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BRUNSWICK – Libby Caldwell, a sophomore at Old Town High School, wanted to improve her backstroke times so she started putting in more freestyle time.
The work paid off in a gold medal Monday at the state Class B Girls Swimming and Diving Championships at Bowdoin College – in the 100-yard freestyle.
“I always thought my backstroke was better,” said Caldwell, “until the [Penobscot Valley Conference Championships].”
Her success there led to her adding the event for the state meet. The 100 free was the only race title an Eastern Maine individual or team won all day.
Sophomore Kary Goodman earned Swimmer of the Meet honors in leading Catherine McAuley High School of Portland to its second straight state championship.
McAuley scored 232 points to outdistance runner-up Scarborough (187). Third went to Greely of Cumberland Center with 136, followed by Old Town (134), Mount Desert Island (112) and Ellsworth (69).
Caldwell wasn’t sure how she was going to do Monday.
“I had a really bad cold,” she said. “I’d have been happy with whatever I got.”
She did have one goal that she wanted to fulfill, no matter what.
“I wanted to finish ahead of Jamie Garver [of MDI],” said Caldwell.
Before the meet, Caldwell was seeded second to Garver based on times turned in during the season.
After the morning preliminary heats, Garver and Caldwell were second and third, respectively, behind Kaitlin Kelley of McAuley.
In the final, Caldwell shaved nearly a second off her prelim time (down to 56.74 seconds) while Garver was only able to shave 0.75 seconds down to 56.92.
“I just wanted to beat Jamie,” said Caldwell.
Caldwell finished third in her specialty, the 100 backstroke, but she doesn’t contemplate any changes for next year.
“I’ll try to do both,” she said.
Goodman won two individual titles and helped her team win two relay events – and this wasn’t even the big day she was preparing for.
“She didn’t even taper for this,” said first-year coach T.J. Libby. “Traditionally, you’re not going to see those kind of times if you’re not tapering.”
One of those times was the 5 minutes, 15.56 seconds she posted for the 500 free, possibly a state record (Records on this event were out of date, although most officials agreed it was approximately 5:15. They just weren’t sure if it was higher or lower.).
“I wanted to go a little faster in the 200 [free], but the 500 pleased me,” said Goodman.
Tapering means easing back in practice to save energy for a particular meet, such as the state championship.
Goodman, a sophomore, also swims for the Westbrook Seals, a southern Maine club team.
“I have sectionals in …,” Goodman paused, “New York, I think, in two weeks.”
Libby was happy with everything Goodman gave Monday, as well as the contributions of the rest of his McAuley team.
Goodman swam the butterfly leg of the opening event, the 200 medley relay, then came right back to win the next event, the 200 free.
Goodman was helped by Ashley Berlin, who participated on the victorious 200 medley and 400 free relay teams, won the 100 fly and was second in the 100 back. Kelley added a win in the 50 free.
McAuley swept the three relay races, accounting for 96 of its points.
Freshman Jennifer Flaherty paced Scarborough with wins in the 200 individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke.
“Scarborough’s going to be tough,” said Libby. “[The competition will] be huge next year. It’ll be a lot tighter.”
One place where McAuley did not excel was in 1-meter diving, where none of its divers advanced to the final. Libby hopes to change that next year as his divers get more experience.
“Starting 16 points down is tough,” said Libby. “We cannot be afforded that luxury next year.”
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