Maine Swimming Long Course Meter Championship
- July 15-17, 2022
- Colby College, Waterville, ME
- Long Course Meters (LCM)
- Full Results
A total of 367 swimmers gathered at Colby College in Waterville, Maine the weekend of July 15th-17th for Maine Swimming’s first-ever long course meet.
Normally, Maine club swimmers travel to St John, Canada for their end-of-season, long course meets because until August 2020, Maine had no long course pools. That began to change in 2017 when Colby College started building a new athletic facility, a project that included a nine lane, 50-meter pool and was estimated to cost a total of $200 million. The pool officially opened in August 2020 amidst COVID-19 pandemic restrictions which limited competition.
The inaugural Maine Swimming (MESI) Long Course Championship meet featured 16 teams from Maine and two teams from New England. About 100 of the athletes lived in the Colby College dorms and were fed in the dining halls for the duration of the competition to make it a convenient experience, MESI office manager Mary Tynan told SwimSwam. Colby College is already planning to host multiple long course meets for Maine Swimming next year and the second annual Maine Swimming Long Course Meter Championship is scheduled for the summer of 2023.
Brynn Lavigueur courtesy of Mary Tynan
A total of nine MESI records were broken over three days of racing in Waterville and 14-year-old Brynn Lavigueur of Westbrook Seals took down almost half of them. She won the girls’ 13-14 50 free (27.38), 100 free (1:00.99), 50 back (30.22), and 100 back (1:06.84). The oldest record she cracked was Abbie King’s 50 free record from 2000 which she shaved .10 off of. In the 100 free, Lavigueur took down Caitlin Tycz’s record from 2014 by .11. She broke her final two MESI records by more than one second each, crushing her own 50 back record from last summer by 1.3 seconds and Alex Ericson’s 100 back record from 2019 by 1.4 seconds. Lavigueur’s times in the 100 back and 50 free were her first Futures qualifying cuts.
Left to right: Quinn Schwab, Ethan Schulz, Ian Fournier courtesy of Mary Tynan
The meet was a breaststroke bonanza with three other MESI records crumbling in the 50 breaststroke. Southern Maine Aquatic Club’s Audrey Cohen broke the girls’ 15-16 record set by Cecilia Guadalupi in 2018 by more than one second with a time of 33.41. Kennebec Valley YMCA’s Ian Fournier cracked the 15-16 record on the boys’ side with a 30.02, taking down Nick Partridge’s record from July 2021 by .60. Down East Family YMCA’s Partridge, now 17 years old, swam a 29.77 to break the 17-18 boys’ record which was set at 30.06 by Liam Sullivan in 2018.
Mid Maine Dolphins-Waterville broke the final two MESI records in relay events. Their team of Elsa LaPlante, Isabella Lebovitz, Luke Strahorn, and Stephen Dryer won the 10&U Mixed Medley relay with a time of 2:51.58 to set a new record while Caden LaPlante, Owen Phelps-Scholz, Joseph Branaugh, and Ian Lane broke the boys’ 11-12 4×100 medley relay record with a time of 5:30.11. They crushed the previous mark set by Long Reach Swim Club by 25 seconds.
After three days of competition, Kennebec Valley YMCA topped the overall team scores with a total of 3315 points.
KVY Head Coach Mike Schmidt courtesy of Mary Tynan
Overall Team Scores (Top Eight)
- Kennebec Valley YMCA – 3315
- Coastal Maine Aquatics – 2167.5
- Westbrook Seals – 2024
- Mid Maine Dolphins-Waterville – 1740.5
- Portland Porpoise Swim Club – 1706.5
- North Shore Swim Club – 1399.5
- Long Reach Swim Club / Bath YMCA – 1223
- JCC Sea Serpents – 975
Pretty sure they travel to St John not St Johns…