LEWISTON – With all the water in western Maine this week, it was about time someone had some fun with it.

Lewiston recorded 20 first-place finishes out of a possible 22 events Friday night to sweep Edward Little in both boys’ and girls’ KVAC swimming action in the Roberta G. Austin pool at the Lewiston YWCA.

The Blue Devils posted wins of 117-53 for the girls’, and 112-39 in boys’ competition.

“They have a really strong team,” said Edward Little coach Mary Beth Galway. “They are overwhelmingly strong this year. We have a lot of depth but unfortunately we don’t have the top swimmers like they do.”

With only seven swimmers on the boys’ roster to begin with, the Red Eddies were a little short-handed. Add two swimmers getting sick and EL never had more than one competitor in any single event. In three races the Eddies did not enter anyone.

It was close to the mid-point of the evening before the Red Eddies posted a win in the boys’ 50-yard freestyle. Ben Geiger won the event with a time of 25.85. Lauren Gagnon won the 100-yard breaststroke for the Eddies other win.

It was Lewiston’s night, however, as the Devils racked up win after win.

Isla Hansen won the 200 and 500 freestyle while Renee Bissonette took top honors in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Dustin Carrier won two events for the boys with wins in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.

“We’re looking good,” said Lewiston coach Dave Bright. “Our girls are undefeated. They had a tie in the first meet of the season against Brunswick and they were the league champion last year. The guys look strong as well.”

Becoming just as important as the final score is the presentation of the Lesley Martin and Chris Campbell awards to the outstanding boy and girl swimmer in the meet.

Hansen was presented with the Martin award and Geiger took home the Campbell plaque.

“I never had the chance to know her,” said an emotional Hansen. “But I feel really honored because of the people in the past that have won the award.”

“I know Chris’ (Campbell) brother Zach from freshman year,” said Geiger. “He’s an awesome guy and his family is awesome. This is a great honor to receive this award. I never thought I could win it because I thought you had to be a senior.”

Geiger is a junior and Hansen is a sophomore.

Teams worked together

During the intermission at the meet, Steve Grant, president of the Lewiston Swimming Boosters, announced a donation to the Lewiston YWCA that was a joint effort between the Lewiston and EL swimming programs.

“We knew we would need more help in manning our fundraising booth at the Balloon Festival,” said Grant. “So we called EL and they joined us. Our loose agreement said we would both get a share of the proceeds but in the end we decided to buy something that would benefit both teams.”

What the approximately $3,500 raised purchased was a one-year old scoring console from Hebron Academy and two brand new touch pads for the pool.

“This gift is extremely important,” said Lewiston YWCA Aquatics Director Pam Gallant. “This is not something we could afford to buy, and if they hadn’t fundraised for it, we would have had to. It is great to see people working together.”

Gallant estimated the current scoring system had been in place for as many as 18 years.

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