MDI wins its first PVC Old Town places second

BANGOR – The Mount Desert Island boys swimming team won the first event of Friday night’s Penobscot Valley Conference championship meet. It took two more events for the Trojans to post another win, but it didn’t matter. MDI has what is one of its strongest ever teams, and the Trojans showed it at the Bangor-Brewer YWCA’s Aloupis Pool.

The Trojans won all three relays and placed the maximum of four swimmers in five different events. It was enough to rack up 334 points, roll to their first PVC title, and become just the third team ever to win the conference crown in the 25 years of the meet – the first team other than Bangor to win it since 1997.

“This is great,” MDI senior Justin Garver said. “We always have Bangor, Old Town winning. It’s great to have MDI win it. We beat them both in the regular season so we thought we had it.”

Those traditional powers didn’t go away, however. Old Town finished in second place with 232 points while Bangor was third with 194. Ellsworth scored 159 points for fourth and John Bapst of Bangor was fifth (141).

MDI kicked off the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, powered by a strong butterfly leg from Kevin Staples and a speedy 22.22 freestyle anchor leg from Frosty Pepper. Frank Carbone and Garver swam the first two legs of the event.

Ellsworth, Old Town and Bangor finished within two-tenths of a second of each other in that relay.

But by the time the diving rolled around, the Trojans had a 35-point lead.

“We thought we could win the relays, which we did,” Garver said. “We weren’t really trying to win the races, but we wanted to at least get seconds and thirds. That was our game plan and that’s what happened.”

MDI’s Kevin Staples outdueled Old Town’s Gerald Herlihy in the 500 free, which turned out to be one of the more competitive races of the meet. The two battled back and forth, with Herlihy leading early, until Staples took half a body-length lead with 150 yards left. Staples kicked in with his sprint 25 yards later, and won it by about four seconds (5:14.49).

Sargent Pepper, Garver, Henry Warden and Matt St. Germain made up the winning sprint relay (1:33.99) while Staples, St. Germain and brothers Frosty and Sargent Pepper won the distance relay (3:29.39).

MDI had a lot of key finishes in addition its first-place winners. Carbone, seeded sixth in the 200 free, finished in third place and Warden moved from eighth to sixth as the Trojans scored four swimmers in that event.

They put up four top-12 finishes in the 200 individual medley (Garver finished second in the IM and went on to a second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke) and scored another four in the 50 free as senior Frosty Pepper touched out sophomore Sargent Pepper. Frosty held off Sargent in the 100 free as the Pepper brothers finished second and third, respectively.

The Trojans were pleased with Randy Walls’ third-place finish in the 500 free. He had been seeded seventh in that event.

“That was great,” Garver said. “Stuff like that really helps us, of course.”

Old Town’s Jacob Shanley won the 200 IM with a time of 2:08.86 and was second in the 100 backstroke. Nick Perkins was second in the 200 free and fifth in the 100 free. Herlihy took second place in the 500 free and fifth in the 500 free. The Indians placed four divers in the top 12 with Matt Jones leading the way in fifth place.

First-year coach Josh Curtis was pleased with the all-around effort.

“The whole team had an awesome meet,” he said. “We had a lot of best times. Every single one of the guys I’m very proud of. I don’t think anyone had a bad swim tonight.”

Bangor’s Josh Buck won the diving with an 11-dive score of 368.95 points. Teammate Brian Wardwell was second and two other Ram divers scored. The Rams, winners of 22 PVC crowns, used their depth to finish third.

Mike Rubin was fourth in the 200 free and fifth in the 100 fly. Joey Rice finished fourth in the 100 back and ninth in the 50 free. John Quinn placed fourth in the IM and sixth in the 100 free, while Graham Fitch took ninth in the IM and fourth in the 500.

Matt Jordan paced the Eagles with wins in the 100 fly (56.09) and 100 back (54.78, which broke his own pool record) and helped out as a member of the second-place medley relay and 200 free teams (his 50-yard split in that was a blazing 22.09). Orono’s Mo Nazmy held off Garver with a 1:04.18 to win the 100 breaststroke and took second in the 100 fly.

Sumner of East Sullivan’s Trevor Renwick won the 100 free (50.44) and was third in the 50 free. Hampden’s Jake Cardello won 200 free (1:54.85) and is the first Hampden boy to win a PVC title.