Relay tie makes biggest splash Deering win extends streak

BRUNSWICK – Deering, Cheverus, Scarborough and Morse may have been battling it out on the score sheets, but the best battle of the Class A boys state swimming and diving championships Monday happened in the pool between Bangor and Cape Elizabeth.

Thanks to a blazing final leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay by Bangor’s John Quinn, the Rams and the Capers tied to win the event, both touching in at 1 minute, 33.31 seconds, exciting spectators and swimmers, giving everyone something to talk about for a few minutes as Deering of Portland ran away with the meet.

The undefeated Deering team ran its streak of three years without a loss as the Rams took the state championship meet, beating Cheverus of Portland in the final half of the meet at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool.

Deering posted a final score of 199 points, followed by the Stags’ 164. Scarborough and Morse of Bath tied for third with 149 points, and Bangor followed in fifth with 126.

Hampden Academy was 16th with 21 points and Brewer was 19th with two.

Deering star Arik Seiler was a double winner in the two distance events, the 200- and 500-yard freestyles, and Kyle Johnson was named the Swimmer of the Meet for breaking the state record in the 100 butterfly and finishing fourth in the 100 backstroke.

Morse took two of the first three events of the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay and Luke Trafton’s win in the 200 IM, but the Shipbuilders couldn’t get any distance on Deering. The top four teams were separated by just 17 points after four events.

Deering finally started to pull away after the 50 free thanks to a fourth-place finish from Owen Hughes and an eighth from Matt Rickett. The Rams also had two divers place in the top seven and placed two more swimmers in the top six of the 100 free, including Johnson’s record time of 51.43 seconds, for a 30-point lead en route to the win.

“I didn’t really think about it until this year, and that’s what I’ve been concentrating on for the last month or so,” he said.

But it was the 200 free relay that seemed to capture the attention of the spectators when Quinn and Cape’s Cole Theriault came down the final 25-yards of the pool together and touched in at the same time. Neither Bangor coach Phil Emery nor Capers coach Kerry Kertes could recall ever tying for first in a state relay competition.

Quinn’s blazing 22.01 split continued a rally started by third-leg swimmer Mike Rubin, and the Rams went on to hold off the Capers by six points in the final team standings.

“It’s exciting, and we both got first-place points so that’s good,” Quinn said. “We dropped a second off of the prelim times, so that’s exciting.”

The Rams got their points from seniors Quinn, Rubin and Josh Buck, and posted especially fine swims in the morning preliminary heats.

“We had an absolutely phenomenal meet, and that’s an understatement,” Emery said. “This is what it’s all about. We had phenomenal time drops. Rubin and Quinn both did career-best times in both their events.”

Sprint specialist Quinn, who had never been under 51 seconds in the 100 free, dropped under 50 seconds in the prelims en route to a third-place finish in the finals. He also went under 23 seconds for the first time in the 50 free and finished second in the championship final, the highest individual finish for the Rams.

Distance standout Rubin dropped about two and a half seconds from his seed time in the 200 free to qualify second for the finals and went on to finish third. He also sliced about 11 seconds in the 500 free and went on to finish second in the evening’s races, taking off another three seconds from his prelim time.

Buck took fifth in the diving and Brian Wardwell was 11th.

Bangor finished eighth in the 200 medley relay and Graham Fitch was 10th in the 500 free, taking off 11 seconds from his seed time. Brandon Frenette was ninth in the backstroke.

The Rams also had plenty of time drops that just barely missed scoring in the evening finals. Frenette dropped more than four seconds and just missed in the 200 IM, Tyler Brookings dropped almost four seconds in the 100 backstroke and was the second alternate.

Brewer’s John Williams finished 11th in the 500 free, knocking off one second from his seed time. The Witches also cheered on Hampden’s 200 free relay team as well as Josh Ranger, who was fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free. Ranger also swam on the Broncos’ relay, which finished 12th to overcome an 18th seed going into the meet.

“I think this is one of best [years] Hampden has ever had at states,” said Ranger, whose morning prelim times were personal bests. “I wasn’t even expecting our relay to qualify, and we were all really excited about that.”