Championship season begins with PVC meets Monday night at Husson

The championship season opens for Penobscot Valley Conference swimmers and divers Monday when the PVC boys race and dive at Husson University in Bangor. Racing begins at 6 p.m. The girls compete at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Husson.
The meets were originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but were postponed due to the pending snowstorm.
Coach Phil Emery’s Bangor High teams have won 22 PVC titles in the league’s history. This year’s Rams, with a quality front line of swimmers led by David Smallwood and Liam Reading, must outrace the always speedy Mount Desert Island Trojans coached by Tony DeMuro. This year’s MDI team also has front-line quality led by Ross Johnston and Madison Luck.
“There should be some very exciting races as there are some really fast swimmers on other PVC teams,” Emery said.
Cam Fadley of Foxcroft Academy is among the fastest swimmers in the interscholastic league and can race multiple strokes and distances. Brewer’s Josh Williams is a talented backstroker and leads the Witches’ freestylers at various distances while Ellsworth’s seniors Maks Grover
and Ben Walton swim fast.
While the Rams are racing for their 23rd PVC title, Emery continues to prepare his team for the state meet.
“We are looking to qualify swimmers for the state meet and some of those who have qualified in one event to pick up a second event,” Emery said.
Meanwhile, coach Cindi Howard’s Bangor girls, led by elite racer Emma Waddell, will face challenges from a number of the PVC’s quality swimmers and will be challenged by MDI.
MDI’s Leila Johnston, a 59.3-second 10 butterflyer, will join veteran racers Erin Connery and Olivia Jacobs in challenging Bangor in relays and individual events.

College notebook

— Former Mount Desert Island High swimmer Ian Carbone, now a junior at the University of Texas, raced for the seventh-ranked Longhorns in their victory over the University of Arizona Wildcats, the No. 1 ranked team in the NCAA Division I. Carbone finished the 100 breaststroke in 55.2 for fourth  place and split 54.7 on a Longhorn 400 medley relay.
Morse High graduate James Wells finished second in the 100 back (48.8) for the eighth-ranked Indiana Hoosiers in their win over  14th-ranked Louisville. He also nabbed third in the 200 back at 1:48.1 and fifth in the 50 free in 20.8.
— Husson University’s Megan Call will close her racing for the coach Bruce Babin’s Eagles when she competes in the New England Intercollegiate Swimming Championships beginning Friday in White River Junction (Vt.) at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center. Call, a senior, will race in the 50, 100, and the 200 yard breaststroke.
— Colby College’s Kathryn Lee broke the 200 butterfly record set in 2004 when she finished in 2:10.7 in Saturday’s NESCAC meet against Bowdoin College . Vincent Galea continued his speedy swimming for the Colby men when he swam a 47.7 in the 100 yard free for a win. Bowdoin debated the Colby men.