A year ago a snowstorm prompted officials to truncate the Class B boys’ swimming and diving state championship meet from morning trials and evening finals to one big timed finals.

This year all four state meets will follow the same format – although another snowy forecast bumped the Class A boys’ meet to Wednesday (instead of Monday) at Bowdoin College and pushed back Monday’s Class B girls’ meet at the University of Maine from morning to afternoon.

“At least we’ve had the experience of doing it before,” said Morse Coach Todd Marco. “Most every boy on our team knows what it’s like because we only have one freshman.”

The Shipbuilders were runners-up to Greely, whose five-year reign likely ends Saturday in what looms as a three-way battle between Morse, Camden Hills and Cape Elizabeth. If seeds hold – they never do – only 22 points separate the three, with Morse a slight favorite.

“In order to win the state meet, you have to have good swims from every kid,” said Marco, with 11 qualified swimmers. “We’ll be excited.”

A look at each of the four state meets:

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CLASS B BOYS: For 11 years, Greely or Mt. Desert Island won the state meet. This time either has the talent to compete with former Class A schools Morse and Cape Elizabeth. Ellsworth, MDI and Belfast are also in the mix but lack enough depth to challenge for the overall title.

“It should be a great meet,” said Cape Elizabeth Coach Ben Raymond, who has several good swimmers with potential to score higher than their relatively low seeds. “There’s a lot of space for our kids to move up. When you look at Camden and Ellsworth, there’s not a lot of space for them to move up because they’re seeded pretty high in individual events.”

One intriguing race is the 50-yard freestyle, where Mark McCluskey of Camden Hills and Tucker Banger of Morse finished in a dead heat (22.47 seconds) at the KVAC meet. No one else in the race has broken 23.

CLASS B GIRLS: Two-time defending champion MDI boasts one of the state’s top swimmers (Leila Johnston) and is seeded first in two relays, but Greely’s depth is a significant advantage.

At season’s start, “I thought we would be second,” said Greely Coach Rob Hale, “but the kids have worked really hard and they’ve seen results. Kids who I thought would be 11th or 12th are now seventh or eighth.”

Nowhere is Greely’s depth more apparent than the longer freestyle races, of 200 and 500 yards. Three of the top seven times in both races belong to Rangers. Hwanhee Park will challenge for the butterfly and individual medley titles. Cat Maker (50 free) and Kate Dransfield (backstroke) are No. 2 seeds.

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The 200 IM features three swimmers – Park, Ana Neff-Jendrasko of McAuley and Sonia Lin of North Yarmouth Academy – who are head and shoulders above the rest of the field. The first two competed to the wall at the Southwesterns and Lin could win as well, Hale said.

CLASS A GIRLS: Brunswick is poised to become the fourth state champion in four years, following Bangor, Cape Elizabeth and Cheverus, who won’t give up their title easily.

The marquee race is a 100 backstroke featuring outstanding sophomores Abby Longstaff of Cheverus and Caitlin Tycz of Brunswick as well as Kennebunk junior Marshall Lowery. Their seed times are within three-quarters of a second.

Tycz, runner-up to Emma Waddell of Bangor after both broke the 100 butterfly state record a year ago, will swim the fly again, needing a quarter of a second to reach Waddell’s mark of 54.49. Nobody else in the race has broken a minute.

CLASS A BOYS: Cheverus is the only defending champion favored to repeat. The Stags are after a third straight title and, on paper, hold a comfortable 70-point lead over Brunswick with Bangor another 30 behind.

Although bereft of divers and lean in breast stroke, the Stags are loaded everywhere else.

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“It’s still not comfortable by any means,” said Coach Kevin Haley.

“Brunswick looks real strong and Bangor, you never want to count those guys out.”

The 200 free includes Jake Perron of Falmouth, Michael O’Donovan of Cheverus and Nate Samson of Brunswick. All three have at least seven seconds on the rest of the field.

“That’s going to be an amazing race, no matter who takes it,” Haley said. “Samson is a crazy fast swimmer. He is going to be one to watch throughout the meet.”


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