Some of the top swimmers and club teams are expected at the University of Maine’s Wallace Pool in Orono for the four-day 2002 Winter Combined Championships.

The meet opened Thursday afternoon with the 1,650-yard freestyle for boys and girls in the senior and 13-14 age groups. The competition continues Friday with two sessions starting at 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., again Saturday at the same times, and Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Places 1-16 in both individual and relay events will be scored. All swimmers must be members of USA Swimming to participate.

The top USA Swimming-affiliated clubs in Maine will compete, including Coastal Maine Aquatics of Cape Elizabeth, the Westbrook Seals and the Hurricane Swim Club, which swims at the Bangor YWCA’s Aloupis Pool.

On the whole, times from this weekend’s meet should be lower than last weekend’s YMCA state championship meet. In the senior girls’ 200 free, for example, Jamie Garver of the MDI YMCA’s Sharks won the event with a time of 2 minutes, 4.36 seconds. The top seed for the USA meet is CMA’s Emily Caras, whose time is 1:54.38. Two more swimmers, Taylor McFarlane of CMA and Hurricane Lindsey Snyder, have seed times under the 2-minute mark.

Swimmers shine in zone meet

Coastal Maine Aquatics, the Hurricanes and the Seals were some of the Maine teams that sent swimmers to the 2002 Speedo Champions Series sectional meet last weekend in East Meadow, N.Y.

CMA got especially good results from several swimmers.

Whitney Rockwell, who led Cape Elizabeth High to the high school Class A state title last month, won the 50 free, finished third in the 100 free and was 10th in the 100 breaststroke. Sean Flaherty of Scarborough was third in the 500 free, fourth in the 1,650 free, 10th in the 1,000 free and 13th in the 400 individual medley. Tom Alberi of Cape Elizabeth was sixth in the 200 free and ninth in the 100 backstroke.

Adam Blais, who competes for Westbrook, was 13th in the 50 free, 15th in the 100 free and 16th in the 200 IM.

The Hurricanes, who sent two girls to swim in individual events and two more girls to fill out a relay team, didn’t score in the meet but the 400 medley relay squad of Lindsey Snyder, Kiki O’Donnell, Kallie Pottle and Kayle Shapero was 31st overall.

Willis, Voikos enjoying new jobs

Nick Voikos was working in real estate. Jim Willis was coaching in the U.S. Virgin Islands. But both men, well-known among the local swimming set, are back coaching in Maine.

Voikos, who swam for Bangor High and the University of Maine and coached Bangor’s girls team to three straight Class A state titles in five years, is now living in Saco and in charge of the Northern York County YMCA team. Voikos is an assistant aquatics director for the YMCA, which is in Biddeford.

Voikos said his move back to swimming was a coincidence – he was looking for a job at the same time the NYCY team was seeking a coach.

“[Real estate] was a good job but there weren’t the inherent positive rewards that coaching has,” he said at the YMCA state meet Sunday. “We’re kind of building the team up, taking one step at a time and we’re having a tremendous year. Lots of improvements from the 5-year-olds all the way up to the 17-year-olds. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Willis, who was a four-year letterman at UMaine and was the longtime coach of the Canoe City Swim Club, is the MDI YMCA Sharks’ boss. He moved from the Bangor area to the Virgin Islands in 1998 to coach the St. Croix Dolphins, the largest swimming team in the chain of islands. Willis became the V.I. national team coach in 1999 and has taken swimmers to the Olympics and Pan American Games.

Willis said his wife Tami wanted to move back to Maine, and when longtime Sharks coach Lenny DeMuro stepped down, Willis jumped at the chance to coach.

“The opportunity opened up with Lenny leaving,” said Willis, who is also serving as the YMCA aquatics director. “I’m happy to be with the kids I’m with. We’ve had a great season, they’ve done everything I asked them to do and they’ve improved.”