Independent swimmers shine at PVCs

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It’s not easy to be a swimmer from a school that doesn’t offer swimming.

You have to find a school that does have the sport, and get its coach to agree to take you on for practices and meets. You’ve got to arrange to get to practices on your own. And once you finally get to swim in meets, your scores don’t count because only teams can score in dual meets.

Until you get to the conference championships, that is.

Several independent swimmers from area teams had excellent outings at the Penobscot Valley Conference boys and girls meets, held Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Dexter freshman Amanda Mason, who practices and travels to meets with the Foxcroft Academy team, turned in a 2:03.87 to win the 200-yard freestyle and was second in the 100 backstroke.

Sumner of East Sullivan senior Trevor Renwick, who is affiliated with the MDI team, won the 100 free in 50.44 seconds and third in the 50 free.

Bangor Christian’s Shane Murphy, affiliated with John Bapst of Bangor, was fourth in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the 50 free.

And Hampden Academy freshman Jake Cardello, a Brewer High swimmer, won the 200 free with a time of 1:54.85 and took eighth place in the 50 free.

Hampden swimmers have been competing with the Witches since 1989, but Cardello’s PVC title is the first for a Hampden boy.

Cardello hasn’t really thought about winning a title for the Broncos.

“I guess it feels good, but I kind of like swimming for myself,” he said. “It’s not really a well-known sport at Hampden.”

Cardello and Michael Emery both attend Hampden and swim for Brewer. Their mothers give them rides to and from practice.

The two Hampden students seem to be comfortable swimming with the Witches. Brewer coach Kathy Cahill said they had a choice of what colors they wanted on their Hampden swimming and diving sweatshirts, and they chose Brewer’s orange rather than Hampden’s purple.

“Even though they go to two different schools they really are one team,” Cahill said. “They cheer each other on, support each other and you really wouldn’t know they represent two different schools.”

Poulin unsure of future

Winslow girls basketball coach Jim Poulin said he plans to take some time after the season to determine whether he will be back to coach next season.

Poulin suffers from multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. He is using a wheelchair to get around these days.

“My health is not really good,” he said after a recent game against Rockland. “I’m going to have a talk with my wife and my neurologist after the season and we’ll see from there.”

One great incentive for Poulin to return, if he can, would be the fact that the Raiders won’t graduate anyone this year.

Poulin has coached the Raiders since 1994 and they’ve made the tournament every year so far. He has a 143-44 regular-season record with the team, including an 18-0 season in 2002.

Winslow, 14-4, has the No. 5 seed for the Eastern Maine Class B tournament. The Raiders will face No. 4 Caribou in a quarterfinal at 2:05 p.m. Saturday at the Bangor Auditorium.

J-B squad rallies from loss

Before Jonesport-Beals walked to the floor of the Augusta Civic Center to compete in the Class D state cheerleading championships, coach Kelly Stewart gathered in her team, had a big group hug, and told the Royals to do their best.

Certainly, most teams get this kind of treatment from their coaches before a competition, but Jonesport-Beals had a huge setback just hours before.

The squad, already just five girls, dropped down to four when Brittany Sawyer left Augusta early because she was too sick with the flu to compete.

Still, with just four cheerleaders, the Royals placed fifth overall, just one spot out of callbacks.

The team had to make a lot of changes, and quickly. Losing Sawyer, who served as a base, meant the team couldn’t extend its stunt in order to earn more points.

“We practiced, rearranged our dances and stuff, and when we got here we dropped everything down to just a prep level,” Stewart said. “They just went out there and did the best they could do. We’ve had a very good year by just having a good time.”

The Royals didn’t have any penalties and even managed a moves like a dead-man lift, a basket toss, and the only flyer did a heel stretch on top of a stunt.

It’s a small cheerleading world

There were plenty of family connections among the coaches at Saturday’s state cheerleading competition.

Laurie Schoppee of Class C runner-up Washington Academy in East Machias and Machias High’s Sharidan Faulkingham, who coaches the Class D champs, are sisters-in-law.

Oxford Hills of South Paris coach Deb Loveless is the mother of Gorham coach Kate Loveless, who used to be the Old Town coach.

But the two connected teams with the most success were Class B champ Poland and Class A winner Lewiston. Poland’s coach is Tiffany Fortier, the sister of Lewiston coach Deneka Fortier.

The Lewiston cheerleaders stayed at the Civic Center after their competition to watch the Knights win their title.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.