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BANGOR – So just how good is Bangor High swimmer Jason Thomas?
How about this: in Saturday’s meet against Cape Elizabeth he anchored a 400-yard freestyle relay team that set a state record, set a school record in the 500 free and won the 50 free – all the time suffering from mononucleosis.
Thomas did it all on Saturday, pacing the Bangor boys swimming team to a 143-37 victory over a smaller Cape team at the Husson College pool.
The Ram girls got a huge emotional lift with their 101-81 win over the defending Class A champion Capers. Bangor senior freestyle specialist Sarah Guerette had a standout afternoon against tough competition.
Thomas’ day went like this: He sat out of one of his premier events, the 200 freestyle, but handily won the 50 free with a time of 22.56. After a break, he swam the 500 free for the first time all season and broke his own school record with a 4:41.81 finish.
“The 500 felt good,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t expecting it.”
Then, all he did was swim a scorching 47.62 in the anchor leg of the 400 free relay. The team of Jim Soucie, Alex Small, Jake Jentzer and Thomas was sure to win the race but Thomas saw the time and pumped his fist when he realized the 3:15.77 was a state record, breaking a Cape Elizabeth mark from 1983.
“We missed it last year by not that much, so I said I was going to just put together the best lineup that I could,” Bangor coach Phil Emery said. “Normally you don’t like to focus on records but at the level they’re at, you have to keep giving them challenges.”
The Bangor boys started their meet off with a pool record in the 200 medley relay. A team of Dan Soucie, Tae Chung, Jentzer and Small swam the event in 1:42.54.
Jentzer, who just recently joined the team, won the 200 Individual Medley with a 2:03.27 finish and later in the meet set a school record in the 100 butterfly, finishing in 54.11.
Twin brothers Jim and Dan Soucie each racked up several individual and relay wins. Jim Soucie won the 200 free (1:55.50) and the 100 back (59.19) while Dan took the 100 free (50.75) and the 100 breast (1:04.70).
Bangor’s Justin Fogg won the diving with a 160.70 points.
“I don’t think you could put the two best teams in the state together and still beat Bangor,” Cape boys and girls coach Kerry Kertes. “They are just incredible.”
In the girls meet, Guerette had the most dramatic win of either meet with a 2:00.80 finish in the 200 free. Lined up against Cape Elizabeth standout Kirsten Alberi, the two swimmers were dead even after the first 50 yards and Guerette had just a one-hundreth of a second lead on Alberi at the halfway mark. Guerette pulled up with two lengths remaining and out-touched the Cape swimmer.
“I think it helped me having her right there,” Guerette said of the close race. “It’s someone to swim with, someone to push you.”
Ram senior Emily Haney took the 50 free (29.11) and along with Guerette, Emily Hastings and Erin Woolley, took the 200 free relay (1:54.54). Bangor’s Janel Bonzey earned 129.20 points to win the diving.
“Bangor has more depth than we do and I’d say their front-line swimmers like Sarah and [Leah Morey] are as good as ours,” Kertes said. “I’d say this wasn’t our best meet.”
Audrey Flynn won two events for the Capers, including a 1:14.38 finish in the 100 breaststroke and a 1:14.91 win in the 100 fly. Alberi rebounded against Guerette in the 500 free, pulling ahead for a 5:31.61 win. Alberi and Flynn both swam on Cape’s winning 400 free relay (4:06.27) and 200 medley relay (2:04.33).
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