Cape Elizabeth beats Bangor for title

BRUNSWICK – After dealing with a stomach flu over the weekend, Bangor High sophomore swimmer Cami Howard wasn’t sure how high she wanted her expectations to be for Monday’s Class A girls state championship meet.

But the Rams knew what their expectations were – either win the state title or give favored Cape Elizabeth a battle at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool.

Howard sure didn’t look sick as she won the 100-yard backstroke, and although Bangor didn’t win the state crown, the Rams did just what they wanted in making the Capers work for their second straight title.

Cape Elizabeth, which lead early but had to rally past the Rams after the diving finals, scored 257 points to Bangor’s 245 en route to the championship, which is the Capers 11th overall and first repeat since the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

“Our goal was to come in and make [Cape] race, and I think we did that,” said Bangor senior Lucy Gross.

Deering of Portland finished in third place with 163 points. Brunswick was fourth with 142 and Cheverus of Portland was fifth (127). Brewer High scored 48 points to tie with Morse of Bath for 10th place.

Howard, who didn’t have much competition during the dual-meet portion of the season, certainly got some in Monday afternoon’s final heats. First, she came up against Cape’s Taylor McFarlane in the 200-yard individual medley.

The junior star had about 10 minutes earlier come out of the 200 free with a first place and new state and meet records of 1 minute, 51.98 seconds and she easily won the IM, too. Howard was second, but felt she would have been more competitive if not for her sickness.

“I don’t think a lot of people were expecting a lot out of me,” Howard said in between coughs. “I thought I was going to do really bad. But in my backstroke, I was really mad that Taylor beat me [in the IM] so I figured I’d take it out on the backstroke. If I was feeling better I would have been able to stay with her.”

Still, it’s hard to compete with a swimmer like McFarlane. She also anchored the winning 200 free relay to a new meet record and now holds four of eight state records in individual events. Moments after McFarlane pulled off her double in the IM and 200 free – that’s just three events into the afternoon – a rival coach had already nominated her for Performer of the Meet, which she indeed won.

The Capers racked up 91 points after the first four events with Bangor in second. But the Ram divers gave Bangor the lead as Samantha Hartery, Kate Wardwell and Chandra Lippitt went 3-4-6 on the board. Gross helped the Rams maintain the advantage with a second-place finish in the 100 butterfly.

Gross’ time in the fly was a nice surprise for the senior as she dropped from a seed time of 1:03.27 to a 1:01.96 in the afternoon.

“I usually go out a little slower because I’m accustomed to dying … but I kind of lost control and went out really fast, and I guess it worked for me,” she said. “I was planning a sportsmanlike defeat, but I pulled through.”

It didn’t take long for Cape Elizabeth to cut into Bangor’s lead, and the Capers did so in the 100 free, which follows the fly. The Capers went 3-5-9-12 in the 100 free while the Rams went 5-11 (Candida Carvajal finished fifth). Bangor had a slim six-point advantage.

Cape’s Emily Caras won the following event, the 500 free, in a meet-record time of 5:03.53 and Caper Schuyler Armstrong finished in fifth, which put the defending champs up by one point despite a third-place finish for Bangor’s Kayle Shapero.

“I knew it was going to be close,” Cape coach Kerry Kertes said. “I’ve been watching Bangor all season and I know they have a lot of depth and quality swimmers. But I knew we had some great front-line swimmers. The kids did a really good job because we were really up against it.”

Howard was the winner in the back (1:02.05), holding off Cape’s Emilie Youmans by more than a second, and led off the Rams’ 400 free relay team that won the final event of the meet. Shapero, Gross and Carvajal rounded out the relay that finished in 3:50.53.

Shapero finished third in the 200 free. Freshman Lauren Cardello had a strong meet as she moved from the 15th seed in the IM to an 11th place overall finish, and sliced a whopping four seconds from her 100 breaststroke time to finish 12th. Carvajal and Gross were seeded sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 50 free but finished fourth and sixth. Amanda Gist was seeded 13th in the sprint race but came in eighth.

Bangor senior Sarah Gordon jumped from the 16th seed to finish 11th in the 100 free. Freshman Erica Simpson won the consolation final of the backstroke and Stephanie Palmer went from 14th in the 200 free to ninth overall.

Kallie Pottle led Brewer with a fifth-place finish in the 50 free and third in the 100 fly. She also anchored the Witches to a sixth-place finish in the 200 free relay and a ninth in the 400 relay.

“I got a best time in my 100 fly and a best time in the 50,” said Pottle, a sophomore who joined the Witches this year. “I’m pretty happy with them. Just going out there and swimming with the best in the state is nice. … We had a lot of fun [in the 200 free relay].”

Amanda Jewell, Krystal Baker and Kate Hanlon rounded out both Brewer relays.

Kelly Donahue of Hampden was 11th in the 500 free and 12th in the 200 free.

Messalonskee of Oakland won the sportsmanship award.