Ram swim teams post meet sweep MDI Trojans give Bangor good challenge

BANGOR – Because of its size and depth, there are very few local teams that can compete with the Bangor boys and girls swimming squads. But there are a few teams that can give the Rams a lot of good racing, and the Mount Desert Island boys and girls certainly provided that Friday night.

The Rams won both boys and girls meets at the Husson College pool – the Bangor boys beat the Trojans 1121/2 to 671/2, while the Ram girls topped MDI 116-67 – but the opposition provided good competition, especially in the girls portion of the meet.

The MDI girls led off with a win in the 200-yard medley relay thanks in part to a blazing backstroke leg by Jamie Garver, and then Garver gave Bangor’s Kayle Shapero a good race in the next event, the 200 freestyle.

But Garver was a bit tired from the relay, and Shapero edged the MDI senior.

“It’s tiring to do the medley relay and then go into the 200 free,” Garver said. “You have like three minutes to rest. But when I’m tired I usually think, go faster, you only have a 25 left. Especially today when it was that close. That was probably the best race I had all year.”

Garver gained a win in the 100 free, holding off Bangor’s Lucy Gross.

Gross did win the 50 free, anchored the winning 200 free relay and led off the victorious 400 free relay.

“I had lots of best times that I haven’t had since sophomore year,” said the Bangor senior. “I had an off-year last year and it’s starting to come back and it’s exciting. My 50 was a little disappointing but my 100 time was really close to my best time.”

Cami Howard of Bangor had a relatively easy meet, handily winning the 100 butterfly and the 100 back, leading off the 200 free relay and anchoring the 400 free relay.

Bangor’s Isobel Herbold earned a win in the 200 individual medley and Kate Wardwell posted a sparkling 203.90- point effort in the diving.

Garver racked up the most points for the Trojans, but MDI also got wins from Andrea Eaton in the 500 free and Iris Meehan in the 100 breaststroke.

The racing wasn’t as tight in the boys meet, but Frosty Pepper of MDI and Bangor’s Chris Goldsmith provided an exciting duel in the 100 free.

Pepper out-touched Goldsmith at the wall, finishing just one-tenth of a second ahead of the Bangor senior. Pepper – and many spectators – had to look up at the scoreboard to find out who won.

“It wasn’t my best time or anything, but it was fun to win,” Pepper said. “I usually just go all out in the last 25. The way I think about it is, you race for 75 yards and there’s no reason to quit in the last little bit. I just give it everything I’ve got.”

It was the only win for MDI on the boys side.

Bangor’s Mike Rubin said the Rams knew the Trojans would provide a challenge.

“In the locker room coach [Phil Emery] gave us a speech and told us to do our best,” said Rubin, who won the 200 and 500 free. “We push ourselves in practice and it really showed today. We were looking for a really good meet today.”

Rubin said having fast swimmers around pushed him to fast times.

“I’m really happy with my 500,” Rubin said of his 5:26.70 finish. “I was going for a 5:25 but my time before was a 5:31. So I was glad to drop about five seconds.”

Bangor standout Eric Palmer took the 200 IM and the breaststroke, the two events in which he has posted the fastest Class A times in the state.

Bangor’s Joe Litwack won the 100 fly, Joey Rice was first in the 100 back and Josh Buck won the diving. The Rams won all three relays.