Hurricanes fourth at combined meet

The Hurricane Swim Club of the Bangor-Brewer YWCA had a tough time overcoming some of southern Maine’s top club teams, but its overall fourth-place finish was tops among local squads at last weekend’s Maine Swimming 2003 Winter Combined Championships in Brunswick.

The Hurricanes scored 1,949 points to wind up in fourth. Long Reach Swim Club of Bath, which won the YMCA championship two weeks ago, was the overall champion with 3,4991/2 points. The Westbrook Seals were second with 3,2531/2 and Coastal Maine Aquatics of Cape Elizabeth was third (3,1031/2).

Seacoast Swim Club of Cumberland was fifth and the MDI YMCA Sharks finished in sixth place. Eighteen teams participated in the meet at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool.

Hurricanes head coach John Williams said the team racked up 115 best times out of its 208 swims and qualified 11 swimmers for the Eastern Zone championship meet, which will be held March 27-29 in New Jersey.

The swimmers with the top two times in each event qualify for the zone meet.

Awards were given out to the top eight swimmers with the highest point totals in each age group. For the Hurricanes, Taylor Wicks was second in the 10-and-under boys age group. Marley Clark finished fifth in the 11-12 girls, John Williams was seventh in the 11-12 boys, Mara Shapero was seventh in the 13-14 girls and Kallie Pottle was seventh in the 15-18 girls.

The Hurricanes also set two state records. A team of Wicks, Caleb Woodward, Brent Williams and Ihan Cameron went 4:47.08 in the 10-and-under 400-yard freestyle relay, breaking a mark set by Westbrook in 2001.

That same group of boys broke a 2001 Westbrook record in the 200 free relay (the new mark is 2:06.07) and also won the 200 medley relay.

Wicks was first in the 50 and 100 breaststroke races and Cameron won the 200 free.

There were plenty of other top finishes for local swimmers last weekend. An MDI 10-and-under team of Marlee Bergmair, Grace Tweedie, Jamie McKay and Eleni White was first in the 200 medley relay.

In the girls’ 11-12 age group, Sorrell Cardello of the Bangor YMCA/Bangor-Brewer YWCA Barracudas won the 50 and breaststroke races. Barracuda Erin Thomas cleaned up, too. She was first in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 free races, as well as the 100 and 200 backstroke and 100 individual medley. Cardello, Thomas, Jessica Hodsdon and Michelle Gist won the 400 free relay and 200 medley relay. Sarah Nichols, Hodsdon, Cardello and Thomas earned a first in the 200 free relay.

Hurricane Drew Derosiers won the boys’ 11-12 50 and 100 breaststroke events. Ethan Shanley of the Old Town-Orono YMCA’s Canoe City Swim Club was first in the 50 and 100 back. Andrew Guinther of Camden’s Penobscot Bay Area YMCA won the 200 breaststroke.

MDI’s Iris Meehan picked up a first-place finish in the 200 breaststroke for the 13-14 girls. Amanda Mason, an unattached swimmer from the Dover-Foxcroft area, was first in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 races in that age group.

A Sharks team of Reid Swanson, Kevin Staples, Frank Carbone and Eric Eaton picked up a first in the 13-14 200 free relay. Tyler Bowen of the Waldo County YMCA’s Bluefish won the 200 breaststroke.

In the 15-and-over girls, Kiki O’Donnell, a Hampden Academy student who swims for Seacoast Swim Association of New Hampshire, was first in the 100 breaststroke.

Hurricane Kayle Shapero won the 1,000 free in the girls’ 15-18. Canoe City’s Eric Palmer earned firsts in the 200 and 400 IM. Matt Jordan of Ellsworth’s Downeast Family YMCA was first in both the 100 and 200 back.

Meanwhile, Maine’s top YMCA swimmers will open competition at the New England Championships at Brown University in Providence, R.I. The meet opens Friday and finishes Sunday. MDI’s boys will be among the featured swimmers at the Y meet. The Sharks won the boys portion of the YMCA state meet two weeks ago.