Bangor coach Emery officiates at NCAA championships

Bangor High coach boys swim coach Phil Emery officiated starts, finishes, turns and relay take-offs again this year at the NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships.
” Every single event was a race to the finish and very exciting. I do not believe anybody ran away with even one race including relays,” Emery said. “Cal (champion) swam very fast and covered most of the events very well. They are amazing underwater.”
According to Emery, former Arizona coach Frank Bush, now an executive with US Swimming, commented  on the development of the US Olympic team in a presentation to the officials. Bush  stated that this year’s US Olympic team for both the men and women will be the oldest US team ever but will be the best ever.

Waddell competes in national meet
Bangor High School sophomore Emma Waddell, winner of the Class A state title in the 100 butterfly, recently competed in the YMCA Nationals for the Bangor Y and placed 16th in the butterfly. Waddell raced to a time of 56.8 seconds in the meet held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C.
The facility seats 2,500 and houses three pools, a competitive pool, a warm-up pool and a diving pool.
The Bath  girls’ YMCA finished 17th in the 200 medley relay at 1:47.2.

Swimming notebook
• Four Eastern Maine interscholastic swimmers were recently named to the All -State Portland Telegram teams. Keith Chandler of Ellsworth and Cam Fadley of Foxcroft Academy, gold medalists in the Class B State Meet, and Bangor swimmers David Smallwood and Waddell were selected. Smallwood was the fastest swimmer in Maine high school swimming in the 200 free while Waddell won the 100 butterfly in Class A for the second consecutive
year.
•  In NCAA Division I, the University of Texas has confirmed that Kim Bracken, head coach of women’s swimming, will not be returning to Texas next year. In six years at Texas, Bracken has guided Longhorn teams to four top-10 finishes at NCAA.
• In Alabama  Eric McIIquham, coach of the Crimson Tide since 2003, has confirmed he has concluded his coaching with the Crimson Tide. The former West Virginia head coach trained the Crimson Tide swimmers to 34 school records during his tenure at Alabama.
• In Masters swimming, 51 year old Leslie Livingston, racing the 50 butterfly in a meet at the Shriver Aquatic center in Bethesda, Md., set a world record at 29.5. Livingston became the oldest female to touch under 30 seconds in the event.