The 12-and-under meet was a rare opportunity for the swimmers to compete in a meet where they have to qualify in the preliminary round and then have the top 12 swimmers in each event come back to swim in the finals.
“This is great experience for them and introduces the younger swimmers to circle seeding in the preliminary trials,” said Casco Bay swim coach Dan St. Pierre.
The top-six finalist were taken to their blocks as a group to loud music and had their names announced for their heat.
Annie Bergeron was crowned the Queen in the 9- 10 girls 50 butterfly in 43.0, Zoe Siegel in the 11-12 50 butterfly in 30.59 and Adeline Aiobro in the 11-12 girls 50 breaststroke in 33.43.
Finishing in the top-six were Bergeron (9-10 50 breaststroke and 100 individual medley), Brian Brogan (11-12 50 backstroke), Mae Causey (11-12 50 back and 100 IM), Alex Ericson (9-10 50 back, 100 IM), Siegel (50 breast, 100 IM), Ellie Sterling (11-12 50 butterfly) and Ziobro (11-12 50 back and 100 IM).
Standouts were Eliza Brown knocking 5.58 seconds off of her best time in the 100 breast, Jeremy Brogan improving his 50 freestyle by 2.38 seconds, Piper Priddy lowering her time in the 50 fly by 3.16 seconds, Elias Thomas (50 breast, 2.92 second improvement), Amelia Watt (4.25 seconds in the 50 breast and 6.92 in the 100 IM).
St. Pierre was excited about his team’s efforts, and praised the surprising work of Natalie Bourassa.
“She had one heck of a meet by knocking off 10.59 seconds in her 200 Freestyle, 3.53 seconds in her 100 Freestyle, 6.35 seconds in her 200 IM, and she did the 1,650 freestyle for the first time and qualified for the 13- 14 girls event in the Maine Swimming Junior Olympics Championship Meet in March,” said the coach. “In the first 500 yards of her swim, she knocked off 33.97 seconds from her best ever 500 freestyle.”
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