Falmouth wins 3rd straight title Meehan, White help MDI Trojans gain third-place finish

BRUNSWICK – The strategy for Tuesday’s Class B state girls swimming championship meet seemed like a sound one for the Mount Desert Island Trojans.

Counter two-time defending champion Falmouth’s firsts and seconds in almost every race with a few or several finishes from third through 16th place and beat their quality with quantity.

The strategy might have even worked, too, if not for the fact the Yachtsmen took firsts in 10 of the 12 events at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool and backed those up with two seconds, a third, two fourths and plenty of depth of their own to notch their third straight state crown.

Falmouth finished with 391.5 points to outdistance runner-up Greely of Cumberland Center by 11.5 points and MDI finished third with 369 points. The next highest point total was McAuley of Portland with 174.

“It’s a lot of points. We got best times in the morning and best times at night and it was tight all the way though, but they (Falmouth and Greely) both swam really great too,” said MDI coach Tony DeMuro. “You just have to tip your cap to them.”

Trojans’ Iris Meehan, a senior, and Chelsea White, a junior, were MDI’s leaders Tuesday as they each notched second-place finishes in individual races, a second as part of the 200-yard medley relay team, and a third in another relay (200 free).

“We were going for depth and getting points with numbers of people in the finals because they have a lot of first- and second-place finishers,” said Meehan, who dropped a whole second off her best time in the 100 backstroke. “It was a really good meet and the points were really close, so overall I think it went really well.”

“We knew it was going to be tough and a tight meet,” said White. “We were hoping to get more firsts and make up those gaps lower down in the ninth through 16th places.”

Falmouth coach John Keyes said this win was just as, if not more, special than the previous two.

“In the four years I’ve been here, this is the best meet I’ve ever had,” said Keyes, who saw all 15 of his girls score points in either the championship or the consolation finals. “This went right to the end and I’m really happy for the kids, especially our three seniors.”

Falmouth senior Gina Mancini was one of those three. She sent herself out in grand fashion on her way to swimmer-of- the meet honors. She won two individual races (200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke) and was part of two winning relay teams (200 free and 200 medley).

Junior Emily Sheldon also won two individual races (50 and 100 freestyles) and two relays (200 and 400 freestyles).

“They really stepped up because they knew they had to do it,” said Keyes, who had seven of his 15 girls place in the championship finals. “We had nobody in the 500 because one of our girls was injured and having others step up really made the difference.”

Falmouth’s other individual champs were junior Keli Gillespie in the 200 free, freshman Kristen Jackson in the 100 butterfly, and sophomore Alicia Hahn in the 100 backstroke.

The only events not won by Falmouth swimmers were the 1-meter diving, taken by Greely sophomore Jessica Howard, and the 500 free, won by Emily Lewandowski, a junior from St. Dominic in Auburn.

John Bapst High of Bangor earned the sportsmanship award.