BRUNSWICK — Scarborough senior Ethan Schulz touched the wall, glanced at the timing clock, then looked back behind the starting block at the three teammates who preceded him in the concluding 400-yard freestyle relay.
Schulz smiled, flexed his right arm and punched the surface of the water Tuesday afternoon at Leroy Greason Pool on the campus of Bowdoin College.
For the second year in a row, Scarborough had won the Class A boys swimming and diving state championship in decisive fashion.
“At that point, we knew that we did everything we could, and it paid off in the end,” said Schulz, who also anchored Scarborough’s winning 200 medley relay and dominated his two individual events, the 100 and 200 freestyle.
He gestured toward his relay team — classmates Evan Wardrop and Brendan Amann and junior Ryan Vigue — and across the pool toward the rest of the Red Storm contingent and spoke of the effort put forth this winter.
“Everything I had, everything these boys (on deck) had, everything those boys (across the pool) had,” he said. “I was just proud of everyone, of all the work they put in.”
Scarborough led from start to finish, sweeping all three relays, winning three individual events and adding a second and four thirds to help amass a total of 369.5 points. Edward Little/Leavitt finished a distant second with 231, followed by Bangor (179), South Portland (168.5), Mt. Ararat (161), Gorham (158) and 13 other schools.
Schulz was named Swimmer of the Meet. Wardrop won the 100 backstroke (52.94 seconds) and was runner-up in the 100 butterfly. Amann took third in butterfly and fourth in the 200 individual medley. Vigue placed third in the 500 freestyle and fifth in the 200 free. Junior Owen Kasper took third in the 100 breast and 200 IM.
Morgan Royle, Scarborough’s first-year head coach, delivered a message before leaving the bus before the meet.
“We may be way out in front of everybody,” she said, “but I want us to walk into this meet not thinking we deserve it, but making sure we earn it.”
Sure enough, all three winning relays posted fastest-of-the-season times. The 200 medley quartet of Wardrop (back), Kasper (breast), Amann (fly) and sophomore Stephen Ranger (free) went 1:42.67. Edward Little/Leavitt finished second in 1:44.26.
The 200 freestyle foursome of Ranger, Vigue, Kasper and Schultz went 1:34.88, and the aforementioned 400 free relay (which trailed Edward Little/Leavitt midway through the race) finished in 3:22.15 for a margin of six seconds.
“Edward Little had a great relay put together and they went out very strong,” Schulz said. “To watch these guys crawl our way back, it was everything I could do to make sure that we stayed ahead and could sweep.”
The only individual winners who bested their seed times were Schulz and Edward Little senior Andrew Casares. Schulz won the 200 free by nearly 10 seconds in 1:41.90, coming within 1.2 seconds of the state record set in 1999 by Jason Thomas of Bangor. Schulz was even closer in the 100 free, winning in a time (46.74) that was within three-quarters of a second of the 2019 mark established by Carson Prouty, also of Bangor.
Casares won the 100 butterfly in 53.63 (not his fastest time) after taking the 200 individual medley in 2:01.51. Sophomore teammate Chase Leonardo was second in the 200 IM, 2.01 seconds back.
“This is one of the fastest if not the fastest Edward Little swim team we’ve ever had,” Casares said. “We’re really pushing Scarborough to work a lot harder. It’s super exciting to see how far we’ve moved from the past few years here.”
The meet’s closest race was the 100 breast, decided by one-hundredth of a second. In a reversal of the KVAC conference meet, Mt. Ararat junior Aidan Saunders nipped Leonardo in 1:01.22. Leonardo had won the KVAC title by .02.
Saunders said his primary motivation was not to avenge his earlier defeat, but to achieve a qualifying time for the YMCA Nationals. He missed it by a third-of-a- second.
“I guess going to this race, there was a little motivation to beat him, but I was still looking for that cut,” he said. “I’m racing myself most of the time, in my mind. It really comes down to how I feel after the race about my time, and if I went faster than before.”
Other individual winners included Kennebunk junior Asher Ward in diving (325.40 points), Mt. Ararat junior Keegan Rowe in the 50 free (22.44 seconds), and Thornton Academy junior Sebastian Shields in the 500 free (5:04.66).
South Portland senior Josh Lamour placed third in diving and completed his final three dives immediately after swimming the 50 free, in which he tied for 10th and swam his first length without bothering to surface for a breath.
“It takes a lot of practice,” Lamour said of his unusual combination, which also included two relay races. “I play a sport every season, so I keep myself really conditioned. It is hard, though.”
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