Rival divers push each other to excellence Bangor’s Alley tips Brewer’s Rodway in scintillating efforts; Rams defeat Witches in meet

BANGOR – There’s no friendship between them, divers Justin Alley and Chris Rodway admit. The two seniors don’t know each other well. They’re competitors on rival swimming teams (Alley with Bangor, Rodway with Brewer) with plenty of close finishes between them over the years, and two of the best in the state this season.

What there is between the two standout divers, however, is a ton of respect. And that led to monster diving scores in Thursday’s meeting between the Bangor Rams and Brewer Witches at the Husson College pool.

The large Ram squad easily outdistanced the much smaller Witch team, winning the meet 130-46 behind fine swims from Martin Fitch, Scott Loukes, Eric Palmer, and Joe Rice. Several Bangor swimmers swam off-events for a change of pace or to give other swimmers a chance to try an event.

“By and large, we had a pile of career-best times and a pile of season-best times,” said Phil Emery, coach of the four-time defending state champion Rams.

Bangor certainly didn’t need the diving points to win the meet – but the competition between Alley and Rodway was intense. Both boys said they chose to perform the more difficult dives in their repertoires.

And it showed. Alley beat Rodway by 27.75 points, but both divers set personal bests for six dives (the divers do 11 dives in state competitions) and Rodway broke the 19-year-old Brewer school record.

“I blew away my previous best by about 50 [points],” Alley said.

“Yeah, me too,” Rodway responded.

Rodway’s toughest dive was a forward dive with two somersaults. Just this week Alley added a dive that features 11/2 somersaults with a full twist.

“We decided to put that in here because I had to up the [degree of difficulty] to keep up with him,” Alley said, nodding his head in Rodway’s direction. “I think about it all day. I kind of overwork myself.”

Neither diver received anything lower than a five from the judges, and both divers had scores that ranged up to seven.

Alley may have beaten Rodway this time around, but Rodway still has the edge in the rivalry. He’s the defending Penobscot Valley Conference champion and state Class A runner-up (Alley was one spot behind Rodway in both meets).

Alley and Rodway may not be friends now, but that might change next year. Alley is going to dive at the Unversity of Maine, and Rodway is considering UMaine, too.

Meanwhile, Bangor’s Loukes blazed to wins in the 50 free (his 22.44 was just off the school record of 22.00) and the 100 breaststroke. Fitch, also a senior, won the 200 individual medley, swam as an exhibition in the 500 free, and in the next event anchored a winning 200 free relay team.

Palmer, a junior, won the 100 free and swam on both the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay teams that won. Sophomore Rice won the 100 back.

“He’s come along tremendously in an event we really need some people to step forward,” Emery said.

Brewer junior Mike Sighinolfi was a double-event winner and had personal best times in the 200 free and 100 fly. Brother Chris Sighinolfi, a senior, won the 500 free.

“[Mike] had a very good meet. I think we were expecting a little bit more competition for him,” Brewer coach Kathy Cahill said. “He swam his strongest events because this is the only Class A competition that we’ll see really until states. … In all the individual events they got best times for the season except maybe one or two.”

One of those best times came from freshman Erik Rae, who dropped 37 seconds in the 500 free.