Forty-two Boothbay Region YMCA Dolphin swimmers swam their tails off at the YMCA State Championship swim meet February 28-March 2, at the Wallace Pool, University of Maine. Over seven sessions and 28 hours of racing, Boothbay swam to its highest placement in recent years with the boys team placing 13th with 428.8 points and the girls team finishing 14 with 323 points.

Boothbay had swimmers in each of the seven sessions and hauled in an impressive amount of trophies awarded to the top eight swimmers (34), best times, relays (12), ribbons, and heat winner ribbons.

The swimmers counting individual and relay events improved by a little over 200 seconds for an amazing combined 1500-plus seconds (25 minutes) over the course of the season. This was the first state championship meet for many of our swimmers and they handled it like pros. As a team, out of the 75 individual events, we only had one disqualification out of the 131 total disqualifications at the meet. We are a very young team with our largest numbers and strengths in the 8 and under and 9-10 age groups. That, along with only one graduating swimmer, bodes well for next October when we start up for the 2014-2015 season.

Boothbay girls team results

8 and under: Callan Eason was the overall champion in 50 free with a final time of 36.89 and got right back behind the block and won the next event as well the 25 backstroke with a time of 19.99. Callan teamed up with Lydia Currier, Piper Carleton and Catherine Clifford to place second in the 100 free relay. Piper Carleton and Lydia Currier placed 12th and 13th in the 100 individual medley (IM), and Piper also picked up a 13th in the 25 breaststroke. First-year swimmers Hattie Moss, Hannah Hills, Catherine Clifford and Madison Phelps placed 13th in the 100 medley relay.

9-10: Emilie Crocker, Megan Clifford, Arden Carleton and Zoe Eason placed 8th in the 200 medley relay. Zoe Eason placed 13th with a six-second drop in the 100 free and qualified for the Junior Olympics meet in the 50, 100, and 200 free. Arden Carleton and Alyson Shook both had three- to four-second improvements in the 50 fly. Meghan Clifford placed 15th in the 50 breaststroke and led off the 15th place 200 free relay with Alyson Shook, Marissa Peters and Maren Whitney.

11-12: Ella Yentsch placed 7th and 8th in the 50 and 200 free dropping time in both. Emma Hodgdon had personal bests in the 50 breaststroke, 50 free and 100 free. Hannah Witwicki took almost eight seconds off her 100 IM and 50 fly.

13-14 and Senior: Samantha Carter, Lincoln Hamblett, Nicole LaBrecque and Emma Pearce came in 9th in the 200 medley relay. Evy Case swam to 7th place in the 13-14 girls 200 IM and 13th in the 100 breaststroke. Nicole LaBrecque had a three second personal best in the Senior girls 100 fly, placing 11th. Samantha Carter had a six-second drop to secure 16th place in the Senior girls 200 IM.  Emma Pearce, Lincoln Hamblett, Evy Case and Nicole LaBrecque placed 9th in the 200 free relay.

Boothbay boys team results

8 and under: Gryffin Kristan was the overall champion of the boys 8 and under 100 IM with a time of 1:37.45 and won the 25 breaststroke with a time of 21.47. The 100 medley relay team of Charlie Moss, Duncan Hardwick, Gryffin Kristan and Rafael Goldhirsch placed 3rd. Rafael Goldhirsch placed 10th in the 25 free. Wyatt Lorrain had a personal best in the 25 free while his brother Jackson Lorrain placed 11th in the 25 fly. Charlie Moss earned an 8th place finish in the 25 back. Noah Chamberlain had a 2.8-second drop in his 50 free.

9-10: Sixteen trophies (top 8 swims) were pooled between the six swimmers in this age group. Ben Pearce, Lucas Hardwick, Jameson LaBrecque and Chris Hamblett placed 4th in the 200 medley relay. The team of Chris Hamblett, Gareth Hodgdon, Lucas Hardwick and Henry Currier placed 2nd in the 200 free relay. Ben Pearce placed 6th in the 50 back and 7th in the 50 free. Chris Hamblett placed 4th in the 100 free, qualifying him for the New England meet. Jameson LaBrecque placed 3rd in the 50 breaststroke and 5th in the 50 fly. Lucas Hardwick placed 7th in the 50 breaststroke. Henry Currier placed 4th in the 100 IM and 5th in the 50 breaststroke. Gareth Hodgdon dropped a combined 19 seconds from his 100 free and 100 IM and finished a respectable 17th in both.

11-12: Adam Sirois, Tim Norton, Ethan Barter and Ethan Thompson captured 10th place in the 200 free relay. Ethan Thompson had an astounding almost nine second drop in his 50 breaststroke to glide into 16th place. Adam Sirois dropped time in his 50 free and 50 fly. Rowan Kristan placed 10th and 12th in the 50 and 100 free.

Senior: Austin Crocker, our only graduating senior, had a combined 11 second drop over his 200 and 500 free placing 16th in the 200. This was his fifth state championship. He was honored with other seniors at the meet. He plans to attend Eastern Maine Community College and compete in masters swimming with his brother Calvin.

Coaches, parents and teammates are very proud of all their accomplishments in an out of the pool this season. Next up we have five or six swimmers competing at New England YMCA Championships in Boston, March 15-16. We also have swimmers competing at Junior Olympics at Bowdoin College March 13-16. The Boothbay Dolphins swim banquet will be held in the Coastal Club room at the YMCA March 28 from 5 to 8 p.m. 

We will be having a Family, Alumni and Friends Fun meet Saturday, March 29 open to all ages and abilities (2 length swim assessment for swimmers under 18). Warm up, 11 a.m.; start time, noon. We will have a variety of fun events, swimming events, and relays. The entry fee is $10 for three individual events and $5 for each additional event up to 5 with the proceeds going to the Dolphins swim team.