WATERVILLE, Maine -- The Bates women swam away with their sixth first-place finish in the six-year history of the Maine State Swimming & Diving Meet, while the Bates men's team finished third, behind Bowdoin and Colby respectively, as the two-day meet concluded Saturday at Colby.
The Bates women finished the meet with 1,209.5 points, outdistancing runner-up Colby (1008), followed by Bowdoin (785), the University of Maine (555.5), the University of New England (134), Maine Maritime Academy (88) and Husson (6). The Bates men scored 967.5 points, trailing Bowdoin (1129) and Colby (1105.5) while scoring well ahead of Maine (277), Maine Maritime (105), University of New England (24) and Husson (2).
On Saturday, the Bates women won state championships in the following events:
- Sophomore Natalie Young (Windham, N.H.) set a pool record with a time of 4:33.81 while winning the 400 yard individual medley. Young also won the 200 yard butterfly in 2:08.83.
- Senior Isabel Mohammadi-Hall (Saratoga, Calif.) set a pool record with a time of 58.37 while winning the 100 yard butterfly.
- Sophomore Grace Wenger (Hanover, N.H.) set a meet and pool record with an NCAA B Cut time of 1:51.86 in the 200 yard freestyle. The Bobcats took five of the top six places in the race.
- First-year Sophie Cassily (Rye, N.H.) set a pool record with a winning time of 56.62 in the 100 yard backstroke and she took home the title in the 200 yard backstroke as well in an NCAA B Cut time of 2:01.44.
- Sophomore Julia Johnson (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) took home the state title in the 1650 yard freestyle with a meet record time of 17:18.47.
- Junior Abigail Gibbons (Westtown, N.Y.) won the 100 yard IM with a meet record time of 59.51.
- First-year Sophia Carrai (Eugene, Ore.), senior Caroline Sweeney (New Canaan, Conn.) Cassily and Wenger teamed up to set a meet record while winning the 400 yard freestyle relay in 3:30.75.
On Friday, the women won state championships in a pair of events. Gibbons, sophomore
Marjorie McLeod (Durham, Maine), Carrai and Cassily won the 200-yard freestyle relay in a meet record time of 1:35.41 and senior
Maya Reynoso Williams (Somerville, Mass.) set a pool record in the 500 yard freestyle, winning in 5:04.38.
On Saturday, the Bates men won state championships in the following events:
- Junior Edmond Giang (Wayland, Mass.) took home the title in the 100 yard butterfly in 50.31 seconds.
- Junior Nathan Berry (Augusta, Maine) won the 100 yard backstroke in 50.16 seconds and the 100 yard freestyle in 46.50 seconds.
On Friday, Giang also took home the state championship in the 50 yard butterfly, winning in a personal-best 22.74 seconds.
The Bobcats go on their annual training trip to Florida later this month before returning to competition on Saturday, January 8 when the women and men travel to Saint Michael's College for a meet that gets underway at 2pm.
