WESTBROOK — The purple reign continued Friday night at the North Southwestern swimming and diving championships, as the boys of Cheverus High won their third straight title.
The Performer of the Meet was similarly hued. As was the case with his older siblings, Westbrook senior Greg Violette won the meet’s top individual award, four years after his sister, Kathryn, and eight after his brother, Matt.
Additional Images
TOP THREE TEAMS
1. Cheverus 355
2. Cape Elizabeth 221
3. Falmouth 205
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“It feels great to finish the last Southwesterns with a bang,” Violette said after winning the 100-yard backstroke and 100 freestyle. “This is the best high school meet all year long, even more so than states.”
Eight Greater Portland schools gathered inside Davan Pool for the traditional end to the regular season, the last chance for borderline swimmers to qualify for state championship meets. There are signs and painted faces and dyed locks and haircuts only Edward Scissorhands could appreciate.
And noise. Plenty of noise.
“The building gets so loud, it not only makes you feel good, it makes everyone feel good,” Violette said. “There’s no environment like this in swimming.”
Three meet records fell as Cheverus ran away from the field. The Stags finished with 335 points to 221 for runner-up Cape Elizabeth. Falmouth was third at 205, followed by Scarborough (169), Greely (150), South Portland (94), Westbrook (84) and Deering (60).
Falmouth senior Jake Perron erased a 14-year-old mark in the 200 freestyle. Perron edged Cheverus junior Michael O’Donovan in a nip-and-tuck race, as his winning time of 1 minute, 43.52 seconds was just .03 better than that of O’Donovan.
“He’s my favorite person to race,” Perron said. “On almost every wall I look over at him just to see where he is. That’s really what gets in my head. He’s my inspiration to pick up my pace a little bit, kick my legs a little bit harder, even when I feel bad.”
They met again in the 500 free, and this time O’Donovan lowered his 2014 meet record to 4:42.76, with Perron more than four seconds behind.
“It’s a great little friendly rivalry between them,” said Cheverus Coach Kevin Haley, who was first to congratulate Perron after the 200 free. “No matter who wins, they both push each other and they know their enemy, really, is the clock. They did a phenomenal job.”
Although O’Donovan admitted he will miss racing against his Davidson College-bound rival, he said he tries not to think about anything beyond his own lane lines.
“I like to block out the entire world, as much as I can,” he said. “The only thing that’s going through my mind is just going as hard as I can.”
Someone else provided motivation for the 500 free.
“I’d like to dedicate that race to my 7-year-old cousin, Max,” O’Donovan said. “I wanted to go to his birthday party but I had to be here. So that one was for him.”
The other record to fall was the 200 free relay, set in 2001 by Cape Elizabeth. Cheverus sophomores Shane Moore and Booway Bikales, and juniors Kevin Kane and Jacob Griffin touched in 1:31.28 to lop more than a second off the old mark.
Kane also won the 100 breast (1:05.38) and 100 butterfly (54.53). Griffin won the 50 free (22.81).
O’Donovan, Bikales, sophomore Ben Tompkins and senior Tony Penk combined to win the 400 free relay by more than 2 seconds in 3:26.71.
Cape Elizabeth won the 200 medley relay in 1:43.25, with freshman Harry Homans (backstroke), senior Reese McFarlane (breast stroke), sophomore Kyle Long (butterfly) and junior R.J. Sarka (freestyle).
Homans also pulled away from Griffin to win the 200 individual medley in 1:57.49 – about a third of a second off the meet record but good enough to break an 18-year-old school record – and was runner-up to Violette in the 100 free.
Falmouth freshman Griffin Conley won diving with 270.40 points. Actually, he was the only diver, which meant all eyes were on him during his three dives.
“It’s a lot different being the only person out there,” he said. “I tried to zone out and just think about the dive.”
It worked. His previous high score was 214.
“Wow,” he said upon hearing his total. “That’s a lot more than I expected.”
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Gjordan@pressherald.com
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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