Rams earn swim win Littlefield tops Buck in diving

BANGOR – Like Chris Rodway and Justin Alley before them, Jason Littlefield and Josh Buck are continuing the rivalry between the Bangor and Brewer divers.

In an area with few other divers as skilled as Brewer’s Littlefield and Bangor’s Buck, the two went at it again in Friday night’s meet at the Bangor-Brewer YWCA’s Aloupis Pool.

It was one of few competitive events in the matchup of the Witches and the Rams. The Brewer team has only five members this year so Bangor, a much bigger team, scored 135 points to the Witches’ 33.

The Rams took first and second place in all but three events.

Littlefield, who was fourth at Class A state championships last year, went on to win the diving with 185.45 points, while Buck, who finished eighth last season, scored a 149.20. But it was much closer in the early rounds of diving.

“It’s a lot of fun to have good competition,” Buck said. “It’s probably the best competition I’ll see until states.”

Buck didn’t go into the water straight on an inward 11/2, a dive with a tough 2.2 degree of difficulty, and that allowed Littlefield to stretch out what had been a six-point lead.

But the Bangor diver rebounded with solid scores on his next dive, a forward 11/2 in the pike position, and then nailed a reverse dive in the tuck position, for which he got all 6’s.

Meanwhile, Littlefield scored all 5’s on a forward 21/2 tuck – that’s a dive with a 2.4 degree of difficulty – and racked up two 6 and a 5 on a dive with a 2.3 DOD.

It was reminiscent of last year’s duels between Alley of Bangor and Brewer’s Rodway.

“It was nice to have somebody to dive with,” Littlefield said. “It’s always good to have somebody to push you because it just makes you go that extra step to do that much better. I had Chris Rodway last year and that really helped because I just really wanted to beat him.”

The rest of the winners had only themselves or a teammate with which to compete.

Eric Palmer, one of the top swimmers in the state, led Bangor with wins in the 50- and 500-yard freestyle events.

Mike Rubin battled with teammate Erik Lenz in the 200 individual medley, but Rubin pulled ahead for good during the breaststroke leg.

Travis Barry and Scott King won the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke, respectively. Chris Goldsmith took the 100 free.

“Chris had a terrific meet,” Bangor coach Phil Emery said. “You can see it coming because his workouts have been consistent. … He’s primarily a sprinter but we had him in the 200 [for the first time] and he swam a 2:01, which is a terrific swim for the first time. He had four really good swims.”

Aside from Littlefield’s diving win, the Witches got most of their points from Mike Sighinolfi, who won the 200 free and the 100 fly in season-best times for both events. Brewer’s Erik Rae qualified for the state meet in the 100 back, his first-ever state qualification.

“The athletes who are versatile, we’re trying to get them qualified in as many events as possible,” Brewer coach Kathy Cahill said. “Erik Rae is becoming a versatile swimmer so he’s been swimming every event for us this season.”