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The University of Maine men and women’s swimming and diving teams took to the water this weekend for their second home swim meet. Both teams swam against Stony Brook University of New York and despite coming out strong, both lost in close contests. The women lost 151-149, and the men fell 174-118.
The men’s team started their meet last week with a split decision when they traveled to Rhode Island and lost their first meet before rebounding and winning the second. This weekend, the Black Bears hit the water with renewed enthusiasm and energy.
Senior Kyle Thorton believes the swimmers are excited for the new swim season.
“Everyone is looking to improve upon their times from last season, and the new swimmers are looking to make their mark at this university,” said Thorton, who also praised the new first-year participants. “The first-year swimmers are playing a huge role in our program this year; we have lots for talent that hopefully we will be able to build on throughout this season and the upcoming years. They are also very versatile and are spread throughout the events, which will help us to fill all events strongly.”
Indeed, it was the play by the freshmen that proved to shine on Saturday. Freshman Andrew Mackeil had an outstanding meet, finishing first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.38, the only individual event win for the men’s team. Senior captain John Quinn, junior Jamison Young, junior Kevin Staples and freshman Andrew Meehan combined for a 3:18.80 in the 400-yard freestyle relay that landed them in first place. Quinn also had a strong performance in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:54.88. In the diving section, freshman Stephen Kelley took second place in both the one and three-meter dive with scores of 170.47 and 163.95 respectively.
The men’s team is now 1-1 on the season and will travel to the University of Vermont for a meet with the Catamounts and Keene State College. They will return home on Dec. 13 to take on Boston University.
The women’s team came off their first meet, against Central Connecticut State University, when they split their opening meet with a 184-109 win and then suffered close 152-141 loss against Northeastern University. This past weekend, the Black Bears saw a great performance by junior Kerstin Fenton who won both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events. The team also had a good start when Fenton, combined with freshman Alicia Hahn, junior Megan McLean and senior Colleen Miller earned first place in the 200-yard medley relay team with a 1:52.29 time. Hahn also swam her way to a first place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a 2:10.49 time. UMaine also received points in the diving portion of the completion when junior Samantha Graham finished first in the one and three-meter dives with scores of 221.32 and 214.27. The Black Bears narrowed the gap when senior Mackenzie Grobmyer took first place in a narrow 200-yard individual medley. Grobmyer won by 0.01 seconds, but it wasn’t enough to put UMaine ahead in the points. The Black Bears lost by two points overall. The team is still optimistic and will work for future victories.
“I think what it takes to be the strongest team possible is to give 100 percent every day. Skip preaches to us about how well you perform in practice is how well you will perform in a meet, so having good work ethic I think is the key to success,” senior Brian Smith said.
The women are 2-2 on the season and will also take on Vermont and Keene State next week.
Bangor Daily News