Pony girls battle to sixth-place finish at Class B swimming championship

    ORONO — Sophomore Julia Annis and freshman Avery Carroll led a cast of six young Foxcroft Academy swimmers to a sixth-place finish at the Girls Class B State Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Maine on Feb. 19. The Ponies’ 130 total points outpaced 19 of 25 teams.

    Annis was a narrow runnerup in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard breaststroke, netting 34 individual points for the Ponies. Annis swam the 50 freestyle in 25.06 seconds, just over half a second behind Leila Johnson of Mount Desert Island High School’s time of 24.54 seconds. In the 100 breaststroke Annis was less than a second behind first-place swimmer Sonia Lin of North Yarmouth Academy, 1:07.33 to 1:06.73.

Avery Carroll

    Foxcroft freshman Avery Carroll was not far behind Annis’ performance, earning 28 points with a fourth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.37 and a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:03.82. Freshman Gabie Johnson was excellent as well, picking up 12 points by placing 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:16.81) and 12th in the 200-yard IM (2:29.10).

    In relay action, Johnson, Annis, Carroll and sophomore Jenny Boyer picked up 32 big points with a third-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay (2:00.32) while Carroll, freshman Madison Fadley, junior Allie Bradshaw and Boyer added 24 points with a seventh-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:58.00).

    MDI won the girls’ title with a score of 295.5 points, ahead of the 280 for Greely High School of Cumberland and 234.5 for third-place Camden Hills High School. The state title was the fourth in program history for the MDI girls.

    In the boys Class B state championship on Feb. 18 at the University of Maine there was no stopping Foxcroft Academy senior Cameron Fadley, who dominated his competition in the 200 IM and 100 freestyle en route to earning Performer of the Meet honors for the second year in a row as voted on by the coaches. Fadley set a meet record in winning the 200 IM in 1:55.77, about five seconds ahead of Greely’s Jonathan Dunnett who swam a time of 2:00.75. Fadley swam the 100 freestyle in 47.49 seconds, 2.5 seconds better than the field

    Fadley’s commanding performance added two more state titles to his resume, which already included state titles in the 200 IM from his sophomore and junior years, a state title in the 100 breaststroke last year, a Performer of the Meet distinction at last winter’s state meet and a Class B Swimmer of the Year award last season.

Clay Carroll

    At the Feb. 18 meet, Fadley and sophomore Clay Carroll combined to score 49 points, leading the Ponies to a tie for the 13th-place finish with Old Town High School — out of 24 competing schools.

    Carroll just missed qualifying for the championship final in the 100-yard breaststroke but took care of business in the consolation final, touching the wall first to earn nine points for the Ponies. Carroll swam the event in a time of 1:08.23.

    Greely claimed the boys’ title with a score of 303 points, while MDI was second with 247 points and Ellsworth High School came in third with 201, Greely took home top honors for the fourth year in a row, and the school won its ninth boys state swimming crown.