Behind Livonia’s domination of LCAA meet, Sea Lions place 3rd overall behind strong individual performances from Mattison, Oswald; Mattison named LCAA’s Senior Swimmer of the Year

[PHOTOS BY KATIE OSWALD]

BATH — The time has come for the Sea Lions of Wellsville to defend their throne. Although their Sectional title defense won’t come for another two weeks, the Sea Lions still have the mighty waters of the Livingston County Athletic Association to traverse, as they looked to swim their way back to the top of the conference in Bath this past weekend, on Saturday.

Across all the personal, and even season bests, that were scattered through the water, it was a 560-point performance filled with dominance from the Livonia Lady Bulldogs, as they took home this year’s top honors over second-place Letchworth/Perry and third place Wellsville.

The Sea Lions scored seven finishes in the top three, with three of them coming across as first place finishes — two of them belonged to the LCAA’s top Swimmer of the Year in Morgan Mattison, who managed to collect winning times in both the 50 freestyle (25.71) and the 100 butterfly (1:11.25).

Both times, a season best for the Sea Lions star swimmer.

Kaylee Oswald was the other Sea Lion to record a top finish, as she posted a 359.80 score off the Diving board two nights before, to claim first place. Oswald would also collect a third place finish in the 100 backstroke. Wellsville also scored two second place finishes in the relay department, garnering them in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays, respectively.

“This was a great meet for the girls, despite the team results not being what we’re used to. They all dropped time and had good swims,” Sea Lions coach Steve Hand said. “Kaylee looked good off the board going into Sectionals, Morgan swam faster than she has all year, Makenna Cooke chased down a Sectional cut in the 100 butterfly, Jasmine got the 200 IM and a few other girls were able to inch closer. We’ve got one more shot in Livonia on Tuesday, and we only do times for this meet, and the girls swim faster when there isn’t any added pressure of scoring those points.”

In addition to Mattison receiving Senior Swimmer of the Year, the Sea Lions saw three more swimmers receive All-Conference selections at meet’s end, with Oswald, Reegan Perkins and Megan Vanetten all earning them.

For a complete docket of results from the LCAA Championship meet, you can click the link here!

The four-time defending Section V champion Sea Lions will now gear up for a tri-team exhibition up north in Livonia along with Palmyra-Macedon on Tuesday before making one last push towards the Class C Championship meet, which is slated to begin on November 2 at the Webster Aquatic Center.