Thomas mark leads Rams past Witches Peraza sets 100 back record for Brewer

BANGOR – Erin Thomas had about 75 yards yet to swim of the 500-yard freestyle when Bangor girls swimming coach Cindi Howard leaned over to Abby Malon, who was holding the lane counter for Thomas’ swim. Howard told Malon to pump the lane counter up and down to urge on Thomas as she closed out her swim.

A school record in the 500 wasn’t the goal for Thomas – her aim was to keep a pace of 1 minute, 5 seconds per 100 yards.

And that pace, it turned out, was enough for a new Bangor High mark in the distance event.

It was a record-setting Friday night dual meet for both the Bangor and Brewer girls teams at Aloupis Pool. A few minutes after Thomas smashed the 500 record, Brewer’s Ana Peraza, an exchange student from Spain, broke the Witches’ record in the 100 backstroke.

The Rams, however, rolled up 114 points to Brewer’s 72 to win the annual meeting between the two rivals.

“This has always been a really huge rivalry,” said Grace Barnett, one of Bangor’s senior captains. “It’s fun. I love swimming Brewer because it’s all people we swim [on club teams] with.”

In addition to her record-setting win in the distance freestyle, Thomas also took the sprint 50 free, as well as anchoring two winning relays.

Peraza also had a fine meet, winning the 100 free and leading off for Brewer’s winning 200 medley relay.

Thomas said she noticed Malon pumping the lane counter hard and realized she had to pick up her pace. She finished with a time of 5:21.33, breaking the previous mark of 5:23.23 held by Nikki Warren.

“I had the record in the back of my mind,” Thomas said. “[Bangor assistant coach Ritchie Palmer] told me about it earlier and I was like, let’s just see what happens.”

Thomas had a busy back half of the meet as she competed in the 500, got out of the pool for a few minutes, and got back in for the anchor leg of the 200 free relay, which follows the distance event. After two more events, Thomas pounded out another 100 yards of freestyle to wrap up the 400 free relay.

“It’s hard, but you have to shut your mind off and go,” she said.

Thomas edged Brewer standout Jessica Hodsdon by five-tenths of a second in the 50 free.

Barnett had an even shorter turnaround time at the end of the meet. She finished second to Hodsdon in the 100 breaststroke and had to get right back in the pool to lead off the 400 free relay. Barnett did get the gift of a few minutes’ break because the officials were sorting out a disqualification in the breaststroke.

“Luckily, there was a little bit of a stall between or else I don’t know what would have happened,” Barnett said. “It was the last event, so everything I had went into that. Even though it wasn’t a lot, I still wanted to try my best.”

Barnett won the 200 free, an event in which the Rams went 1-2-3 with Tatjana Spanehl second and Zarin Kacer third.

Other top finishers for Bangor included Sorrell Cardello, who won the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley while swimming on both of the Rams’ winning relays, and Spanehl, a German exchange student who was part of the relay corps and posted a second-place finish in the 100 free along with the 200.

Peraza also had a busy second half, competing in three of the final five events. She said she had a good practice Thursday, which along with double sessions and extra work on her backstroke technique helped her break the school mark.

“I just did something today, I don’t know,” said Peraza, who clocked a 1:02.54 to break the old Brewer record of 1:02.95 held by Kallie Pottle. “I felt so good at practice [Thursday] and I thought, [Friday] I’m going to make it. Last week we did double sessions and I think that helped me. And I’ve been working a lot on backstroke, working on the turns.”

Peraza, along with Hodsdon, Michelle Baughman and Sarah Meehan, won the medley relay.

Brewer’s Abby LeBlanc was the top diver with 149.90 points, edging Bangor’s Julie Clifford, who had a 145.30.

The Witches were also pleased with the times posted by Hali Fleishman, who knocked off 14 seconds in the 200 free and 35 in the 500 to qualify for states for the first time in those events.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

990-8193