BRUNSWICK — If any doubt remained about the dominance of the Mt. Desert Island girls after the morning trials, the first final of the Class B girls’ swimming and diving championships Monday night erased it.

Leila Johnston opened a huge lead on the backstroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay, and Avalon Kerley (breast), Lydia DaCorte (butterfly) and Sydney Wright (freestyle) finished off a meet record at Gleason Pool on the campus of Bowdoin College.

The Trojans won comfortably, claiming their second straight title and third in four years with a total of 326 points. Cape Elizabeth, coming off a 2013 Class A state title, edged Greely by eight points in the battle for second, 252-244. Camden Hills was fourth at 233, followed by Waynflete (176), Yarmouth (140) and 21 other schools.

“Our coach (Tony DeMuro) always wants us to go out and set a good tone,” Johnston said. “It gets everybody pumped up and there’s a snowball effect.”

The medley relay time of 1 minute, 51.21 seconds qualified the MDI quartet for the YMCA national meet. Johnston followed it with state records in the 50 free (23.56) and 100 free (51.67).

Not surprisingly, she was named performer of the meet.

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Sidelined by mononucleosis for six weeks last season, Johnston came back in time to win both events last February but knew she was capable of more.

“She’s been motivated from Day 1,” DeMuro said. “She wanted a team championship, for sure, but she also wanted state records.”

The only other meet record to fall was in the 100 butterfly, where Waynflete senior Colby Harvey lowered her own mark to 54.97 seconds. It would have been an overall state record had Bangor senior Emma Waddell and Brunswick freshman Caitlin Tycz not both shattered the mark Saturday night in the Class A finals in Orono.

“I’m happy with that,” Harvey said of her time. “There’s so many little details that go into it. If I had timed one of my walls a little better, maybe I would have gotten it.”

Harvey added a victory in the 100 backstroke (58.64) to join Johnston as the only individual double winners. The most competitive race was the 500 free, in which MDI’s DaCorte held off Greely sophomore Hwanhee Park by about a third of a second in 5:18.56.

Cape Elizabeth senior Sydney Wight came within half a second of the meet record in the 200 free, which she won in 1:55.89, coming from behind in the final length of a tight race with runner-up DaCorte and Park.

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“I was just trying to keep up with them for the first 125,” Wight said, “and in the last 75 I wanted to go for it. I am so happy with that time.”

McAuley freshman Ana Neff-Jendrasko, the runner-up in the backstroke, won the 200 individual medley in 2:11.72. John Bapst senior Kayla Bousfield won diving with 309.45 points. Sonia Lin, a North Yarmouth Academy sophomore, won the 100 breast in 1:07.09.

MDI also won the 200 free relay, and Harvey anchored Waynflete to victory in the 400 free.

Cape Elizabeth was making its first appearance in Class B after winning nine Class A championships in the previous 22 years.

“It’s hard to say with just one year, but the quality goes deeper here,” said Cape Elizabeth Coach Ben Raymond. “The top 16 are pretty fast.”

Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:

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Gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH

 

 

 

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