By STEVE MAZZONE
Sports writer
CUMBERLAND – Bruce Calvert was not fooled. The Cumberland High swim coach has been around long enough to know better.
During last week’s Bay View Invitational, Calvert’s girls’ team finished third overall and first among Rhode Island squads. Taking fourth in the meet – 13 points behind - was La Salle Academy.
The two Division I powerhouses met once again on Thursday afternoon with their undefeated records on the line. Even though he has some depth this winter with 16 strong swimmers on his roster of 32, Calvert felt the Rams were just as equal or, perhaps, slightly more talented than his Clippers despite the final standings of the Bay View meet on Jan. 15. 
“They have a lot of good depth,” he said. “Although we finished ahead of them at Bay View, I think that was deceiving. (La Salle head coach Jeff Lenihan) concentrated on the three relays at the Bay View meet so that left four of his good swimmers out of the individual events. That’s something he wasn’t going to do today. He couldn’t do that.”
And he didn’t.
Led by a dominating performance in the freestyle events, La Salle kept it perfect mark intact, defeating the host Clippers, 58-36. The Rams improved to 8-0 for the season, while the Clippers dropped to 8-1.
“I thought this would be our toughest meet of the season, and it was,” Leninhan said. “Today, we were just stronger than them in the freestyle events. But this is not a meet I’ll underestimate when we go to the state championships – not at all. Cumberland is a very strong team and their coach is very good.”
In the six freestyle events, which included two relays, La Salle racked up 37 points of its total.
Kaitlin Reilly, a Cumberland resident, earned two individual triumphs. Reilly took first in the 50 freestyle with a fast time of 25.30 seconds and out-distanced the competition with a convincing victory in the 100 freestyle with a 56.68 clocking. The La Salle senior also swam a leg on the first-place 200 and 400 freestyle relays, which registered times of 1:46.22 and 4:02.54, respectively.
Lenihan admitted he had trouble sleeping the night before the big meet and wasn’t totally confident his squad would come out on top until the 500 freestyle. In that race – the seventh of 11 events - the sister duo of Carliegh and Courtney Haron claimed the top two spots to give the Rams a comfortable 36-22 edge. Carleigh Haron finished the race with a winning time of 5:44.01.
“I just looked at the results from the Bay View Invitational and the state championship last year and bulked up the lineup the best that I could,” Lenihan said. “If there were a couple of changes made on both sides – if I did a couple of things differently, if Cumberland did a few things differently - Cumberland could be sitting on top of this meet as well.”
“It worked out okay,” Calvert said. “It just wasn’t enough.”
Brooke Smalley, a junior, copped two events for the Clippers. She took the 200 intermediate (2:18.33) and the 100 backstroke (1:02.27). The talented junior also swam the opening leg on the Clippers’ victorious 200 medley relay of Meg Boebinger, Erin Mitchell and Katie Beauregard. The quartet combined for a time of 1:58.11.
Only a freshman, Boebinger earned the only other Cumberland win by placing first in the 100 butterfly. (1:03.31). Smalley and Boebinger are among the state’s elite in their respective events.
“Brooke’s ranked about third right now in the 100 backstroke and Meg’s ranked about second in the 100 fly,” Calvert said. “They were close to their best times (today). It wasn’t their best times, but they were pretty close.”
This winter, Cumberland and La Salle are off to their best starts in recent memory. The Clippers lost just four seniors from last year’s team. According to Calvert, the addition of Boebinger has certainly helped in his squad’s success.
“She was a big plus,” he said. “She moved here from Ohio this year. Matter of fact, her times are faster as an eighth-grader than they are right now. She has a little bit of a knee problem that holds her back a little bit. She’s a tough kid.”