Bangor native Jason Thomas took a big step forward in his swimming career last weekend.

Thomas, a junior at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, competed at a 2001 Spring Eastern Sectional meet in Virginia and swam well enough in the 1,000-yard freestyle to qualify for the Phillips 66 National Championships, which will be held starting Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

“It’s pretty exciting [to qualify],” Thomas said. “I was definitely on cloud nine for a little while.”

At a more local level, 11 Maine YMCA teams are sending swimmers to the YMCA New England Regional meet which starts Saturday in Providence, R.I.

In qualifying for the national championships, Thomas sliced more than nine seconds off his seed time in the 1,000 free and won the event. His time of 9:17.71 was about three seconds under the cut time for the national meet.

Thomas will swim the 800-meter freestyle as this event is set up for meters, not yards. The change from yards to meters could be a challenge for Thomas.

“I got to swim meters last summer, but I haven’t done it since then. It could be interesting,” said Thomas, who leaves for the meet from Bangor on Sunday with his coach, Pete Williams.

It will be the first trip to the nationals for Thomas, a former Bangor High swimming standout and son of John Bapst athletic director Mike Thomas.

The 1,000 was the first event of the sectional meet and turned out to be a good omen for Thomas. He earned third-place finishes in the 500 free (4:32.58) and 1,650 free (15:46.21). Both times qualified Thomas for next winter’s U.S. Open. He was also 13th in the 200 free (1:43.22).

This is an off-Olympic year, so Thomas believes the national meet will garner lots of attention from college coaches. He could also gain recognition because a national age-group listing will be compiled from the meet.

As a member of the 1998-99 Bangor High team, Thomas was named Swimmer of the Meet at the Class A state championships, which the Rams won. Thomas left for Mercersburg, a private school with a nationally known swimming program, before the following school year.

Thomas’ old club team, the Old Town-Orono YMCA’s Canoe City Swim Club, is one of the local YMCAs sending swimmers to the regional meet at Brown University.

Other area teams that will have a contingent in Providence include the Bangor YMCA Barracudas, Mount Desert Island YMCA Sharks, Piscataquis YMCA Waves of Dover-Foxcroft, Waterville Dolphins, and the Down East Family YMCA Dolphins of Ellsworth.

The spring championship season continues for other YMCA swimmers April 9-12 at the YMCA Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

USA Swimming individual members and teams can look forward to the 2001 Eastern Zone Age Group All-Star Swimming Championship March 29-31 in Landover, Md.