Maine teams place 5th

ORONO – The University of Maine men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams both finished fifth at the America East Swimming and Diving Championships Sunday night at Wallace Pool.

The Maine women finished the three-day event with 384 points and the men at 397.50.

Northeastern University won the women’s championship with 821.5 points, followed by New Hampshire (774.50), Binghamton (518), and Boston University (489.50).

Binghamton University took the men’s title with 771 points, followed by BU (678), Stony Brook (644.50), and UNH (523).

The Maine women had a number of swimmers advance to event finals and finish with top performances, led by Kate Abbott, who finished fourth in the 1,650-yard freestyle, sixth in the 500-yard free, and eighth in the 200-yard butterfly.

Abbott also broke two Maine school records in the process as her time of 5 minutes, 8.65 seconds in the preliminary round of the 500 free broke the record of 5:09.06 set by Julie Woodcock in 1979. Abbott’s time of 17:42.21 in the 1,650 free also broke the Maine record of 17:47.26 set by Noreen Solakoff in 1990.

Katrine Alcaide finished third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 frees for Maine, while Stephanie Smeitana took third in the 200 backstroke and fourth in the 100 backstroke. Crystie McGrail added a sixth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke and a seventh in the 100 butterfly for the Black Bears, with teammate Brittany Harrington finishing fifth in the 400 individual medley and eighth in the 200 breaststroke.

The Maine men placed a number of swimmers in top spots. Jake Jentzer raced to second place in the 100 butterfly as well as seventh in the 100 freestyle and eighth in the 50 free.

Andy Magiera took fourth place in the 1,650 free, sixth in the 200 free and seventh in the 500 free. Nick Baser added two fifth-place finishes (200 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke) and an eighth-place finish in the 200 individual medley.