ORONO, Maine — The Cape Elizabeth Capers won six events, established three state records and scored 440 points on Monday in their drive to the 2017 Class B girls swimming and diving state championship at the University of Maine’s Stanley Wallace Pool.
Morse High of Bath finished second with 265 points and Greely of Cumberland Center placed third with 222½ points followed by Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor (204½) in the 22-team competition.
“They swam incredibly well. They could not have swum much better,” commented Ben Raymond, coach of the Capers.
In winning their first state title since 2013 and their third (2009, 2013) under Raymond’s leadership, Cape Elizabeth collected gold medals in the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle, 500 freestyle, and 400 freestyle relay.
“The medley relay was an important win. Because the race was so close and we did not get touched out, our confidence built off the win,” Raymond said.
Actually, a leadoff 26.4-second split from Morse backstroker Olivia Harper pushed the Shipbuilders into the medley relay lead. However, a 25.2 butterfly leg from Cape’s Olivia Tighe moved Cape into less than a tenth of second lead after the third leg.
Alicia Lawrence split 23.6 on the anchor leg as the Capers nipped Morse by four-hundredths of a second in 1:48.61, a state-record performance. The previous state mark of 1:50.1 was set in 2013 by Cape Elizabeth.
The Capers closed the meet with another state-record performance in the 400 free relay, smashing the previous record of 3:37.6 by five seconds at 3:32.6.
Tighe, who was named Performer of the Meet, split 50.6, Lawrence 53.5, Emily Ecker 54.6, and Caroline Mahoney 53.9 in the relay.
Ecker won the 200 free (1:52.1) and then swam away from the competition in the 500 free to set a state record of 4:56.1. She finished 32 seconds ahead of the field.
Ecker’s time qualifies her for National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association All-American consideration.
Remarking on Ecker’s 500 race Raymond said, “She was very focused. She got into her rhythm and swam well. She really works hard.”
Tighe collected consecutive gold medals. Her first individual win came in the 100 butterfly (57.3) and then the sophomore won the 100 free (51.7).
Morse joined Cape with state-record-setting swims. The Shipbuilders’ 1:37.6 200 free relay eclipsed the standard set in 2006 by Falmouth (1:39.4). Ella Martin (24.5), Olivia Harper (24.4), Haley Harper (25.3) and Ann Tolan (23.3) cruised to a six-second win and the 40 first-place points.
After the relay win, freshman Olivia Harper swam in the next event, the 100 backstroke, and set a state record of 56.2 seconds. The old record (56.5) was set in 2013.
Tolan, a senior, won the 50 free in 23.7.
Among the meet’s most impressive performances was the 200 individual medley win by MDI’s Lydia DaCorte. Seeded fifth at 2:17.8, the senior raced past the field on the final 50 (a 30.6 split) and touched in 2:08.6 for the win.
Silver medalist Ana Neff Jendrasko had stroked to a lead on the breaststroke leg before DaCorte accelerated on the closing 25 yards.
DaCorte claimed second in the 100 butterfly at 57.8, nearly six seconds faster than her entry time of 1:02.
Emma Patterson of Cape captured the diving (344.55) by eight points over Julia Bisson of Greely and 11 points ahead of Old Town’s Kassidy Harriman.