Chenango Valley's Schultz breaks Section 4 record, posts pair of 4th-place state finishes
Tyler Schultz closed his Chenango Valley swim career with a pair of fourth-place finishes and a second Section 4 record Saturday during the finals of the New York State Boys Swimming & Diving Championships at Ithaca College.
Schultz, a Binghamton University-bound senior, placed fourth overall in the 200-yard individual medley and fifth in the 100 breaststroke, in which he was the No. 4 public schools finisher.
His time of 1:51.64 in the championship finals of the IM broke the section record of 1:51.80 set by former Ithaca standout Ryan Nicholson in 2013. Eric Nadecki of Horace Greeley was Saturday's winner in 1:48.55.
Schultz posted a championship finals time of 57.18 seconds in the breaststroke. Max Buchen of Westhampton Beach won in 54.28.
Earlier this season, Schultz broke his own section record in the breaststroke with a swim of 56.88 seconds.
"It’s really special, especially to be able to break Ryan’s record, that’s no small feat," Schultz said. "It’s my second one, too. I was overly thrilled to have one and now that I have two it’s just icing on the cake."
This was the third state meet for Schultz, who qualified for another in the 2020-21 school year, when there was no event because of the pandemic. He placed seventh overall and sixth among public schools in the IM and breaststroke last year.
Looking back at girls state meet: Corning's Angie McKane earns 2 more state titles at New York state championships
CV relay earned top-10 finish
Schultz joined CV teammates Amir Sadykov, Fin Dolaway and Gabe Tallant in finishing 12th overall and ninth among public schools in the 200 medley relay in 1:37.38.
Those same four placed 15th overall and 13th among public schools in the 400 freestyle relay (3:15.57).
"I'm pretty happy with it," Schultz said of the meet. "I'm not overly thrilled, but it was a good meet. It was cool to bring all three relays this year although I only did two of them. Just to have some of my teammates there, it was really fun to not just be the only guy going.
"We were going for our school record in the medley relay and we were just under a second off that. We wanted to go a little faster in that one, but we were still pretty happy with the performance."
Schultz said he didn't have much left by the meet-closing 400 relay, with about a 20-minute break between the breaststroke and that race.
"I left it all in the pool that last race," he said.
More: Boys swimming & diving: Horseheads, Maine-Endwell, Watkins Glen/O-M win Section 4 titles
Sadykov, Li pace other Section 4 swimmers
Sadykov's weekend included a seventh-place overall finish in the 100 backstroke with a finals time of 51.77 seconds, good for sixth among public schools.
In the 50 freestyle, Sadykov placed ninth among public schools and 11th overall in 21.24 seconds.
Horseheads senior Shoonfon Li topped the consolation finals field in the IM with a time of 1:53.91, giving him 11th place. Li placed 14th overall and 13th among public schools in the backstroke in 52.6.
In later action Friday, Johnson City's Evan Rigal paced Section 4 divers with a 22nd-place finish off a score of 366.50. Corning's Brenden Jardin-Reed (274.65) finished 23rd and Elmira's Creed Hackett 26th (245.70). Both were eliminated after the semifinals.
A look at prelims: Chenango Valley swimmers pace Section 4 at NYSPHSAA boys swimming prelims
Other Section 4 overall finishes
200 medley relay: 24-Horseheads (James Fedele, Thai Tran, Kaden TenEyck, Kegan Monahan) 1:42.3; 29-Maine-Endwell (Strati Anastos, Martino Shattuck, Cole Medina, Carter Czebiniak) 1:43.77.
100 butterfly: 17-Connor Lajza (Lansing) 51.86.
500 freestyle: 16-Koen Anderson (Ithaca) 4:47.29.
200 freestyle relay: 17-Maine-Endwell (Strati Anastos, Cole Medina, Billy Underwood, Carter Czebiniak) 1:29.79; 26-Chenango Valley (Fin Dolaway, Jacob Demer, Brendan Kliment, Gabe Tallant) 1:37.22
400 freestyle relay: 19-Maine-Endwell (Strati Anastos, Cole Medina, Cooper Aaron, Carter Czebiniak) 3:20.44.
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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: How Section 4 swimmers fared during final day of NYSPHSAA meet
