Brooke Cloutier of Lewiston High School competes in the 100-yard breaststroke event during the girls’ Class A swimming and diving state championships in Brunswick on Tuesday. Cloutier won the event with a time of 1 minute, 7.75 seconds. (Portland Press Herald photo by Gregory Rec)
BRUNSWICK — They were 1-2 in the team standings all day. Perennial power Bangor and two-time defending champion Cony battled for every point in the Class A girls’ swimming and diving state championships at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool.
Bangor held a seven-point lead heading into the final race and needed to finish second in the 400-yard freestyle relay to clinch the title.
Instead, Bangor capped off an impressive meet by winning the relay as it captured its 20th state championship.
Bangor totaled 274 points, while Cony had 261. Falmouth (202) was third and Lewiston (145) was fourth.
Senior Gabby Low and junior Cecelia Guadalupi of Colby were named Co-Performers of the Meet. They were both double winners for the second straight year — Low in the 100 butterfly (55.44) and 100 backstroke (56.33), Guadalupi in the 200 individual medley (2:05.68) and 100 freestyle (52.70).
Lewiston senior Brooke Cloutier closed out her career with state championships in the 50 freestyle (25.04) and 100 breaststroke (1:07.75).
Bangor freshman McKayla Kendall was seeded first in the 50 freestyle and lowered her time to 25.38, but Cloutier knocked 0.62 off her previous best, winning in 25.04.
“That 50 free was a great race for me. I wasn’t expected to drop that much time,” said Cloutier, who will swim for Wheaton College next year.
In her favored event, the breaststroke, Cloutier took the lead halfway through and won by more than a second.
The Twin Cities had a nice showing in the 100 breast. Along with Cloutier’s state title, Edward Little’s Izzy Bellefleur took fourth and Lewiston’s Taylor Belanger and Melina Masselli were fifth and seventh, respectively.
Brunswick senior Alex Morse won the 500 freestyle (5:19.67).
Falmouth junior Lily Smith won diving with 370.2 points, 24.6 ahead of Phoebe Adame of Westbrook.
Cony won seven of the 12 events and placed second in three others.
Along with Low and Guadalupi, Cony was paced by freshman Emma Thomas, who won the 200 freestyle (1:57.67) and finished second in the 500 freestyle (5:20.19). Freshman Lunden Dinkel was second in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the 50 freestyle. Cony also won the 200 medley and freestyle relays.
“How can I complain? What more could we do?” Cony coach Jon Millett said.
It was Cony’s star power vs. Bangor’s depth.
Cony did not have more than one swimmer score in each event, but Bangor had multiple scorers in three races.
Then there was diving. Bangor senior Sarah Danby placed sixth, and two teammates placed 11th and 13th, for a total of 23 points. Cony didn’t have a diver.
“Diving is what got us behind,” Guadalupi said. “We don’t have any way to get back those points.”
Bangor’s only victory came in the 400 freestyle relay (3:46.26).
“You can’t always get firsts and seconds, but we can get points,” Bangor coach Cindi Howard said. “I knew it would be down to the relays. I loaded that 400 relay.”
Low, who was the sole Performer of the Meet last year, will swim for the University of Connecticut. She began Tuesday with the opening backstroke leg in the medley relay (25.40 split). Dinkel, Emma Crosby and Guadalupi followed in a meet-record time of 1:49.84.
Low cruised in her individual events. Millett said her 55.44 butterfly time qualified her for All-America status.
“A very special girl,” Millett said.
Low was hoping for a team title, “but even though we didn’t win, we showed with just a small number of girls, we’re as strong as any other team.”
But Bangor had the depth. Besides Kendall’s second in the 50 free, she finished second in the 100 butterfly. Senior Rachel Hand was second in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke. Sophomore Anna Sellnow placed third in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 100 freestyle.
Cony figured to get closer to Bangor in the 500 free. But Brunswick’s Morse upset Thomas with a time of 5:19.67 — 25 seconds faster than her best high school time this year — and .52 seconds ahead of Thomas.
“I swam a 5:24 in a (club meet) in December,” Morse said. “I tried to take it out strong, and halfway through, I realized I was in first.”
Bangor senior Maddie Huerth, seeded 10th in the 500, finished sixth to keep Bangor comfortably ahead.
Cony’s team of Dinkel, Thomas, Leah Allee and Guadalupi won the 200 free relay in 1:44.22. But Bangor stayed ahead, and its 400 free relay team of Hand, Ginny Hunt, Huerth and Kendall sealed it.
Swimmers enter the pool in the 500-yard freestyle event at the girls’ Class A swimming and diving state championships in Brunswick on Tuesday. (Portland Press Herald photo by Gregory Rec)
Lily Smith of Falmouth on her final dive at the girls’ Class A swimming and diving state championships in Brunswick on Tuesday. Smith won the diving competition. (Portland Press Herald photo by Gregory Rec)
Send questions/comments to the editors.
