LEWISTON — As the rivalry between Lewiston High School and Saint Dominic Academy goes, swimming might be the most fraternal relationship in the bunch.
Just don’t you dare think that meant a kind, gentle Friday night at Lewiston YWCA.
There was nothing passive about Lewiston’s Samantha Moon, who eclipsed her previous best in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle by a staggering 48 seconds. Or Lewiston boys Peter Tirabassi, Alex Mills and Matthew Charest and St. Dom’s girls Nicole Robitaile and Ciara Ferguson, all of whom played a role in three victories.
Oh, and surely enough they count the scores. Just ask the Blue Devils, who celebrated a sweep of the Saints — 87-65 in the girls’ meet, 112-49 in the boys’.
Nobody cares that Lewiston is Class A and St. Dom’s Class B in the pool, either.
“In the grand scheme of things that really doesn’t matter at all,” Lewiston coach Dustin Carrier said. “It comes down to the individual races one-by-one. They have some good swimmers who have stepped up, and they gave us a really, really good run for our money.”
Lewiston padded its advantage on the boys’ side by dominating the three relay events.
Tirabassi, Mills and Charest each swam the 400 freestyle relay along with Jakub Suransky.
Mills and Charest also were part of the victorious 200 freestyle relay, while Tirabassi shared in the 200 medley relay win with Matt Forgues, Sean Dyer and Caleb Lebrun.
“We know a lot of them, so it’s a fun meet,” Tirabassi said. “We have a lot of depth too. We had a lot of races where we were second and third.”
Tirabassi (100 breaststroke), Mills (200 freestyle), Charest (200 individual medley) and Suransky (100 freestyle) also won individual races for Lewiston.
The Dempski brothers were double winners for St. Dom’s. Mike, a senior, breezed in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. Matt, a junior, bookended the freestyle with triumphs in the 50 and 500.
“My 100 butterfly today was a personal record,” Mike Dempski said. “I’ve been working on it this year. I had a very slow 1:12 on Tuesday. I worked hard in practice, got some rest last night, ate some spaghetti and came in today ready to race.”
St. Dom’s got much closer in the girls’ meet thanks to the quick quartet of Nicole Robitaille, Ciara Ferguson, Emily Carney and Meagan D’Alessandro.
Together, they won the 400 freestyle relay. Robitaille raced to additional wins in the 100 butterfly and 200 IM. Ferguson topped the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
Carney was fastest in the 200 freestyle, and D’Alssandro, a freshman, swam 1:27.83 in the 100 breaststroke to trim five seconds off her previous best.
“We’re a pretty good team overall. We do as many events as we can, and we try to get experience in each stroke,” D’Alessandro said. “I was really excited to come to this, because I knew it would be a great competition.”
Elizabeth Small was the individual star for Lewiston, winning the 50 freestyle and swimming a leg of the first-place 200 freestyle relay along with Jami Morissette, Bernadette Racine and Taylor Roy.
Makaella Pete, Hannah Dickinson, Amanda Dobson and Paris Noddin won the 200 medley relay.
Then there was Moon. Swimming the 500 freestyle at the same time as the boys, she swam her second-fastest lap on the final go-round to touch at 8:02.52.
“That was awesome,” Morissette said. “To drop 48 seconds in her 500 tonight is incredible.”
Moon wasn’t alone.
“We were probably about 80 to 90 percent lifetime best times, which is huge for us considering all the snow days we’ve had, and Christmas break,” Carrier said.
And yes, the idea of competing against the neighboring school that shares a home pool probably helped both teams find that something extra.
“You have some races that look lopsided, but you have people going after personal bests and individual goals,” St. Dom’s coach Marc Robitaille said.
“Lewiston is always fun to swim against. Everyone knows we’re cross-town rivals. On the soccer field, the hockey rink and the lacrosse field there’s some intense back-and-forth, but here in swimming we’re all friends,” Mike Dempski added. “We’re racing ourselves and it’s all fun together. I know a lot of them personally, and it’s good fun to come and race against them.”
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