Brewer looks to build on success Witches continue to make progress

BANGOR – It wasn’t as if the 2006-07 season snuck up on the Brewer boys swimming and diving team.

It was more like the culmination of several years of work.

One year later, the Witches are hoping to build on their successes, including their best finish at the Class A state championships since 1999, a dual-meet win over a longtime Penobscot Valley Conference power, and some standout individual and relay performances along the way.

“It wasn’t like there was something very special about that one year,” coach Kathy Cahill said. “It had been building for a couple of years.”

Brewer has already gotten off to a strong start, with a third-place finish at the annual PVC Relay Carnival and a dual-meet victory over a smaller Caribou team. The Witches will host Ellsworth Saturday at 2 p.m.

Brewer’s sixth-place finish at the 2007 state meet came after two years in a row finishing out of the top 10. The Witches didn’t place anyone at states in 2004 and came in 10th in 2003.

Brewer also beat Old Town for the first time in at least 19 years, when Cahill took over the team, in a dual meet.

The development of senior co-captains John Williams and Andrew Meehan, along with Williams’ brother Brent, sophomore Zach Beaulier, and junior diver Todd Shayne, were key last year.

“We’ve been blessed with people like the Williams brothers, Zach Beaulier, who came in with some competitive swimming experience who take high school swimming very seriously,” Cahill said.

It’s still early in this season so few swimmers are close to their best times yet, but Meehan’s time of 5 minutes, 18.88 second in the 500-yard freestyle is already second-best in the state, while Brent Williams is third in the 100 free (1:12.33) and seventh in the 200 free (2:02.39). John Williams is seventh in the 200 individual medley (2:15.45) and fifth in the 100 breaststroke (54.39).

Beaulier is 12th in the 100 free (55.97) and Shane has the third-highest diving total with 148.15 points. Sophomore diver Jordan Smith is eighth (127.40).

Meehan, whom Cahill calls a rarity at 6-foot-5 – he has a similar build to most Olympic swimmers, but many boys that height choose to play basketball – is healthy after he dealt with a back injury that developed last fall from an incorrect butterfly stroke. Meehan made the technical corrections he needed to, which along with some rest helped him finish fifth in the 200 free and fourth in the 500 free at states.

“I brought my arms up too high when I was tired,” he said. “It got worse and worse until I couldn’t swim anymore. I worked out the muscles so I got stronger and then it didn’t hurt. It feels good now [to be healthy].”

Cahill is excited to have a healthy Meehan, too.

“We taught him how to swim as a freshman and he developed well,” Cahill said. “From the time he was a freshman he’s had a lot of natural ability and for him to accomplish what he did last season was phenomenal. This season he’s starting out at 100 percent.”

While Meehan has made his name as a distance specialist, Williams said he’ll swim any event in which Cahill needs him. Last winter, that was the 200 individual medley, in which he was fifth, and 100 butterfly, in which he came in fourth.

Then there’s the 400 free relay, which has become a kind of special event for the Witches, particularly for the Williams brothers. Their father, John Williams, was a member of a Brewer team that owns the school record (3:27.83) in that event.

Last year’s Witches finished third at states in a time of 3:32.33. They clocked a 3:36.30 at the relay carnival, with Meehan out-touching defending Class B champion MDI for Brewer’s first boys relay carnival win. The Brewer girls also won the medley relay that night.

“Our main goal is to win everything in that [event],” said John Williams, who was recently accepted to Yale and could swim for the Bulldogs if he decides to go there. “I think we should shoot for winning states in that, try to make team record. Last year and this year luckily we have four guys [who can fill out the relay]. And it’s a fun event. It’s the last event of the meet.”

The Witches qualified for New Englands in the 400 free relay and also set a school record in the 200 free relay last year.

Other goals this season? Be competitive against the powerhouse Trojans in their Jan. 11 dual meet and defending Class A champion Bangor on Jan. 5.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to touch MDI,” John Williams said. “The Bangor meet’s going to be good. Whoever wins, it’s going to be close. It should be interesting. … I don’t know if we can win [states] because you’ve got Cheverus, Bangor, Brunswick and us. But we’ve got good diving and we’ve got 4-5 guys who are going to surprise people. We already did at the relay carnival.”

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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