Old Town girls, boys win

BANGOR – When Old Town’s Katie Fournier climbed out of the Bangor YWCA’s Aloupis Pool after winning the 100-yard breaststroke Saturday against Brewer, one of the first people to congratulate her was Indians coach Tim LeCrone. Fournier, a senior, had finally qualified for states in the breaststroke after three years of trying.

Minutes later, Brewer’s Ben Lam finished second in the 100 breaststroke and Witches coach Kathy Cahill let out a “Yes!” when she saw his time. Lam has only been swimming for two years, but his effort qualified him for states for the first time in that event as well.

With the smaller, less experienced Brewer boys and girls going up against the larger, seasoned Old Town squads, both schools used the dual meet to enter off-events and get swimmers qualified for the championship meets.

Old Town was too deep for Brewer, and the Indian boys took their meet 102-73. The girls beat Brewer 124-58.

It’s a different atmosphere than a meet that comes down to the final event – Old Town put both meets out of reach early and went on to win both – but some surprise season-bests and qualifying times gave Saturday’s matchup some exciting moments.

Old Town led off the meet by going 1-2 in the 200 medley relay with Nick and Paul Perkins swimming the second and fourth legs, respectively, of the winning team. Brewer’s Mike Sighinolfi won the second event, the 200 free, but the Indians picked up a second and a third in that event.

They put the meet out of reach by sweeping the top two spots in the following two events, the 200 IM (Paul Perkins took it in 2:22.16) and the 50 free (Paul’s brother Nick Perkins won in 24.87).

The brothers accounted for five individual and relay wins.

Neither Jason Tillotson nor Keenan Goslin won an individual event, but both Indians qualified for states and had season-best times – earlier in the season than they expected.

Goslin had a season-best in the 100 fly. Tillotson qualified for the first time in that event and topped his season-best time in the 100 back.

“Things are going good so far,” Goslin said. “I’m progressing better than I did last year. I think it’s going to come out better in the end.”

Sighinolfi picked up his second win of the afternoon in the 100 fly and was the only Brewer swimmer to win two individual events. His time of 1:03.19 matched his time from states last year.

“I swam tight with [Goslin] and he gave me a good race,” Sighinolfi said. “I was a little nervous because he beat me last year and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.”

Sabattus O’Connell took the 100 free for the Witches, and Chris Rodway won the 1-meter diving.

In the girls meet, Katie Laverdiere and Libby Caldwell helped Old Town claim first places in all 12 events with two individual wins and two relay wins apiece.

Laverdiere, usually a breaststroke and IM swimmer, won the 200 free (2:13.23) and the 100 free (59.47). She also anchored both the winning 200- and 400-free relays.

“We’re just trying to play with the events,” said Laverdiere. “It was fun to swim all freestyle. It was different.”

Caldwell took the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:31.63, and the 500 free in 6:12.64, almost two minutes faster than her closest competition.

Kiva Hermansen and Janai Bernholz each won an event and swam on a winning relay. Bernholz won the 50 free (28.93). Hermansen took the 100 fly (1:09.90).

The Witches’ best finishes came on the diving board, where Old Town’s Sarah Brown beat out Brewer’s Hilary Ohmart by 7.1 points, in the 500 free (Shannon Adams and Amanda Jewell went 2-3) and in the 100 back (Ashley Hill and Brittany Mayhew were second and third, respectively, to Old Town’s Laura Amar-Dolan).

The Witches were second in both of the freestyle relays.

“We have a lot of novice swimmers,” Cahill said of both Brewer teams. “They’ve been learning to swim and many of them are experimenting in strokes like breaststroke and butterfly, and some of them might disqualify but we’re looking to see that they have endurance to go four lengths of the pool and keep their stroke legal.”