McAvoy, Templeton pace Bangor swimmers

BANGOR – A technical difficulty at the Husson College pool left the Bangor and Brewer girls swimming teams in the dark for about 20 minutes of the warm-up session before their meet Thursday. A separate problem left swimmers in the 200-yard medley relay without official times.

Despite the meet’s inauspicious beginning, a squad of about 50 swimmers powered Bangor to a 148-35 victory over smaller, less experienced Brewer.

“We had a great meet,” Bangor coach Ginny MacMillan said. “Four new people qualified for states that hadn’t qualified yet, so that was really exciting for us.”

A generator in the building that houses the pool and Newman Gymnasium was shut down at about 5:30 p.m., putting a halt to the pre-meet warm-up session. But it’s not the first time this has happened, MacMillan said, and the Rams and Witches took it in stride.

Then, a loose connection between the touch pads in the pool and the scorekeeper’s computer wiped out the medley relay times. There weren’t enough backup timers monitoring some of the outside lanes, so officials knew the team places but not the times.

No matter. Bangor won the event, and the 11 after that. The Rams swept the top three spots in every event except the relays and the 100 backstroke.

Senior Stacey McAvoy led Bangor with wins in the 200-yard individual medley (2:41.56) and the 100 freestyle (1:02.78). She led off the 200 medley relay and anchored the 400 free relay.

“I wanted to race against the clock, not to race people, but just to race myself,” McAvoy said. The 100 free wasn’t where I wanted it to be, but that’s OK.”

Sarah Templeton took two events with easy wins in the 50 free (28.36) and the 100 backstroke (1:14.09). Lucy Gross earned a win in the 100 butterfly and swam the third leg in both the medley relay and the 400 free relay.

Margaret Cote outdueled Bangor teammates Kate Mroz and Kim Cammack when she came from behind to post a win in the 200 free (2:23.10). Kate Wardwell scored 172 points to win the 1-meter diving.

Erin Woolley was near her lifetime best in the 500 free with a 5:47.34 to win the event.

“Last year I wasn’t going under six [minutes] until the state meet, so it’s really exciting that I’m consistently, finally going under six,” she said.

Sophomore Candida Carvajal, one of Bangor’s top swimmers, won the 100 breaststroke (1:16.35), swam the breaststroke leg of the 200 medley relay and also dove for just the second time this season. Her exhibition score of 133.15 was less than a point away from qualifying for states.

Witches coach Kathy Cahill has been content to watch her team improve its technique and drop time each meet, but freshman Amanda Jewell had a huge breakthrough Thursday. She shaved 10 seconds off her previous best 100 backstroke time and finished third.

“[Cahill] told me that and my jaw almost hit the floor,” Jewell said. “Normally I don’t sprint at the end but I looked over and saw that the [Bangor] girls were there so I took off.”

A Brewer team of Amanda Goodness, Meredith McEwen, Liz Sutherland and Candace Wilcox was second in the 200 free relay.