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F/S/J/F Relay Captures State Title, Sets NYSPHSAA Record

Frewsburg/Southwestern/Jamestown/Falconer won the 200-yard freestyle relay in a NYSPHSAA-record time of 1:24.05 at the state championships Saturday at Ithaca College's Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium. Pictured, from left, are: Aidan McCleery, Conner Dean, Grady Moore and Miles Moore. Submitted photo

ITHACA — Records are made to be broken.

A Frewsburg/Southwestern/Jamestown/Falconer relay team broke one Saturday.

In the process, the quartet of boys from a trio of area schools gave Bruce Johnson his first state championship in 46 years of coaching.

Aidan McCleery, Conner Dean, Grady Moore and Miles Moore swam a New York State Public High School Athletic Association record time of 1:24.05 to win the 200-yard freestyle relay at Ithaca College’s Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium.

McCleery, a Falconer senior, swam the opening leg in 21.38 seconds before Dean, a Jamestown junior, followed with a leg of 21.40 seconds. Southwestern’s twin sophomore brothers Grady and Miles Moore finished the race with legs of 20.82 and 20.45 seconds, respectively, to edge Pittsford by 25-hundredths of a second. The 1:24.05 qualified as an All-American time for the Bears.

“With Miles and Grady at the end of that relay, I thought we had a pretty darned good chance. We usually come on at the end,” Johnson said Saturday evening. “Once we were pretty even after two legs, getting the two brothers in there third and fourth, they’re pretty hard to stop.”

Frewsburg/Southwestern/Jamestown/Falconer also came in third in the 200-yard medley relay. Frewsburg freshman Landon Frederes opened with a 25.25-second backstroke ahead of Dean’s 26.47-second breaststroke. Grady Moore then swam a 22.84-second butterfly and Miles Moore finished with a 20.52-second freestyle.

“There weren’t any freshmen besides him. He’s worked so hard this year. He’s growing like a weed and is over 6-foot tall now. He’s devoted. All he does is swim,” Johnson said of Frederes. “He’s going to get better and better. He’ll be able to get in the 23s and 24s where a lot of the backstrokers were today.”

Horace Greeley won the 200-yard medley relay with a NYSPHSAA-record time of 1:32.58 to qualify as an All-American time. Orchard Park was second in 1:35.17.

“Maybe next year, when we have all four of them back, we can turn the tables,” Johnson said. “Horace Greeley had four seniors. We’ll see.”

Frewsburg/Southwestern/Jamestown/Falconer’s third relay, the 400-yard freestyle, finished fourth with a time of 3:07.68. McCleery opened with a 47.41, followed by Grady Moore (47.33), Dean (46.76) and Miles Moore (46.18).

“Aidan did a great job swimming the leadoff legs,” Johnson said. “That’s not an easy job swimming leadoff.”

Horace Greeley won with a state-record and All-American time of 3:03.68, followed by Scarsdale and Pittsford.

“I never did think it would come. Two years ago, I didn’t ever think I would get a relay to the state meet. It was so hard for us to get four kids of that caliber on one team,” Johnson said. “To not only get all three relays to the state meet two years in a row, and to win one, that’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

Individually, Dean had the top finish for Frewsburg/Southwestern/Jamestown/Falconer when he touched the wall eighth in the 200-yard individual medley. He opened with a 24.92-second butterfly before a 29.04-second backstroke. Dean then turned in a 32.62-second breaststroke and finished with a 27.06-second freestyle.

“Conner’s wasn’t quite his best time, but he hadn’t had a whole lot of rest coming off the medley relay,” Johnson said. “There’s only one event in between there.”

Miles Moore finished ninth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.22 seconds. McCleery finished 26th with a time of 21.81 seconds in the C Final. Orchard Park’s Jaxon Bruzgul won in 20.82 seconds.

“(Miles) swam against (Bruzgul) three or four times during the year and had pretty good success against him until today, really,” Johnson said. “There were eight seniors, one junior and Miles as a sophomore in the championship final. The 50 is a grown man’s race and Miles is only 15 years old. He’s going to keep getting better and better.”

Frewsburg senior Alexander Pitts was 15th in 1-meter diving with a final score of 394.70 points.

Frewsburg/Southwestern/Jamestown/Falconer finished fourth in team scoring, Orchard Park was fifth and Williamsville East was seventh.

Other event winners included: Clarkstown NorthSouth’s Luke Dwyer in the 200-yard freestyle (1:30.46), Horace Greeley’s Erik Nadecki in the 200-yard individual medley (1:48.55), Francis Lewis’ Matthew Wong in 1-meter diving (504.85), Dwyer in the 100-yard butterfly (48.41), Scarsdale’s Kevin Jiang in the 100-yard freestyle (45.31), Horace Greeley’s Jack Cornish in the 500-yard freestyle (4:30.93), Clarkstown NorthSouth’s Isaih Francis in the 100-yard backstroke (48.88) and West Hampton Beach’s Max Buchen in the 100-yard breaststroke (54.28).

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