Tozier, Mancini lift Falmouth to state crown MDI takes 4th, Ellsworth in 5th

BRUNSWICK – There were plenty of close, exciting races during Tuesday’s Class B girls state swimming championship. But the outcome was never in doubt. Well, almost never.

Falmouth had a commanding lead entering the championship round. The rest of the field had to settle for a battle for second place.

Falmouth’s Alison Tozier and Gina Mancini each won titles in two events with record-breaking swims and the rest of the Yachtsmen dominated the championships, winning eight of 12 events and racking up 267 points en route to the Class B crown at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool.

“I have a lot of faith in this team,” said junior Alison Tozier. “Each girl deserved it, we all worked so hard.”

McAuley of Portland finished in second place with 195.5 points and Greely of Cumberland Center came in third with 176. MDI was fourth (125) and Ellsworth finished in fifth place (85).

John Bapst, which finished eighth, took home the sportsmanship banner.

It was Falmouth’s first state title since the Yachtsmen won back-to-back championships in 1986-87. They didn’t have to worry about last year’s champ defending its title as Scarborough moved up to Class A this season.

Falmouth had such a strong morning in the preliminary swims, with the top seeds in all three relays and two swimmers in the championship final of 10 events, that most teams conceded the real fight would be for runner-up honors.

“We were just hoping to get second, beat some records,” said McAuley senior Kary Goodman, who was second in an incredibly close 100-yard butterfly and won the 100 backstroke with a meet-record time of 59.67 seconds. “Our divers really helped us out.”

The Yachtsmen started off with a win in the medley relay, followed by Tozier’s easy triumph in the 200 free (2:01.29). Kari Boffa continued the dominance with a win in the 200 individual medley (2:17.87). This time things were a bit tougher as Boffa had to hold off Dexter freshman Amanda Mason by about three-tenths of a second for the win.

Other Falmouth winners included Gina Mancini in the 100 breaststroke, an event in which she set a meet record with her preliminary swim of 1:07.49, with an evening time of 1:07.01.

After the individual medley, MDI had a three-point lead over McAuley for second place, thanks in part to Iris Meehan’s third-place finish in that event. The Trojans fell back a bit after the 50 free as Greely and McAuley were locked in a tie for second place.

Meanwhile, the Yachtsmen had a 41-point lead after the 50 free. McAuley divers swept the top three places in that event, which put the Lions into a tie with Falmouth, but the soon-to-be-champ soon regained its big edge. Falmouth had two swimmers in the finals of each of the next three events.

Tozier picked up a big win in the 100 butterfly when she out-touched defending fly champ Goodman by one one-hundreth of a second. Goodman’s goggles broke when she dove into the water and she had to take them off at the first turn, which she said disrupted her race.

“They broke when I started,” she said, clearly upset at the turn of events. “My turn was probably two seconds slower than I should have been.”

Tozier conceded she would have been happy finishing second to Goodman as the two are friends who swim for the Westbrook Seals club team together. But Tozier was also pleased with her personal-best time of 58.46.

Falmouth’s Gina Mancini set a state record in the 100 free with a 52.61 (blasting away the record set by Cape Elizabeth’s Taylor McFarlane at Monday’s Class A girls meet) with Boffa second in that event. Falmouth also won the 200 and 400 free relays.

Mancini was named the Performer of the Meet.

MDI’s Meehan scored in the top six in two events with her third in the IM and fifth in the back. Eaton was third in the 200 free and seventh in the 500 free, while Chelsea White took fourth in the breaststroke and 10th in the 50 free. Sydney Kase’s morning swim in the breaststroke helped her move from the 19th seed to 11th overall.

“We were thinking about second but it was a long reach,” Eaton said. “We swam well. It wasn’t our best, but it was good.”

Dexter freshman Amanda Mason, who swims with the Foxcroft team, earned a victory in the 500 free with a time of 5:26.86 and finished second in the 200 IM.

Gardiner’s Sara Knight won the 50 free in 25.19 and was second in the back.