Brewer swimmers participate in Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge

At their recent competition with John Bapst Memorial High, coach Kathy Cahill’s Brewer High swimmers and divers actively engaged the Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge, an outreach of the American Cancer Society.
The Brewer team constructed a Wall of Remembrance at the Bangor Y pool, honoring all those touched by the disease. In addition, a Brewer swimmer assembled literature on the disease and treatment information. This information was available to the public attending the meet.
Brewer’s racing caps for the meet were not the team’s traditional black and orange. Instead, Cahill’s swimmers raced in pink caps to promote awareness of the disease.
Since 1993, the Coaches vs. Cancer program has raised  $87 million for the American Cancer Society. Cahill recognized not only her swimmers’ initiatives, but also the supportive response of the Crusader swimmers.

Smiths are diving leaders
With Maine’s interscholastic season entering the final weeks of the dual-meet season prior to the opening of championship season, divers Will Smith of Mount Desert High and Jack Smith of Belfast High are ranked as leaders in interscholastic diving regardless of class.
Smith has scored 212.70 points to lead the state in six dives while Smith has the state’s second highest total at 201.60 points.
MDI swimmer Ross Johnson has emerged among the state’s leaders in multiple events. The senior is fourth in the 200 individual medley (2 minutes, 3 seconds), sixth in the 100 free (50.1) and fourth in the 100 back (55.4).
Meanwhile, Brewer’s Josh Williams’ 54.52 in the 100 back is one-hundredth off the state leader’s 54.51 by Jerome Gravel of Scarborough. Interestingly, Bangor’s Liam Reading is slightly more than a second behind Gravel, also the state leader in the breaststroke.
Reading’s teammate, junior David Smallwood, continues to swim with the state’s fastest. At 1:47.8 in the 200 free, he is fourth behind the state’s leader, Trevor Lawton of Cheverus, and  he also is second in the 50 free at 22.2. Smallwood’s 50 free  is the fastest swum at Bangor High since Scott Loukes’ 22.1 in 2002 and the third fastest in the history of Ram racing.

Swimming notebook
— Emma Waddell of Bangor swims fast. The junior speedster leads the state in four events. (200 free 1:56.8), (200 individual medley 2:09.8), (100 free 54.3), and (500 free 5:14). Waddell and her Ram teammates close out their dual-meet season this week against Old Town.
— The Maine Black Bear women conclude their dual-meet season at the University of New Hampshire Friday in a 5 pm. meet. UNH’s Jenni Roberts of Sanford High was recently named the American East Swimmer of the Meet for the third time this season.
The transfer from the University of Maryland established a UNH pool record in the 200 free at 1:50.7 earlier this month.
— In Waterville, Colby’s Vincent Gale continues to race fast for the Mules. In the Mules’ loss to Trinity, he sped to a 21.9 in the 50 free.
— One of the Maine’s most veteran and longest serving swim coaches is Gary Theriault, in his 34th year of coaching Orono High swimming. The former Bangor High swimmer has two recent Orono swimmers, Lauren and Cameron Dwyer, competing for UMaine. Lauren swims backstroke and freestyle while her brother Cameron races in the various stroke events.