The Long Reach Swim Club has done it again, defending its state championship for the 28th consecutive year in a meet held at the University of Maine in Orono last weekend.

“ This was the closest and most competitive state meet that I can remember in my 33 years at Bath,” said LRSC coach Jay Morissette, whose squad won by just 96 points over the Bangor YMCA. “This shows that the league is improving a lot, but it also shows that our swimmers had a lot of fight in them to withstand an amazing challenge by the Bangor Y kids.”

LRSC won the 8-and-under girls division, senior girls, senior boys, 13-14 boys and girls combined team score, senior girls/boys combined team score, the boys combined team score and the overall boys/girls combined team score.

The club, which swims out of the Bath Area Family YMCA, had two triple winners in Ella Martin in the senior girls division and Cora Spelke in the 13- 14 girl division.

Evan Willertz set two team records for the 13-14 boys in the 200- yard freestyle, besting James Wells’ time of 1:51 with a time of 1:49. Willertz’s 100 butterfly time of 54.95 beat the previous record of 55.27, also held by Wells. This swim was also a meet record.

One other meet record was set by the senior girls 200 medley relay team of Olivia Harper, Haily Harper, Talia Jorgensen and Martin with a time of 1: 48.62. This time also qualified for the YMCA National Championships that are scheduled to be held in Greensboro, North Carolina, in April.

Brandon Johnson also qualified for Y-Nationals in the 50 free with his time of 21.9 seconds. The senior boys medley relay team of Nicco Bartone, Brian Hess, Willertz and Matt Yost also qualified.

Next up for LRSC is the Maine U. S. Swimming Championships at Bowdoin College over the weekend of March 16. This meet includes YMCA teams, along with squads not affiliated with a YMCA.