MDI, Bangor, Ellsworth, Old Town strong at meet

ORONO – Check out Lennie DeMuro whistling and waving like a madman Sunday on the Wallace Pool deck at the University of Maine.

DeMuro is fiftysomething and he’s hopping around like a teen-ager trying to be heard above the din created by 200 or so voices shouting encouragement or advice to the swimmers cutting through the pool’s eight lanes.

Whether he’s being heard or not is debatable. Whether he’s a successful swim coach is not.

DeMuro has twice over the years taken the relatively small group of swimmers who participate in the MDI YMCA swim program to a second-place finish in the YMCA State Swimming Championships. This weekend’s fifth place with 1,1141/2 points was another respectable result for the Sharks in the 16-team field. The four teams placing ahead of them come from much larger programs.

Long Reach Swim Club of Bath took the overall title with 2,2081/2 points, followed by the Pine Tree Swim Club of Portland with 1,5781/2 points. Bangor YMCA was third with 1,454 points and the Twin Cities Swim Team of Lewiston-Auburn was fourth with 1,1401/2. Down East Family YMCA of Ellsworth was sixth with 1,079 points and the Canoe City Swim Club of Old Town finished seventh with 9931/2. Casco Bay Regional YMCA was eighth with 934, Boothbay YMCA was ninth with 934 and Kennebec Valley YMCA rounded out the top 10 with 789 points.

“The truth of the matter is they probably can’t hear or see you. But I’d go crazy if I stood here for four hours and didn’t say anything,” DeMuro said.

He points out that the Sharks really have only two signals. One indicates the swimmer should go faster. The other tells the swimmer to go slower.

“We only use one of those signals,” DeMuro laughs.

Someone must have given the go signal to the Sharks’ Trevor Renwick. Renwick blew away the field in the boys 14-and-under version of the 100-yard freestyle, turning in a personal best time of 50.47.

Renwick is an example of someone who is willing to put in the work to get the job done. He lives in Winter Harbor, attends Sumner High School in East Sullivan and swims with the MDI High School team. During the YMCA swim season, he travels to Mount Desert Island to practice and compete with the Sharks.

“It’s an hour and 15 minutes each way and here lately I’ve been making the trip four times each week,” Renwick explained. “It’s worth it. This was my best time yet. I’m trying for 49 [seconds] but I’m happy with it.”

Renwick is also teammates with a couple of guys who qualify for the sports all-name team -“Frosty” Pepper and his brother Sargeant Pepper of Somesville.

Frosty says it was winter when his mother was pregnant with him so his sister nicknamed him Frosty. Sargeant turns out to be a family name. Frosty won the 14-and-under 200 yard freestyle for the Sharks and finished second to Renwick in the 100.

Fifteen yards down the pool from DeMuro, also giving the go signal, is Canoe City coach Matt Vogel. The former Olympian recently took over the program. He inherited some pretty good talent. Bangor High stars Jim and Dan Soucie are long-time members of the Old Town club and both had impressive YMCA state meets.

“I’ve only been working with them for about a month,” Vogel said. “We’re working on a few things trying to get them ready for the nationals.”

They were ready Sunday. Jim Soucie shredded the field in the 18-and-under 100 backstroke with a state record time of 54.49, breaking the old record of 54.66 that had been set by Jamie Cunningham of the MDI Sharks in 1998. He also picked up a win in the 200 freestyle, while his brother, Dan Soucie, had personal best times in both the 50 free and 200 individual medley.

Although twins, the 18-year old Soucie brothers don’t necessarily think the same way. While Dan is unsure whether he will continue swimming next year at college, Jim says he couldn’t give it up.

“I’m going south and swimming Division I,” he said. “I’d miss it too much if I left the sport.”

Bangor coach Belinda Perry also uses signals. She uses a meet program in her left hand to urge her swimmers on.

Perry indicated Sunday morning she had mapped out the meet and felt a third-place finish was likely.

“We will score more points this year than we did last year [when the Barracudas finished second] but we’ll probably finish third,” Perry said.

She was right. It was not for lack of effort. Among the accomplishments by the Bangor team were state records in the 50 breaststroke [36.69] and 50 backstroke [31.95] in the 10-and-under division by Hermon’s Sorrell Cardello.

Bangor also received a solid effort from precocious 13-year old Isobel Herbold. Because there is no 500 freestyle event for the 14-and- under age group, Herbold competes in the senior division with the 18-year olds. She gave her team second-place points in the event Sunday.

“I kinda wish they did have a 14- and-under 500 free. But I don’t really feel overwhelmed by it,” Herbold said.

The Waterville Dolphins finished 11th overall with 746 points. They were followed by Camden YMCA with 5931/2, Sanford YMCA with 522, Bay Area Swim Club/Waldo YMCA with 3071/2 and Piscataquis Regional YMCA of Dover-Foxcroft with 2251/2.