Teams to battle for PVC swim titles Friday, Saturday

Maine’s high school championship season begins for area swimmers and divers  Friday at Husson University in Bangor with the Penobscot Valley boys swimming and diving championship. Diving begins at 4 p.m. and swimming races at 6 p.m.
On Saturday, at Husson, the girls championships will be held with racing beginning at noon and diving at 9 a.m.
For some swimmers the PVC meets provide an opportunity to improve their state meet qualifying seed times with faster swims at the conference championship. For other racers and divers, the PVC meets afford an opportunity to satisfy the state-meet standard, qualifying them for state meet participation. And, in other instances, the PVC meets present a championship setting where a  swimmer can close the season with a personal record.
Again this year some of the premier performers in Maine racing will be prepping for either the Class A or B state meet by racing in the PVC.
Among this group in the boys meet are Ellsworth’s Keith Chandler, Brewer’s Josh Williams, Orono’s Cam Dwyer, Foxcroft Academy’s Cameron Fadley and Bangor’s David Smallwood and Matt England.
In addition to this group of racers, who throughout the dual-meet season consistently have been  in the state’s top one, two, or three in their events, the meet undoubtedly will produce a surprise  swimmer or two whose racing gets hot and fast, resulting in unexpected entry options for  the team at the state meet.
Coach Phil Emery’s Bangor High squad is deep, talented, and experienced.  Based on their dual meet performances the Rams have the freestyle corps and  the stroke versatility to be keenly challenging  for opponents in a championship meet. Nevertheless, the quality of the PVC field  requires all racers swim smartly and skillfully execute starts, transitions into and off turns and race finishes.
Like the boys’ PVC, the girls’ meet will feature swimmers expected to race for medals including golds at the upcoming state meet.
Bangor’s Emma Waddell, this year, as she did a year ago, has continued to exhibit versatility in both strokes and distances and has been consistently among this year’s elite swimmers in Class A. Mount Desert Island’s Erin Connery and Lelia Johnson are among the fastest dual-meet swimmers in Class B while Foxcroft diver Katherine Morrison is among the dual-meet season leading divers. Bangor’s Elizabeth Huber and Brewer’s Glory Watson have recorded point scores to place near the top of Class A.
Coach Cindi Howard’s Bangor team enters the PVC capable of assembling powerful relay entries in each of the three relays while packing individual events with quality entries. As a result, the Rams enter the PVC as the favorite to claim the team title.

Hodsdon wins NE title
Brewer’s Jessica Hodsdon, a junior swimmer at Bentley University, won the Northeast Ten Conference title in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1 minute, 4.08 seconds at the NE 10 championships held last weekend.
In the trials of the 100 breaststroke, Hodsdon raced a 1:04.80 for a conference meet record and then lowered the record in the finals with her gold-medal swim. Hodsdon, in addition to relay swims for Bentley, also collected a bronze medal in the 200 individual medley (2:12.2) and a fifth place in the 200 breaststroke at 2:24.6.
Hodsdon’s 100 breaststroke time is the eighth fastest in NCAA Division II this season.
Bentley finished second in the meet behind Southern Connecticut University.

Thomas strong at Penn St.
In her last home meet for Penn State, Bangor’s Erin Thomas finished second in the 100 free (51.8) as PSU defeated Lehigh and St. Francis. Interestingly, in the 100 free Thomas, one of 12 racers, recorded the fastest second half of the race at 26.5. And, MDI’s Ian Carbone swam a 2:06.3 in the 200 breaststroke as the Texas Longhorns defeated Texas A&M.