Matt Violette knew what he was up against in the 500 freestyle at last week’s boys state swim meet. He knew that his Westbrook teammate Jacob Wilson would be there at the end. Same with Morse’s Luke Trafton, Cape Elizabeth’s Nick Daly and Cheverus’s Joe Moreshead.
Because the race was destined to be a close one, Violette kept his strategy simple: “Swim it hard, swim strong and don’t back off at all.”
“Joe Moreshead and Nick Daly had both beaten me before, and I was kind of hesitant going into it,” he said. “I kind of wanted to prove that I could get second.”
Violette, a junior at Westbrook, proved just that. He came in at 4:54.57, finishing behind Trafton, but ahead of both Daly and Moreshead.
The performance anchored a surprisingly strong day for the six-man Westbrook squad. The Blue Blazes finished seventh with 136.5 points, behind Morse (303), Scarborough (246), Cape Elizabeth (242), Deering (190), Bangor (177) and Cheverus (161).
In addition to the second-place finish in the 500 free, Violette also had a second-place showing in the 200 IM and was on the third-place 200 free relay team as well as the sixth-place 400 free relay team.
The Blue Blazes also got strong swimming from Wilson, who was third in the 200 IM and fifth in the 500 free.
“We were all just in the spirit of the whole thing,” said Violette. “We all had Mohawks the day before, and it was great. “I think (the team chemistry) was there from the beginning. Westbrook is always a close-knit team, so that’s cool.”
And the Blue Blazes will carry that chemistry right through the spring and summer and then into next season. Violette and Wilson, also a junior, will swim for the Seals of Westbrook, as will freshmen Kyle Goan and Calen Lancaster.
“I find, I don’t know, in swimming, everyone you know on your team is pretty much your friend because you’re with each other all the time,” said Violette. “We’re all family. We call it our Seals family, and it was our Westbrook family (during the high school season).”
With a strong nucleus already in place, Violette is hopeful that next season will be an even better one for the Blue Blazes.
“Next year’s going to be awesome,” he said. “We were at a meet this (past) weekend and my dad was doing all the splits and thinking what we could get for our relay time next year. He thinks we can win it.
“I think we can. We’re getting some more numbers. There are a few guys coming up from eighth grade, two or three, and there are more kids who are already interested because they saw we did so well.”
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