ORONO, Maine — Old Town High School scored 208 points in the second half of Saturday’s Class B State Swimming and Diving Championship meet at the University of Maine’s Wallace Pool, enabling the Coyotes to claim the title with 327 points.
Ellsworth High, the 2016 champion, finished second with 280 points and Morse of Bath placed third at 278, followed by Cape Elizabeth (261) and Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor (242). Twenty teams scored points in the meet.
Trailing Morse High 121-119 after five events, coach David Ploch’s Old Town swimmers won the 200 free relay and received two gold-medal finishes from Nick Gould in the 100 butterfly (52.8 seconds) and the 100 backstroke (53.0) during the second half of the meet to swim away to the victory.
“They did everything they needed to do today to win,” said Ploch.
The Maine Swimming Hall of Fame coach quickly pointed to the team jersey and the initials “AR” displayed there.
“Three weeks ago Aaron Ricker, a member of the team, died after a long illness. He is wrapped into everything we have done this year and today,” Ploch said.
This year’s title was the school’s 17th Maine Principals’ Association swim crown. Fourteen of the championships have come under Ploch’s leadership.
“My hope was to be able to place the swimmers in the best events and not move them around. We just swam in our best events. It was a good strategy. They swam the events they like to swim and they swam great.”
In the 200 medley relay, the first event, Ploch assembled swimmers who had not raced as a relay team during the season. The strategy resulted in a gold medal.
Mount Desert Island breaststroker Liam Sullivan split 26.1 on his leg, 1½ seconds faster than the field, giving the Trojans better than a one-second lead over Old Town after two legs of the relay. Senior Nate St. Jean pulled Old Town within four-tenths of a second after the butterfly leg and classmate Jacob Ketch swam a speedy 21.8 anchor as Old Town nipped MDI by two-hundredths of a second in 1:40:46.
It was not until Event 6, the 100-yard butterfly, that Old Town regained the lead. St. Jean (55.5) supported Gould’s win in the event with a fourth-place finish.
“The kids look to Nick to do well and Nate really showed up and swam fast,” Ploch said of his team’s butterfly performances.
Three events later, Old Town set a meet a record in the 200 free relay at 1:29.5. The previous record (1:30.0) was set in 2006 by MDI. Seniors Garrett Stoyell (23.7), Drew St. Jean (22.1), Gould (21.7) and Ketch (21.9) finished nearly two seconds ahead of the field.
The second record-setting performance of the meet came in the 100 breaststroke when the talented Sullivan broke the meet record established in 1991 by former MDI Trojan and Maine Swimming Hall of Fame member Bruce Crock. Sullivan finished in 58.47, eclipsing Crock’s 58.57.
Silver medalist Hayden Sattler of Ellsworth touched in 1:03.1.
Sullivan also won the 200 individual medley at 1:57.4 and in doing so was the only swimmer to finish under 2 minutes.
Ellsworth won the Sportsmanship Award and Eagles racer Camden Holmes was named Performer of the Meet. The sophomore claimed first in the 200 free (1:49.7) and the 100 free (48.2). Teammate Sam Alvarado won the 500 free (4:58.9).
“Awesome. Totally awesome,” Ellsworth’s Jim Goodman said of his team’s performance. “The kids kept chugging. They swam their hearts out today.”
Ellsworth moved past Morse into the runner-up position as a result of the Eagles’ bronze-medal finish in the 400 medley relay.
The Trojans, who swam impressively in numerous events, closed the meet with a win in the 400 free relay (3:20.6).
Other winners included Morse’s Banger Tucker in the 50 free (21.1) and Nathaniel Hayward of Wells in the diving (355.50 points).