Bow and Concord headlined an area swim meet at the Concord YMCA Friday evening, also featuring Belmont, Gilford and Laconia.

The Falcons finished atop the girls’ leaderboard, and the Tide finished atop the boys’.

Bow’s Emily Hou placed first in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle (30.26 seconds), and Hailey Mauro finished first in the 100-yard freestyle (1:12.52). The Falcons’ quartet of Hou, Jessica Birnbaum, Olivia Shippos and Maya Owen also won the girls’ 200-yard medley relay (2:35.40), finishing nearly 30 seconds ahead of second-place Gilford.

“I am super excited about the Bow girls’ win,” said Falcons coach Julie Guerrette. “We knew going in that this was going to be a great meet for Bow. Our entire team was dialed in and capitalized on the strategy we knew we would need to execute for the team win.”

The showing from the Bow girls’ team was made all the more impressive by the fact that they have just nine swimmers, Guerrette added.

“The girls’ team win means a lot because with a small meet like this, and a small team, there is little-to-no rest for the swimmers between events,” she said. “Junior Olivia Shippos swam in the winning 200-medley relay, only to turn around and swim the 500-free, then jump out and transition to swim one of the legs in the 400-free relay. Several of our swimmers had to do the same thing. Junior Anna Fellers, sophomore Emily Hou and freshman Hailey Mauro would win their individual races and then would scramble back for a breathless turnaround to contribute to a relay.”

Guerrette also noted the performances of Birnbaum, a senior captain, sophomores Sabine Karough and Maya David and freshman Caitlyn Johnson, helping add depth to accumulate points in individual events and relays.

In addition to their success on the girls’ side, the lone Bow boys’ swimmer, sophomore David Owen, set personal best times in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events (31.09, 1:11.10). 

Meanwhile, Concord had swimmers finish first in three contested events.

David Wicks won the boys’ 200-yard freestyle (2:46.51), Piper Kuepper won the 50-yard freestyle (29.44) and Molly Mosgrober won the girls’ 100-yard backstroke (1:26.09).

Among other notable local participants, Belmont’s Maddie Wineriter placed first in the girls’ 200-yard freestyle (2:24.40), and Kyle Dumais won the boys’ 100-yard freestyle (51.37) by over 15 seconds.

Belmont’s Ella Wineriter took first in the girls’ 100-yard breaststroke (1:21.40) as well.