LEWISTON – St. Dominic Regional High School recently joined Lewiston and Edward Little by posting its list of individual swimming records on a wall at Lewiston YWCA.

From top to bottom, that showcase of standards is dominated by one name: Emily Lewandowski.

Now, don’t get Allie Lewandowski wrong. She loves her older sister. They converse frequently, and more often than not, the topic gravitates to swimming.

All that family pride aside, there’s nothing Allie would enjoy more during her final two years with the Saints than changing the first initial from ‘E’ to ‘A’ in one or two rungs on that wall of fame.

“One thing that really bothered Allie when we put that up was her sister’s name was on that board a lot,” said John McGonagill, who co-coaches St. Dom’s third-year varsity team with his wife, Teresa. “We’re working hard on trying to change that name tag.”

Emily is now a junior at NCAA Division III champion Kenyon College in Ohio, so second is hardly a shame. But Allie is close, at least in real-world terms.

The gap between older sister and younger sister in the 100-yard breaststroke — an event in which both have won a gold medal at the Class B state meet — is less time than it takes to sneeze.

“I’m less than a tenth of a second off that,” said Allie Lewandowski, now a junior. “So there’s a little work left to get that one.”

Lewandowski has lived up to the family name as one of the dominant swimmers in the state, regardless of class.

In St. Dom’s first meet of the season last Friday, competing against Class A Lewiston, Lewandowski won the 100 breaststroke by a margin of nearly 27 seconds and the 100 butterfly by more than 17.

All of which makes that fraction of a second between herself, that spot on the wall and family bragging rights seem like less of a hurdle than it actually is.

“You look at these swimmers when they’re juniors and seniors in high school and going into college, and one-tenth of a second might as well be a minute,” McGonagill said. “It takes a long time to break through that. We were at a (USA Swimming) meet (Sunday) in Massachusetts. There were eight lanes, and one second separated first from eighth in a lot of the races.”

While the siblings’ times are beginning to show startling similarities, Allie’s personality in the pool is admittedly different from Emily’s.

Friday’s times at Lewiston were a good sign for the younger Lewandowski, who typically saves her fastest times for the end-of-season meets.

“My sister swims at her best potential even when she doesn’t have the best competition in the pool,” Allie said. “I guess it’s a little bit harder for me to get that kind of motivation. The breaststroke is probably the slowest stroke in swimming. I guess it’s kind of knowing the technique and the muscle memory. You don’t really have to think. It just comes to you after a while.”

Swimming didn’t become an official varsity sport at St. Dom’s until after Emily Lewandowski graduated in 2007, and the McGonagills didn’t take over the program until the ’07-’08 season.

John has seen more than enough of both sisters on travel teams, however, to have discerned the differences between the two.

“Both Allie and Emily are absolutely phenomenal breaststroke champions, but with two different psyches. Allie’s sister, you could tell when she got in the pool, she wanted to be the fastest kid in that pool,” McGonagill said. “With Allie, it doesn’t matter who she’s swimming, she just doesn’t want to get beat. Emily’s goal was to get in the pool and be the fastest thing around.

“It sounds like the same goal, but it really isn’t, so it’s fun to watch how that plays out. My challenge is when we have kids who I know are not faster than her, to get her out there swimming as fast as she can.”

Lewandowski’s goals are defending her Class B individual championship and perhaps getting the Saints into the top five at February’s state meet.

The girls were 10th a year ago.

“What’s fun and interesting about high school swimming is that one kid cannot influence the outcome of the meet,” McGonagill said. “There’s a lot of kids out there going for that breaststroke championship, and there are a lot of fast kids. That’s the problem with being No. 1. There’s nowhere to go but down. There’s some fast, up-and-coming freshmen and sophomores out there that are going to be coming after her, so she’s going to have to work hard to stay there.”

As for that one-tenth of a second, Allie’s been competing long enough to pinpoint exactly when it’s gained or lost, usually while the race is in progress.

“Usually after the race is done, you think, ‘That pullout should have been stronger,’ or, ‘I shouldn’t have breathed.’ I have to work on getting my time down and focus on the basics of the stroke that maybe are not as important in my mind to improve my time,” she said.

And sometimes that focus comes from the locally famous name she’s chasing … either by phone or across the holiday dinner table.

“We talk a lot,” Allie said of her relationship with Emily. “She’s swimming in college, so it’s nice to get that perspective from her of what she went through in high school and what she’s going through now.”

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St. Dom’s swimmer Allie Lewandowski

St. Doms swimmer Allie Lewandowski competes in the Girls 100 Yard Butterfly at a meet hosted by Lewiston at the YWCA Friday.

Sun Journal High School Swimming Preview

Local swimmers to watch

Boys

Tyler Bazinet, Edward Little (breaststroke)

Tim Brodsky, Edward Little (freestyle, backstroke)

Colby Miles, Lewiston (backstroke, individual medley)

Adam Lozis, Edward Little (freestyle)

Matthew Reed, Lewiston (breaststroke)

Ryan Robitaille, St. Dom’s (backstroke, butterfly)

Kurtis Stocker, Lewiston (freestyle)

Sean Winstead, St. Dom’s (freestyle)

Girls

Christine Bilodeau, Edward Little (freestyle)

Shelby Carver, Lewiston (freestyle)

Emily Craft, Lewiston (freestyle)

Sam Goulette, Edward Little (backstroke)

Megan Hussar, Edward Little (breaststroke, freestyle)

Allie Lewandowski, St. Dom’s (breaststroke, butterfly)

Naomi McGonagill, St. Dom’s (backstroke, IM)

Melissa Paione, Edward Little (IM, breaststroke)

Sarah Small, St. Dom’s (freestyle)

Liza Sirois, Lewiston (freestyle)

Katie Tirabassi, Lewiston (backstroke)