Fayetteville-Manlius girls swimming did not skip a beat despite losing a talented senior class from last season.

The Hornets rolled to a 96-78 victory over Cicero-North Syracuse on Tuesday night at the Nottingham pool.  "We weren't nervous, but we were apprehensive simply because we hadn't really seen our girls compete," Fayetteville-Manlius assistant coach Josh Smith said. "We graduated a ton of seniors last year. Over 50% of our team is underclassmen. We're a really young team, and tonight a number of them showed up. They were swimming in official events and scoring. It was really exciting to see."  

Smith was particularly enthusiastic about the performance of freshman Meghan Groshans. The first-year varsity swimmer won the 200-yard freestyle thanks to a time of 2:10.93.

"That's a big girl swim," Smith said. "That was a really nice statement to make."

Fayetteville-Manlius was also propelled by its veteran leadership. Junior Elise Wratney secured first place in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard individual medley, 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay. Senior Eliza Smith put together a variety of quality performances over multiple different events. Fellow senior Kelly Liu chipped in with a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle.

"Our goal this year is to swim girls in a lot of different events," Smith said. "Our strength is our depth. It's going to be our young girls filling in the scoring for sectionals."

Fayetteville-Manlius had to overcome a lot of uncertainty before the season. Since the Hornets don't have a home pool, they had to either use Henninger's pool or were left with no pool at all to practice.

"We're on the outside looking in, in terms of having a facility," Smith said. "We're sort of doing a tour of all the Syracuse pools. It's been a tough go, but we're making sure we fit in smart yardage. We're trying to swim fast when we get in the pool and making sure we keep our young girls adding up to some good yardage."

Cicero-North Syracuse also had a few standout performers. Sophomore Leah Benedict finished first in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard fly. Cassidy Payrot and Sophia Sugrue also picked up individual first-place finishes.  

Fayetteville-Manlius (1-0) has a quick turnaround with a bout against Christian Brothers Academy on Wednesday.

Cicero-North Syracuse (0-1) has a rivalry matchup with Liverpool set for Wednesday.