McAuley claims title MDI turns in strong effort (4th)

BRUNSWICK – It was enough to make your head spin.

The McAuley girls swimming and diving team survived a fight to the finish for the 2008 Class B state championship Tuesday night at Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool, edging Greely and Falmouth in the final event of the meet.

The Lions of Portland scored 273 points for their first title since 2002. The Rangers of Cumberland Center finished in second place with 268 points, followed by Falmouth (253).

“This was a real big surprise for me,” McAuley coach John Smith said. “I was not waking up this morning expecting that would be what would happen today.”

MDI had another solid state meet, finishing fourth with 239 points while Waterville came in fifth with 167. Foxcroft Academy junior Marley Clark was the 100-yard butterfly winner, while Camden Hills of Rockport sophomore Lianne McCluskey earned the state title in the 50 freestyle.

Lead changes and a late tie made for plenty of excitement as three different teams held first at different points in the meet. Greely and Falmouth were knotted at 230 points apiece in second place with two events remaining.

It all came down to the final event. With Greely holding a 1-point lead over McAuley, a Lions’ team of Kristen Desrosiers, Hannah Gajewski, Gaby Cloutier and Katelyn Desrosiers handily won the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Rangers were second, but it wasn’t enough to overtake McAuley.

Falmouth was the points leader going into the relay, but the Yachtsmen had a disqualification in the relay during the morning preliminary heats and lost out on a chance for 40 points and their fifth straight overall title. They would have likely been the top seed in that event.

“When Falmouth false-started this morning it really opened everything up,” Smith said. “But I was still expecting Greely to win, that second would be MDI and third would be us.”

Falmouth and McAuley both led early. Greely took over the top spot when diver Jessica Howard took her fourth state title, then the Lions went ahead after the butterfly. Things shuffled again when the Rangers took a three-point edge over Falmouth and McAuley dropped to third, 26 points behind Greely.

The Rangers’ lead tightened to one point after Kristen Desrosiers won the 500 free. Her victory was important for the Lions, but the ninth-place finish of freshman Aoife Ryle was pivotal at the end. Ryle was seeded 13th but dropped 18 seconds from that time in the consolation final to set up the finale.

“That was a huge turnaround for the team,” Smith said.

Falmouth’s Kristin Jackson recorded a state record in the 200 individual medley and won the breaststroke. Alicia Hahn won her fourth straight state backstroke title and defended her 2007 crown in the 100 free. The Yachtsmen also won the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.

Jackson was named the Performer of the Meet.

MDI moved into second place briefly after Mae Speight led three Trojan divers with her third-place finish. The Trojans again made a run in the backstroke as Chelsey Curran finished second with Marlee Bergmair in fourth and Julia Macauley in fifth. Macauley also took fifth in the IM, while Curran was third in the 100 free.

The Trojans finished third in the 200 free relay.

Clark and sophomore Julia Kurzius powered Foxcroft Academy squad to one its best-ever team finishes at states. Clark had a stellar butterfly, shaving about 1-and-a-half seconds off her seed time to drop below the minute-mark (59.55) for the first time. She was also third in the 50 free.

Kurzius was ninth in the 200 free and eighth in the backstroke. Those two, plus Mariah Arno and Erin Boyer, finished third in the 400 free relay. That may be the Ponies’ highest-ever finish in a relay at states.

“It was amazing,” Clark said. “To come here and take third at states, our highest ranking, we’re just all really excited. It’s not first, but it’s awesome. … [In the fly] I was crying. Tara [Nitardy of John Bapst] and I went head-to-head at PVCs and I saw her out of the corner of my eye. I thought, I don’t want to lose. I just put my head down and went into that wall really hard.”

Nitardy was the runner-up in both the fly and IM. She led the IM by two-tenths of a second after the backstroke, but Jackson pulled ahead in the breaststroke leg en route to a state-record 2:07.45. Jackson had set the meet record in the morning heats.

Orono’s Lauren Dwyer, the 2007 50 free champ, was second in that event. She was also the runner-up in the 100 free. McCluskey was second in the breaststroke.

Erin Doucette of Hampden had a third-place finish in the 200 free in which she dropped about 21/2f seconds, and was fifth in the 500 free, while Washington Academy of East Machias standout Alice McBride placed fourth in the fly and fifth in the breaststroke.