Blue Devils enjoy their strongest presence in years
ORONO – They had to work a little harder at it this time, but Deering is still king of the pool.
The Rams had to fight off a pesky Cheverus squad and were tied with the Stags through six events to claim the 2004 Class A boys’ swimming championship Saturday at the Stanley W. Wallace Pool on the Maine campus.
Deering finished with 211 points to Cheverus’ 180. Morse, Scarborough, and Cape Elizabeth rounded out the top five.
Lewiston finished 12th with 38 points. Mt. Blue had 11.
It was the 100-yard freestyle event that proved to be the deciding race as Deering’s Chris Mosley earned his second win of the day with a time of 50.17 seconds. Chris Ward of Cheverus was fourth, allowing Deering to pull away a little bit at a time after that point.
Deering’s Arik Seiler was named swimmer of the meet with firsts in the 200 and 500 freestyles. He also swam a leg in the winning 400-freestyle relay.
Mosley also won in the 50 freestyle when he tied with Cheverus’ Chris Ward.
Joe Fowler of Mt. Blue was seeded sixth in the 500 freestyle and finished fourth with a time of 5:08.46.
Although not in contention, Lewiston coach Dave Bright saw his a Blue Devils exceeded his expectations for the season.
“This is a great day for us,” said Bright. “We went 9-2 in the season and we swam fast last week in the KVACs. We are swimming even faster this week.”
Overall, Lewiston qualified 10 swimmers for the state meet, and according to the coach, it is the most the school has ever had.
“We just kept getting better all year,” said Bright. “We have few year-round club swimmers compared to some of the other teams so we just have to work harder to see results. If you had asked me at the beginning of the season if I thought we would bring 10 to states, I would have said no way.”
Lewiston competed in one final, the 200-freestyle relay. The team of Kyle Chapman, Brian King, Derek Lachance, and Dan Grant finished sixth.
The Blue Devils competed in five consolation finals event. The relay teams in the 200 medley and the 400 freestyle finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
Dan Grant finished 10th in the 200 freestyle, Kyle Chapman 11th in the 100 butterfly, and Dustin Carrier was 12th in the 100 breaststroke.
“We have stepped up so much this year,” said Carrier, a senior co-captain. “We were so young yet the underclassmen stepped it up and gave us depth. It’s much better to finish 2-3-4 instead of first and last. You can see the difference. Last year we brought four to states, this year, 10.”
Carrier offers the simplest of reasons for the team’s success in the pool.
“Hard work,” said the swimmer. “Hard work and competing against each other to make each other better. When I came in as a sophomore, Kyle (Chapman) was doing things that I wanted to do so I followed him. We work off each other.”
Edward Little competed in the preliminaries in five events. Senior Fred Deraiche competed in the 100 backstroke and junior Ben Geiger swam in the 50 freestyle. The school also competed in the 200-medley relay, the 200-freestyle relay, and the 400-freestyle relay. No Red Eddies qualified for the finals.
pmullen@sunjournal.com
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