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The University of Maine women’s swim team placed fourth and the men placed sixth in the America East Championships held in Baltimore, Md. this past weekend. The women put up 413 points, while the men scored 323 points.
“Well, we broke three school records,” said UMaine head coach Jeff Wren on Tuesday. “The 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard backstroke, and the longest bus ride.”
The team was delayed more than two hours on the way down to the meet due to bus complications, but the team was able to adapt to the situation.
Megan Wolters, a junior, broke the remaining two records that the bus was unable to. She swam a blazing 4:59.96 in the 500-yard freestyle to take a hard-earned first place and broke the school record for the second time this season. “I never thought I’d have a girl going sub-five in the 500,” said Wren. “Nobody in that house predicted that.”
Wolters also finished second in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:05.05 – another school record. Later, Wolters racked another place, this time third in the 200 yard freestyle.
The Black Bears posted numberous top-eight performances at the meet. Tal Sphaizer, Karin Feldman, and Crystie McGrail all placed in the top eight in the 100-yard butterfly for the women. Brittany Harrington and Kiki O’Donnell were a force to be reckoned with as they swam to two top eight performances in the 400-yard Individual Medley with times of 4:39.81 and 4:43.32 respectively.
For the men, Andrew Magiera led the way. Magiera was able to break two minutes in the 200-yard IM for the first time in his life as he stroked his way to a 1:59.73 and fifth place for the Black Bears. Magiera also placed in the 200-yard free and the 200-yard butterfly, which was no small feat considering he was battling illness. Senior captain Scott Forrestall finished eighth in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:47.59, and also placed in the 400 IM. The event of the meet was Chris Rodway’s brave performance in the three-meter dive. Rodway broke both of his feet the previous week in practice, but was still able to muster the strength to compete on the last day of events and take tenth place for the Black Bears.
“It was really inspirational,” said Wren. “Our men were inconspicuous in their performances, but they did great.”
Wren was enthusiastic over the team’s performances. He repeatedly said how inspirational the weekend was. There were a lot of upsets over the weekend for the Black Bears. With only the top sixteen scoring points, UMaine relied heavily on the large amount of swimmers and divers who were seeded 18 or 19 but were able to focus and score points.
