Last year, the Edward Little/Leavitt boys swimming team finished sixth at the Class A state championship. Now the team is ready to challenge for a state title Tuesday at Bowdoin College.

With the majority of the team back, head coach Scott Morrison said there’s a difference between last season’s team and this season’s squad.

“We are just faster,” Morrison said. “We have broken six or seven of our team records this year. We are just simply faster.”

Chase Leonardo, Gavin Holbrook, Andrew Casares and Isaac Raymond broke the 200-yard medley program record with a time of 1:43.63 last Saturday at the KVAC Class A championships. Casares, Leonardo, Holbrook and Jack Martel set the 200 freestyle relay program record (1:35.56) at the Lesley Martin and Chris Campbell Memorial Swim Meet.

Casares also holds the 100-yard butterfly record (53.47) and 200-yard individual medley top mark (2:02.30).

Leonardo has etched his name on the 100-yard backstroke (58.41) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.00) records.

Leonardo, a sophomore, and Casares, a senior, have been battling all season with each other. Casares had the breaststroke record up until the KVACs, when Leonardo overtook him.

Morrison said there will be another showdown next week between the two.

“I think the 200 IM will be a toss-up between Andrew and Chase; they are one-two,” Morrison said. “It wouldn’t shock me if one of them went under two minutes.”

Edward Little/Leavitt’s Andrew Casares does the backstroke leg of the 200 yard individual medley on Feb. 2 at the Bates College pool in Lewiston during a meet against Lewiston High School. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Morrison could see the 200 medley relay time drop and a new team record in the 400-yard freestyle relay could also happen.

Raymond ranks in the top eight in both events he’s competing in: the 200 and 500 freestyle races. Jack Martel is in the top 16 in the 200 IM and the 100-yard backstroke.

Scarborough, the defending Class A champion, is the team Edward Little/Leavitt is keeping an eye on.

“In the very first event, the 200 medley relay, Scarborough is ranked number one and we are ranked number two in the state,” Morrison said. “In the 200 freestyle relay, we are ranked number one in the state and they are ranked number two. In the 400 freestyle relay, they are ranked number one and we are ranked number two.”

Morrison said he isn’t sure who’s swimming in what relays because that’s decided on the day of the meet.

Morrison said he has coached some great individual swimmers but never had the collection of talent on the boys team in his 20-plus years of coaching.

“This is, by far, absolutely the best team and the fastest team I have coached,” Morrison said.

MULTITUDE OF QUALIFIERS UNDER MORRISON’S WATCH

Highlighting the Edward Little/Leavitt girls team competing at states are Mya Vincent and Jaylee Boucher.

They will take the pool on Monday at Bowdoin.

Vincent is in the top 16 in the 50 and 100 freestyle races. Boucher will be in the 200 freestyle race.

From the beginning of the season, Morrison wanted the girls team to have a presence at the state championship.

“My goal is to score some points at this meet,” Morrison said. “That’s still my goal, that Mya, Jaylee and the girls that swim in the relays score points.”

Piper Bonnefond, Ashlyn Holbrook, Olivia Turgeon and Olivia Casares will help with the relay events.

Morrison also coaches swimmers from St. Dom’s, Hebron, Lisbon, Gray-New Gloucester and Poland. He said Emma Frumiento of Hebron is going to be a factor in individual events.

Frumiento, last year’s Sun Journal All-Region Girls Swimmer of the Year, finished fifth in the 50-yard freestyle (26.22) and 11th in the 100 free (1:00.53) at last year’s Class A state championships.

At the KVACs last week, she went 25.77 in the 50, which was the fastest time in the event. She also competed in the 100-yard butterfly and finished with the fourth-fastest time (1:08.40).

On Monday, she’s seeded second in the 50 freestyle and seventh in the 100 butterfly.

“What Emma has worked on this year is swimming in a variety of events,” Morrison said. “Last year at states, she swam the 50 and 100 free, but this year, we focused more on the fly.”

Ian Scott of Gray-New Gloucester and Cameron Lemieux of Poland are also swimming at states.

Scott qualified for the 100 butterfly and Lemieux is in the top five for the 50 freestyle and in the top ten in the 100 backstroke.

Morrison wants to see their times drop, just like the rest of the swimmers he coaches.

“Our mottos is: United we swim,” Morrison said. “All we are trying to do is encourage faster swimming. Our number one rule is to have fun while you are doing it.”

FRESHMEN LEAD THE WAY FOR LEWISTON GIRLS

Lewiston will only have a handful of girls competing in individual and relay events on Monday.

Freshmen Gabby Roy and Klara Cloutier will be competing individually. Roy won the 100 butterfly (1:02.69) at KVACs and enters the state championship as the second-ranked swimmer in the state in the event. She finished second in the 50 freestyle (25.94) at KVACS. She’s fifth in the state in the event.

Cloutier is seeded 13th in the 200 freestyle and 16th in the 100 backstroke for the state championships.

“I am pleased with the outcome they had this season,” Lewiston coach Troy Boutin said. “As a coach, that is exactly what you hope to see. They have cut some time off their events over the regular season. We entered our tapered period and they dropped even more chunk of time, which is great to see. ”

Joining Roy and Cloutier for relay events are Amber Landry, Gabby Gladu, Bri Letourneau and Chloe Trembley.