Third place is cool, but Lewiston’s Brooke Cloutier was a bit tired of it.
“For the 100 breaststroke, I just wanted to get higher than third place, because my freshman and sophomore year I finished third,” she said. “So I just wanted to get higher than third.”
Cloutier capped off her junior season with not one, but two second-place showings at the Class A girls’ swimming state championships. She was the runner-up in the 100 breast as well as the 100 freestyle.
“When it came to the championships, Brooke blew it out of the water,” fellow team captain Lennon LaBelle said.
Cloutier also swam legs of the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay at the state meet. Her standout performances make her the Sun Journal’s All-Region girls’ swimmer of the year for the second consecutive year.
“I thought that Brooke had a really, really strong season,” Blue Devils coach Troy Boutin said. “She consistently had the highest output of any of my swimmers this year in terms of her effort at practice and at meets. She went out at our first meet and came two-hundredths of a second away from breaking what was a 16-year-old record in the 100 freestyle for the high school.”
Cloutier likes knocking down school records. She went on to break the record and place second in what Boutin called a “phenomenal final” at KVACs. We week later, she bettered the record at the state meet.
She won the KVAC title in the 100 breast, her top event, and then at states set a new school record in the event.
“My goals at the beginning of the season, I knew I wanted to break a couple of the school records, and that’s what I did,” Cloutier said.
She now holds three school records, having set one in the 50 free as a sophomore. And she wants more, with her sights set on the 200 free, 100 back and 200 IM.
That Cloutier has broken so many records and has a shot and taking down more highlights her versatility.
“She swam every event in the roster for high school swimming this season, and I think she dropped her time in just about all of those events,” Boutin said.
Brooke Cloutier
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