Swimmers enter the pool in the 500-yard freestyle at the 2019 Class A girls’ swimming and diving state championships. This year’s meet figures to be a four-way race among defending champ Bangor, Cony, Kennebunk and South Portland. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
After studying the seeding for the Class A girls’ swimming and diving state championship meet, Kennebunk Coach Andrew Coulombe thought back to November, when the Rams first began training for the winter season.
“I’m not sure I would have projected this,” he said. “This is absolutely 100 percent wide open.”
The Class A girls’ meet in Orono at 12:30 p.m. Monday is one of four swimming championships scheduled for Saturday through Tuesday. Class A boys will compete Saturday in Orono. Class B girls will swim at Bowdoin College in Brunswick on Monday, followed by the Class B boys at Bowdoin on Tuesday.
If seeds hold, which of course they never do, the top four schools among the Class A girls – Bangor, Cony, South Portland and Kennebunk – would finish within four points of each other.
Bangor is the defending champion. Cony won in 2017 and 2018. Neither South Portland nor Kennebunk has ever won a state title.
If relays are removed from the conversation, Kennebunk holds a three-point edge on South Portland, with Bangor another 26 points back and Cony another nine behind.
“I think what it’s going to come down to is whichever of the four teams can capitalize in all three relays,” Coulombe said. “It’ll come down to who has the most depth.”
The Class A boys’ meet starts at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Cheverus is aiming for an eighth straight state title and appears to have an edge of roughly 75 points on both Bangor and Scarborough.
In Class B, the Cape Elizabeth girls have won three consecutive state titles, but the Capers finished second last weekend to a deep Greely squad in the North Southwesterns meet.
Whether Greely’s depth can hold up when schools such as Camden Hills, Morse and Mt. Desert Island are added to the mix will go a long way toward determining the Class B winner. Camden Hills (KVAC) and MDI (PVC) are both coming off championships from their respective conferences.
“We’ll have some state qualifiers not swim (in the state meet) because we’re that deep,” said Greely Coach Rob Hale.
As for the Class B boys’ meet, Cape Elizabeth is coming off a North Southwesterns title and is looking to end the two-year reign of MDI, which has considerable depth but lacks the top-tier talent of the Capers. Sophomores Ethan Smith (50 freestyle, 100 butterfly) and Keegan McKenney (200 and 500 free) of Cape are seeded first in both their individual events.
MDI has only one athlete seeded among the top three in any individual event, except for diving, where three Capers make up half the field of six.
The Class B meets are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
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