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Junior Colleen Miller, who holds three individual school records and two relay marks, will be among the University of Maine’s top-seeded swimmers when the America East men’s and women’s championships open Thursday in Orono.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County men’s and women’s teams, which both won team titles last year, are again favorites to sweep the team competitions.
The meet at Wallace Pool will begin at 11 a.m. with diving prelims for the women’s 3-meter and men’s 1-meter. The diving finals will kick off the evening session at 5:30, followed by finals in the 800-yard freestyle relay and 200 medley relay.
The meet continues Friday through Sunday at 10 a.m. each day with prelims in the morning and finals in the evening. The top 16 places in each individual event are scored.
The Black Bear women were fourth last year and the men fifth. UMaine coach Skip Nitardy said the middle ground in the team competition will be competition on the women’s side.
“The area of third, fourth and fifth is very tight,” he said. “It’s going to come down to some relay swims and individuals who step up. It’s going to be a tight score line.”
The UMaine women will likely show their strength in the freestyle distance, individual medley and stroke events. The Black Bears have five swimmers seeded in the top 16 in the 200-yard individual medley, four each in the 1- and 3-meter diving, 200 breaststroke, and 200 butterfly, and three each in the 400 IM, 100 backstroke and 1,650 free.
“We don’t have as many numbers [as other teams], but the ones we have are strong,” Nitardy said. “They did so well last year and they’re swimming so fast now. We’ll see what we can get.”
Miller is seeded fifth in both the 200 and 1,650 freestyle races. She’s also seeded ninth in the 500 free.
Other high-seeded swimmers include Courtney Healey (seventh in 100 backstroke, fourth in 200 back), Mimi Chovanec, (10th in the 500 free, 11th in 100 back, ninth in the 200 back), Megan McLean (ninth in the 200 breaststroke) and Caitlin Shelley (eighth in the 100 breaststroke, 10th in the 1,650, 13th in 200 breaststroke).
Meag Fisher, Mackenzie Grobmyer, Adi Levy and Kerstin Fenton are also in the top 16 in at least two events apiece.
Hampden’s Kiki O’Donnell is ranked 15th in the 200 IM, 12th in the 200 breaststroke and a team-best ninth in the 400 IM.
Kari Boffa of Falmouth is seeded 15th in the 200 free and 16th in the 100 free, while Bangor’s Lily Herbold is ranked 16th in the 1,650.
Brewer’s Samantha Graham, is ranked sixth in the 1-meter diving and 13th for the 3-meter event.
Freshman Jeremy Bender leads the way for the UMaine men’s team, which is a nonscholarship program, with the No. 8 seed in the 1,650. He’s also ranked 13th in the 400 IM and 18th in the 500 free.
Biddeford’s Cully Wakelin also has a chance to score in several events with the 13th seed in the 100 free and the 16th seed in the 200 free. He’s also swimming in the 50 free.
“For our guys’ team, the biggest thing for them is to swim fast,” Nitardy said. “They want to come back at night. For them, that’s the big challenge.”
Zach Cravens of Ellsworth, John Quinn of Bangor, Dustin Carrier of Lewiston and Brian Smith of Scarborough also qualified.
Isaac Forbes of Glenburn and Keith Burgie of Arundel are among the top seeds in the diving events.
jbloch@bangordailynews.net
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