BANGOR – Erin Thomas achieved tremendous success in recent years swimming for the Hurricane Swim Club in Bangor.

Saturday afternoon, the senior relished the new opportunity to share her talents with her friends on the Bangor High School swim team during her first Penobscot Valley Conference championship meet.

Thomas won the 100-yard backstroke in record time, claimed the 200 freestyle and also swam on the victorious 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays as Bangor won for the 10th consecutive year.

“It’s incredible,” Thomas said of the experience. “Big meets like this, on a team like Bangor – any team, I guess – you all get so much closer, yelling for each other to go fast. It’s just the team atmosphere that I love so much and I always perform so much better when everyone’s screaming at me.”

Coach Cindi Howard’s Rams scored 379 points to easily outdistance runner-up Mount Desert Island (245) for the title. Brewer placed third with 196 points, while John Bapst of Bangor (162) and Foxcroft Academy (135) rounded out the top five.

Orono (80) finished sixth, followed by Hampden Academy (59), Old Town (39), Presque Isle (31), Bangor Christian and Ellsworth (20 points each), George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill (17) and Caribou (10).

In addition to camaraderie, Howard said keys to Bangor’s success include the swimmers’ willingness to set their sights high and their ability to enjoy themselves.

“One of the things I really stress is, any time they go to the block, they should always have a goal,” Howard said. “That’s how I keep them motivated. I also tell the girls, just have fun. It’s all about having fun.”

Thomas’ time of 1 minute, 0.44 seconds in the 100 backstroke, in which she held off Brewer’s Ana Peraza by 0.35 seconds, established a PVC record. Thomas swam the backstroke leg as the Rams opened the meet by setting conference and pool marks of 1:55.42 in the 200 medley relay.

She also handled the anchor leg of the 400 free relay, erasing a deficit of 0.4 seconds in the last 100 yards to help Bangor win by a full seven seconds.

“My backstroke was awesome,” said Thomas, who will attend Penn State University next fall on a swim scholarship. “That was a season-best, not a personal best, and our relay was incredible at the very beginning. We broke a bunch of records, so it was good.”

Bangor placed 20 different swimmers in the scoring column while overpowering the field. The Rams’ other individual winner was sophomore diver Meghan Rowe, who earned 314.5 points to beat Bangor classmate Ashley Higgins.

Seniors Grace Barnett and Sorrell Cardello also play pivotal roles for the Rams. Barnett finished second in the 100 breaststroke and third in the 100 butterfly, while Cardello took second in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 breaststroke.

Each swam on the Rams’ first-place 200 medley and 400 free relay entries as did junior exchange student Tatjana Spanehl of Germany, who claimed third in the 100 free and fourth in the 50 free.

Barnett said the beauty of the PVC meet is, more athletes get the chance to swim, which helps further foster team unity.

“I think this year especially we’ve been trying to get the whole team involved,” Barnett said, “not only the people who are swimming in Lane 3 (assigned to the top seed in each event) but people who are swimming exhibitions or first heats of each event.”

Junior Marley Clark of Foxcroft Academy joined Thomas as a two-time individual champ, winning the 50 freestyle (25.14 seconds) and 100 butterfly (1:00.98). She is swimming with the Ponies for the first time.

“Some of the girls that swam with me on the (Piscataquis Regional) Y team, we got together and we decided to swim (for FA) this year,” Clark said. “We were really excited, because we knew that we would probably do well.”

In the 100 fly, Clark was seeded third but set a personal best while lowering her seed time by 1.5 seconds to edge junior Tara Nitardy of John Bapst.

“Winning first place here is really big, because I’ve never won first place before in a PVC, so I’m happy to represent my school,” said Clark, who also swam on FA’s runner-up 200 and 400 free relay teams.

Nitardy won the 200 individual medley (2:13.94) and took second in the 100 butterfly while Peraza, a junior, claimed top honors in the 100 free (56.05).

Sophomore Lauren Dwyer of Orono was first in the 500 free (5:33.67) and second in the 50 free, while junior Jessica Hodsdon of Brewer set a PVC record while defending her title the 100 breaststroke (1:08.37) and was third in the 100 free. Hodsdon and Peraza also competed on the Witches’ winning 200 free relay (1:48.55) with sophomores Hali Fleishman and Sarah Meehan, and their second-place 200 medley relay.

Chelsey Curran led the way for MDI, going second in the 100 free and the 200 free while contributing to the Trojans’ third-place entries in the 200 medley and 200 free relays.

Next up is the Class A state championship meet, scheduled for Feb. 19 at the University of Maine in Orono.

pwarner@bangordailynews.net

990-8240

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY MICHAEL YORK

Tara Nitardy of John Bapst comes out of the water while swimming the 200-yard individual medley in Saturday’s PVC Championship at Husson College. Nitardy won the event and the Crusaders finished fourth overall.