finished in 52.47 seconds – but Koh prevailed in 52.02 seconds. Collin Zapisek was third in the 500 freestyle in 5:00.70.Marks took fifth in the 100 backstroke in 56.66 seconds and took eighth in the 50 freestyle. Guy, Ian Bushnell, Mike Clark and Richard Maroney were fourth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:33.35. Jake Mullett took seventh in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.63.