Rams keep turning season around

BANGOR – Coaching swimming has always been about getting the most he can out of the kids on his team, Bangor boys coach Phil Emery said after Thursday’s dual meet against Brewer. It’s also about making sure those kids have fun.

That’s certainly the case this season for the Rams, who topped the Witches 143-27 at the Husson College pool.

Bangor is maintaining a cheerful disposition despite the fact that the Rams are down in numbers and don’t have a group of top-line swimmers for the first time in several years. But the team is plugging along, and have times that have improved even in the past week at meets against John Bapst of Bangor and Orono High.

“We struggled early in the season, but after Christmas we sat down with the seniors and talked about how we could make the workouts better [for younger swimmers], what we could do different,” Emery said. “And we needed to have [the more experienced swimmers] be more aggressive in the spots where they’re asked to be aggressive. And so in the last 10 days or so we’ve been better in every way.”

Bangor got good results Thursday from swimmers like Andrew Yau, who won the 500-yard freestyle and was third in the 200 individual medley. Graham Fitch earned wins in the IM and the 100 butterfly.

Brendan Thomas took the 200 free and third in the 100 fly. Joey Rice was first in the 100 free, Mike Rubin finished in first place in the 100 breaststroke, and John Quinn was the 100 backstroke winner.

“We mixed it up and we wanted to see what we could do in other events,” said senior Ben Hoke, who was second in the IM and swam on the winning 200 free relay team. “We wanted to try some new stuff, and we saw some surprising swims.”

Josh Buck, who was second in the diving at last year’s state meet, posted an impressive 204.75 points to win that event.

“My reverse dive [in the straight position] I hit tonight, and I was really paranoid about that because I had been throwing it way over lately,” said Buck, who also won the 50 free. “That was good for me.”

Bangor may be smaller this year, but the Rams are still huge compared to the small Brewer team, which had just enough swimmers for one relay.

It was that 200 free relay, however, that gave the Witches something to smile about.

“We only started relays last week,” said senior Gilman Thibeault, who was second in both the 200 free and 100 free. “We’re just looking to qualify [for states], go all out.”

Brewer’s performance in that event – a season-best 1:59.75 – was even more impressive as diver Josh Mackin swam the third leg and Keegan Rae, who had just competed in the 500 free, anchored the relay.

Jake Cardello, a Hampden Academy student who practices with coach Kathy Cahill’s Witches, broke the Hampden record in the 200 IM. His 2:21.73 smashed a record from 1994 and elicited cheers from the Brewer fans.

“I don’t think it was set that high, but it was a good swim for me,” he said with a smile.

Cardello’s time was almost 10 seconds better than Fitch’s finish, but he can only compete as an exhibition swimmer. Times and scores from exhibition events don’t count for Brewer but do count in the qualifying for states.