BATH — The Cony girls swim team came here Saturday morning knowing it would need contributions from just about everybody to grab a top-three finish at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship meet.
The Rams left the Bath Area Family YMCA shortly after lunchtime with their aspirations realized.
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The deep and talented Rams flooded the pool with an abundance of top-four finishes to help secure second place at the conference championships.
“I knew that we could do this,” Cony coach Jon Millett said. “We had the team to do this. We needed everybody, and everybody stepped up for us (Saturday).”
Cony finished second to Brunswick with 224 points; the Dragons easily won the title with 339 points. Like the girls, the Brunswick boys lapped the field, scoring 335 points. Messalonskee finished second with 206 points while Cony was third with 191.
Noah Aube won two events for Cony — the 200-yard free and 500 free.
“It was a good day,” he said.
Messalonskee junior Ben Thibert won the 200 individual medley in 2 minutes, 7.59 seconds. He was also third in the 100 butterfly (1:00.12). Messalonskee senior Kristy Pelgovisk won the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.75.
Caitlin Tycz, Emma Blair and Lynsie Russell each won a pair of events to lead the Brunswick girls. Tycz won the 100 butterfly in 54.72 and the 50 free in 23.95. Russell took the 200 free (1:58.62) and 500 free (5:22.46) while Blair won the 100 backstroke (1:05.24) and 100 free (56.54).
Nate Samson won the 50 free in 21.51, which set a KVAC A record, and the 100 backstroke (51.37) to lead the Brunswick boys.
“We knew Brunswick was going to be pretty tough,” Millett said.
So, too, were the Rams.
Aube, a junior, easily won the 500 free in 5:14.01 — more than 20 seconds faster than runner-up Andrew Samson of Brunswick.
“I led the whole way,” Aube said. “I expected to win but it was hard. It’s a lot easier when you have someone pushing you.”
Aube certainly had that in the 200 free, in which he edged Mathew Charest of Lewiston by 15 hundredths of a second. Aube finished in 1:51.22.
“If the race were a few yards, he would’ve beaten me,” Aube said. “It was a great race. It was close.”
The Cony girls opened the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay. Anne Guadalupi, Molly Silsby, Abby Lenko and Annie Brannigan finished the race in 2:03.97.
It would be the only event — relay or individual — that Cony would win all day, although Guadalupi likely would’ve contended for the backstroke title had a music commitment not cut her day short.
Still, the Rams had more than enough depth to pick up the points it needed to finish second.
Freshman Haley Gagne was third in the 200 free (2:10.01) and fourth in the 500 free (6:02.11).
“I don’t think we thought we could get second,” she said. “We were thinking top four. But we just kept our energy up and we all had some great swims.”
Tara Jorgensen and Abreal Whitman, both freshmen, finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 200 individual medley. Silsby finished third in the 50 free (28.84) and Guadalupi was third in the 200 butterfly (1:01.25).
Guadalupi, Jorgensen, Whitman and Gagne also led the 200 free relay team to a second-place finish with a time of 1:51.44.
“It wasn’t just one person for us,” Millet said. “We got strong performances from everybody, but I knew we could do this.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
Twitter: @billstewartkj
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