The Morning Sentinel has covered many high school sports this season, and it is exciting to read about the accomplishments of local athletes.

We were greatly disappointed, however, in the poor coverage of swimming. The Lawrence swimmers were not mentioned in a single article, despite earning several top five places at KVACs, sending seven of eight athletes to the state swim meet, and having all four individual swimmers make finals.

Many swimmers from area high schools qualified for the state meets and placed high enough in preliminary heats to return for consolation and championship final races. The Sentinel’s articles about the state championships were from the Portland Press Herald, focusing primarily on southern Maine swimmers, with the exception of an outstanding Messalonskee boy who won the 500 freestyle.

Other great stories about local swimmers that the Sentinel completely missed include:

* In class B, the Winslow girls won the state sportsmanship award.

* In girls class A, Messalonskee’s Kristy Prelgovisk was third in the 100 butterfly and second in the 100 breaststroke, breaking school records in both events.

* In boys class A, Lawrence’s Sawyer Letourneau set new school records in the 50 and 100 freestyle in his first year of competitive swimming, joining his mother Shannon, who still holds Lawrence’s 50 freestyle record.

Swimming is a sport that requires dedication and hard work, and it would be heartening for our local athletes to receive more recognition for their accomplishments. Multiple school records were broken this season, and many swimmers scored for their teams at the state meet.

We hope that future stories can provide more balance in coverage of all our athletes from Central Maine. If we want to read about Southern Maine athletes, then we will buy the Portland Press Herald.

Catherine Bevier

Fairfield

Julie Millard

Albion

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