ORONO – A dozen events make up a swim meet, but if the Greely girls were to defend their state Class B title Saturday night, they needed to win the very first race, the 200-yard medley relay.
They fell behind by more than three seconds on the opening backstroke leg.
They rallied and took the lead on the butterfly, with only the freestyle to go.
They broke a school record by more than 1 1/2 seconds, a mark that had stood for more than a decade.
But they still came up short by a little more than three-tenths of a second to Mt. Desert Island.
“We went after it,” said Greely sophomore Sarah Easterling. “We tried our best.”
MDI won two of three relays Saturday night at Wallace Pool on the way to their first girls’ swimming and diving title since 1989.
The Trojans finished with 375 points to 3281/2 for Greely. Waynflete, making its first appearance since the Maine Principals’ Association added girls’ swimming in 1975, finished third with 232, including two individual titles.
McAuley was fourth at 166 followed by Foxcroft Academy (1601/2), Yarmouth (141), Lincoln Academy (131), Falmouth (127) and 16 other schools.
Easterling was named the meet’s top performer. She won the 200 individual medley in 2 minutes, 9.58 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 59.40 seconds.
The latter time broke the meet record of 59.67 set in 2004 by Kary Goodman of McAuley, now an assistant coach at her alma mater.
It was Goodman who draped the winning medal over Easterling’s head.
MDI senior Chelsey Curran, whose blazing backstroke leg of 27.65 seconds led off the pivotal medley relay by giving the Trojans a lead of nearly 4 seconds, finished second to Easterling in the 100 backstroke, nearly 2 seconds back.
“It motivated me,” Easterling said of Curran’s presence in the race. “I’m not going to lie. That fired me up.”
Easterling was one of two individual double winners. The other was junior teammate Sara Schad, who took the 100 and 200 freestyle races.
Falmouth junior Nicola Mancini was a runaway winner in diving, scoring 416.15 points to outdistance her nearest rival by more than 140 points.
“I’m not like a runner or soccer (player),” said Mancini, who took up gymnastics at age 3. “I’ve always been a flipping and twisting person.”
Waynflete’s individual titles came from two freshmen. Colby Harvey took the 100 butterfly in 59.17 and Ellen Silk the 500 freestyle in 5:33.45. The Flyers scored in every swimming event but the breast stroke.
“Definitely some nerves, but it’s a great experience for them,” Waynflete Coach Jim Harvey said. “It was a long day, a little overwhelming because we have so many freshmen, but they loved it.”
The other individual winners were Curran in the 50 free and Allie Lewankowski of St. Dominic in the breast stroke. MDI won the 200 free relay and clinched the meet even before the 400 free relay, won by Greely.
“They swam well and we swam well,” said Greely Coach Rob Hale. “It was just, they’ve got depth.”
The Rangers took a 13 1/2-point lead after three events, including the victories by Schad in the 200 and Easterling in the individual medley, but MDI took lead for good after Curran led a 1-4-8-12 finish in the 50 freestyle, an event in which Greely was shut out.
“We have depth everywhere,” said MDI Coach Tony DeMuro. “We have all the events covered. I think the big thing was that (Hale) felt like he had to do something special to win it, so I think he went after all three relays and it made him a little vulnerable.”
The Class B boys’ meet is Monday night at Wallace Pool.
“It was another awesome MDI-Greely classic,” Hale said, “only it was girls instead of boys.”
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
gjordan@pressherald.com
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