Boys win, lead Brewer to sweep of Old Town

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BANGOR – The Brewer boys swimming and diving team has plenty of talent. But the Witches don’t always have the numbers to win dual meets.

A win over Old Town may be even rarer. In fact, Brewer coach Kathy Cahill said, it may never have happened before Friday night when the Witches put up 102 points to the Coyotes’ 68 for a team victory at the Bangor Y’s Aloupis Pool.

Brothers John and Brent Williams, along with Zach Beaulier and Andrew Meehan, each won two individual events to help record what may be the program’s first-ever victory over an Old Town team.

It has been at least 19 years – as long as Cahill has coached – and likely much farther back, if at all, because Old Town was a state powerhouse with 14 straight Class B state titles from 1985 to 1998 as well as a Class A title in 1979.

“It’s obviously a great accomplishment,” said junior John Williams. “… For me, beating teams is cool. We don’t get the chance to do it a lot because of the amount of people that we have. So we’re obviously happy. But at the same time we want individual bests.”

The Brewer girls also beat Old Town Friday by a score of 104-76. Standout Jessica Hodsdon led the Witches with career-best times in the 100-yard butterfly and 500 freestyle.

In the boys meet, John Williams posted career-best times in the 200 individual medley and the 100 free, which he doesn’t swim very often, and swam on Brewer’s victorious 200 medley relay and 400 free relay teams. Brent Williams, a freshman, took the 100 fly and the 100 breaststroke.

Meehan earned a unique double, swimming to wins in a sprint race – the 50 free – and a distance event – the 500 free. He notched best times in both events.

“It’s not too bad as long as you’re not doing them back-to-back,” he said. “In the 500 I usually try to go out easy. That usually doesn’t happen. I like to try to go faster by the end, but I get tired.”

Beaulier took the 200 free, qualifying for Class A states, and edged Old Town’s Tim Blair in the backstroke with career bests in both events. The backstroke competition may have pushed Blair to a qualifying time for Class B states.

Brewer diver Todd Shane, a sophomore who is in his first year as a diver, scored 138.20 points to qualify for the Class A state meet.

The win was a team effort, John Williams said.

“The reason why we’re so successful this year is because we finally have enough people to fill out the lanes, so we’re scoring third, fourth, fifth places instead of just a first or a second,” he said. “That’s making a big difference. We’re coming together as a team.”

An Old Town team of Brandon McKay, Camilo Gaete, Nicholas Ouellette, and Seth Wallace earned the Coyotes’ only victory Friday in the 200 free relay.

“We have a lot of first-year swimmers and each week they’re pushing themselves in practice,” said first-year coach Mary Bailey. “We had an eight-second time drop in our 400 free relay tonight, so that was real nice.”

Old Town’s Robbie Bickford qualified for Class B states in the breaststroke.

In the girls meet, Old Town picked up a number of relay and individual wins, but Brewer’s depth and the swimming of Hodsdon were too much for the Coyotes.

“Our girls were a little off on our relays and Old Town has some wonderful swimmers,” Cahill said. “We knew there would be many events where we would have close races, which is good. Our girls love to race.”

Jillian McNally (breaststroke), Michelle Baughman (200 free), and Abby LeBlanc (diving) were the Witches’ other event winners.

Although the Coyotes swept the relays, Brewer placed two teams in second and third in each. McNally and Kelly Gehman went 2-3 in the IM, Brewer went 2-3-4 in both the 50 free and backstroke. Old Town did not have any divers.

The Witches also had Sarah Meehan, Andrew Meehan’s sister, qualify for states in the fly.

“I think we’re going to have even more girls qualify for states,” Hodsdon said. “We have some people who are just a few seconds off in their times.”

Hodsdon was especially pleased with her butterfly time, which was a best-ever 1:03.32.

“I really wanted to go under 1:04 because I’ve never done that before and fly is my best stroke. I was happy.”

The Coyotes got individual wins from Charlotte Kenneway in the backstroke, Megan Laverdiere in the IM, and Melissa Dexter in the 50 and 100 free. Dexter out-touched Baughman in the 100 free for one of the evening’s top races.

Baughman was leading Dexter in the final lap, but Dexter overtook her in the final few yards. The winning margin was just seven-hundredths of a second.

“I was like, I’m gonna beat her. So I booked it,” said Dexter, who had career bests in both events. “I knew she was close to me. … She really got me going [faster].”

Regina Kenneway and Charlotte Kenneway, who are sisters, along with Dexter, Laverdiere, Beth Bailey, and Alanna Mills, each swam on at least one relay.