PORTSMOUTH — With the regular season winding down, Saturday’s four-team swim meet at Portsmouth High School meant different things to different swimmers and teams.

It served as a final tune up for the state meet for many swimmers, and a last chance to qualify for the state meet for others. And for those who haven’t qualified, it was their last chance to improve on personal records and help their teams fight for a team win.

Portsmouth hosted Saint Thomas Aquinas, Spaulding High School and Exeter High School. Exeter finished the day 3-0, with Portsmouth 2-1, Saint Thomas 1-2, and Spaulding 0-3 in the round-robin, head-to-head matchups.

For swimmers like Exeter’s Hannah Lord and Tony Min, who have already qualified for the state meet in a number of events, the Portsmouth meet served as an opportunity to add to that total. But that was not the focus of either swimmer on Saturday.

“Our goal is to have a good, strong meet,” Lord said. “We want to help other kids on our team to get cut times. It’s going well, too. We’ve had a lot of new people make states today.”

Exeter Coach Jacqui Redmond said the meet provided a great opportunity for her team to face tough challenges from quality local teams and individuals.

“Our season has been thrown off a lot by weather,” she said. “We’ve had to reschedule a couple meets and cancel one, so this was only our fourth meet. We’ve been trying to balance being as competitive as we can with placing as many swimmers in as many different events as we can for the state meet.”

She said her team has not been challenged a lot during the season due to the large numbers, but Saturday many of her individual swimmers faced stiff competition in several events.

“It was nice today knowing we would be challenged and wouldn’t win every event,” she said. “That is good for the kids to know before we get into states, where we won’t compete directly with some of these great swimmers. Portsmouth and Saint Thomas are in Division II, but we will see other great swimmers, so it was good for our kids to be pushed today. It was a good reminder that states aren’t just going to be handed to them.”

For Portsmouth junior Cassidy Perkins, a trip to the state meet is not in her future, but her motivation on Saturday was to continue improving with an eye toward her senior season. Perkins made a big jump in the right direction, shaving half a second off her best time in the 50 meter freestyle.

“It’s awesome knowing that every race I’m improving,” she said. “This is my first year swimming and I’ve been working to get better and improve through the year. It’s nice to see it is paying off. I am excited because I think next year will be even better.”

Perkins’ teammate Luke Shore came into Saturday not having qualified for states either, but by the time he left the home pool, he was locked into both the 100 meter back stroke and the 200 meter freestyle.

“We have seven girls qualified and four boys qualified for states,” said Portsmouth coach Sue McNamara. “(Shore) qualified in two events, which was awesome, because he hadn’t qualified before today. Maggie Cassily also posted her best time in the 50 freestyle.”

McNamara lauded Cassily and her twin sister Sophie for their strong performances, and Nora Mitchell, who won the 200 freestyle.

Saint Thomas senior Addy Kennamer was down to her final regular season meet and had not qualified for the state meet yet entering Saturday. She made the most of her last chance, however, qualifying in both the200 meter IM and 100 meter breast stroke.

“It feels great,” Kennamer said. “Last year at states we got co-champions, so this year we are hoping to go in with a good attitude and hopefully win.”

She pointed out that the more events the Saints get qualified swimmers entered into, the better their chances of getting that coveted championship.

“We had a few girls that still needed cut times,” said Saint Thomas coach Becky Maloney. “The team knew that it was crunch time, and they were running out of time and they stood up well under the pressure.”

The Saints will send nine girls and three boys to the state meet. Another Saint who found his way into a state qualifying spot was freshman Dylan O’Connor, who joined the team as a diver and has been learning how to swim all year.

“He didn’t know how to swim, and Max (Reich) and Brendan (Sullivan) have been working with him at the end of each practice,” Maloney said. “Now he will be at states racing on a relay team.”

“I’m figuring out what to do,” O’Connor said. “I’m completely new to swimming and at first I was doing everything wrong. Now I feel like I’m getting the gist of it.”

The state meet is familiar territory to Spaulding’s MacKenzie Brady. Brady was the lone Red Raider swimmer to reach the state meet last year, and she is currently the only Spaulding representative this year. But she has a few teammates who are hoping to join her after Wednesday’s last chance meet at the University of New Hampshire.

“All season we have looked for improvement, whether that be in an event, or even in a turn or a lap,” said Spaulding coach Bonnie Lachance. “Sometimes improvement means they tried a new stroke, or took on a new challenge, and we have seen that from this team all year. We saw it today as well.”

“The support from my team is the biggest thing that motivates me,” Brady said. “They push me toward making states, and I compete for them.”

Individual event winners from Exeter were Min (200 IM, 100 fly), Reagan Lord (200 IM, 100 breast), Hannah Lord (100 fly, 100 free), Brady Dixon (100 free), Mason Pomoroy (400 free), Erin Madden (400 free), Thomas Choquette (50 free), and Hadleigh Weber (100 free). Portsmouth got wins from Mitchell (200 free) and Maggie Cassily (50 free, 100 back). Saint Thomas’ individual winners included Reich (200 free, 100 breast) and Sullivan (50 free, 100 back).