From the Democrat and Chronicle

Staff reports

(March 7, 2004) — Luke Weniger came away from his final state championships with a state record in the 100-yard butterfly, but that was only part of the Pittsford senior’s goal.

He also won the Swimmer of the Meet Award, a title in the 400 freestyle relay, and the title in the 50 freestyle at the State Swimming and Diving Championship at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in Westbury, Long Island, on Saturday.

Fairport junior Jon Roberts also sets his goals far and away from his competition. Roberts won three titles, completing his state title trifecta — three titles every year for the last three years.

Roberts and his relay teammates, Jeff Wood, Matt McGraw and Cyrus Salehi, won the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. Roberts took the state title for the 100 breaststroke, helping Section V dunk the competition.

Final team scores will be announced in a few days, but in hypothetical scores that were done before the finals, Section V was winning by 325 points — and Section V did better than predicted.

Weniger’s state record of 48.99 seconds in the 100 butterfly beat the old record of 49.11, but Weniger does not expect that time to stand for long.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he (Roberts) took my record down next year,” Weniger said. “I knew what Jon was capable of, and that made the ‘fly’ the toughest race. In the 50 freestyle, I didn’t know any of the guys and I didn’t know what to expect.”

Roberts finished second behind his good friend with a time of 50.49.

“Now that I have the record, I want to see it go down and make these guys (Section V) get faster,” Weniger said.

Weniger says that the key to his success, that he hopes to take to Auburn University next year, is hard work, and a little bit of luck. Weniger finished with five career state titles.

Roberts is not done trying to push his relay team to be the top team. “I am pretty proud of my team. ... There were some state records that we wanted to break but we still did really well,” Roberts said. The connection that we have between our teammates and coaches are what makes us so successful.”

Fairport’s Jeff Wood also came away with not only two relay titles, but the title for the 100 backstroke. Wood’s time of 51.38 makes him an automatic All-American.