ORONO — After two events, Greely High sat in fifth place.

No problem. The surge was about to begin.

The Rangers picked up 31 points from three swimmers in the next event, the 200-yard individual medley, and Greely was starting its expected climb to the top.

Greely easily won its fourth straight Class B boys’ swimming and diving championship Monday night at the University of Maine’s Stanley M. Wallace Pool.

“We just chipped away,” said Greely Coach Rob Hale, soaking wet in his shirt and tie after his victory belly flop.

“Everyone contributed. It’s cliche, but it was a team effort.”

Before the Rangers won an event, they had already clinched the team title. Then Greely put a cherry on top with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay.

Greely totaled 303 points. Mount Desert Island, which had won six straight titles before Greely started its string, finished second with 247.

“Greely would have had to come back to us quite a bit,” said Mount Desert Island Coach Tony DeMuro, whose team won four individual events and the 200 medley relay. “We were just worried about swimming fast.”

Ellsworth (201) nudged Yarmouth (200) for third. Falmouth (188) finished fifth and Camden Hills sixth (148) of 24 teams.

Foxcroft Academy senior Cam Fadley was named the Performer of the Meet after winning both the 100 freestyle (47.49) and the 200 individual medley (1:55.77), the latter a meet record time.

Mount Desert Island senior Ross Johnston also won two events, taking the 200 freestyle (1:44.94) and the 100 butterfly (52.31).

Yarmouth senior Evan Coleman, who finished second (53.28) to Johnston in the butterfly, won the 100 backstroke (53.84).

Sophomore Jake Perron of Falmouth defended his 500 freestyle title, winning in 4:43.88, ahead of runner-up Luke Jeton (4:57.31) of Waynflete. Jeton was also second in the 200 free, in 1:46.63, ahead of third-place Perron (1:47.35).

After the preliminaries Monday morning, Hale said his team was in comfortable position. The Rangers held 14 spots in the finals and seven in the consolations. No one else could match those numbers.

“Everyone in the morning swam out of their minds,” said senior Nathan Madeira.

The climb began with the individual medley, with Jonathan Dunnett, Jack Benoit and Connor Rog finishing second, seventh and 15th.

Then came the 50 freestyle and Greely had four scorers – Connor Russell (fifth), Ryan Plante (sixth), Andrew Coon (11th) and Fred Bower (14th).

The Rangers later took the lead for good after the 500 freestyle – Madeira (third) and Jordan Merrifield (11th).

Griffin Fluet’s fourth-place finish in the 100 breast stroke, along with Rog’s 11th place, clinched it for the Rangers – before they won a race.

“With so many kids scoring, we could get away (without winning a race),” Hale said. “We just out-numbered them. We had more kids (contributing).”

Russell, Coon, Plante and Dunnett won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:23.57. Plante gave the Rangers the lead over Ellsworth, and Dunnett lengthened it with a determined anchor leg.

Dunnett was the teams’ top scorer with a second and third (butterfly) and a first and second in the relays.

Yarmouth was paced by Coleman, who also anchored two relays, including the third-place 400 freestyle team (John O’Gorman, Ethan Nightingale, Connor Lajoie and Coleman).

In his backstroke win, Coleman trailed Ellsworth’s Maks Grover halfway through, before edging him by nine-tenths of a second.

Camden Hills won the 200 free relay (1:34.59) with the team of Eddie McCluskey, Peter Gimlewicz, Kyle Crans and Mark McCluskey). Greely (Bower, Coon, Madeira and Russell) finished second in the race, just ahead of Westbrook (Greg Violette, Gage Provost, Kevin Bois and Andrew Lamson).

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:
kthomas@pressherald.com
Twitter: KevinThomasPPH