Big 3 Leads Saline to Championship No. 4
March 9, 2013
By Greg Chrapek
Special for Second Half
HOLLAND – Although they were led by a trio of seniors who each won two individual events, a fourth consecutive MHSAA title was anything but a sure thing for Saline at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final at the Holland Aquatic Center.
Saline’s big three of seniors Adam Whitener, Josh Ehrman and David Boland came up big when they needed, and every point proved valuable as the Hornets edged fellow Division 1 powerhouse Birmingham Brother Rice by three points, 313-309, to claim their fourth consecutive title.
With points at a premium, the Hornets rallied and in the final event finished in fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay to clinch the championship.
“There was a lot of pressure, but I actually enjoy it,” Ehrman said. “We knew we had to go fast in every race, and we had to win. When you are put under that kind of pressure, you know you have to perform.”
Ehrman did his part and then some for the Hornets as he won two individual titles and was part of two relay teams that also won.
Ehrman teamed up with Boland and fellow seniors Michael Bundas and Lucas Allen to start things off in a big way Saturday by winning the 200-yard medley relay in an all-division Finals record time of 1:30.01.
Ehrman also won the 200-yard IM in an all-division Finals record time of 1:47.86 and broke his own all-division record time in the 100-yard breaststroke, winning in 55.31.
His success was something the Hornets were able to count on like clockwork since he joined the team his freshman season.
“Josh is a champion swimmer,” Saline coach Todd Brunty said. “The only races he lost during his high school career were two races his freshman year to a nationally-ranked swimmer.”
The Hornets’ key race Saturday was the ninth, the 200-yard freestyle relay. Ehrman teamed up with Bundas, Whitener and fellow senior Stefan Koberl to capture the championship in 1:23.92, another LP Division 1 meet record.
“When we won the 200-free relay, our guys believed they could do it,” Brunty said. “The door was still open, and that was all we needed was that crack to get through.
“Being a four-time state champion feels pretty good right now. It was a hard-fought win. Brother Rice is a very good team, and to go through the adversity that we did on Friday says a lot about this team. We didn’t have some of our best swims on Friday, and we had about 40 points to make up going into today. But the guys stayed steady and stayed strong, and they were able to overcome that deficit.”
Another key to success for the Hornets was the performance of their divers. Three Saline divers finished among the top 11, giving the team key points needed to erase the deficit.
Senior diver Sam Blair finished second overall to senior Nick Nicoletti of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern. Nicoletti totaled 442.30 points, while Blair finished with 428.50. Senior Dustin Wall finished sixth in diving for Saline, while freshman Alex Calder placed 11th.
They complemented well the efforts of the trio of senior leaders who amazingly were part of eight of the 12 race championships.
Whitener capped his career at Saline by winning the 200-yard freestyle in 1:38.31 and taking the 100-yard freestyle in 44.65.
Boland also claimed two races and set two new Division 1 meet records in the process. He won the 100-yard backstroke in a record time of 49.75 and captured the 100-yard butterfly in a record time of 48.59. Boland also swam the first leg of the 200-yard medley relay that, in finishing first, set the tone for the day.
“I just wanted to get out and get everybody pumped up,” Boland said. “I wanted to get out and get out as far as I could. I wanted to get everybody pumped up and ready to go.”
Saline senior Michael Bundas added to the medal haul as he won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.96.
“I was really happy for Michael,” Brunty said. “He gave up baseball to focus on his swimming. He loves baseball, and it takes total dedication for someone to do that. He really stepped up for us today.”
Not all of the records at Saturday’s Finals were broken by Saline swimmers. Runner-up Birmingham Brother Rice’s 400-yard freestyle relay team set an all-division record. Senior Patrick Nodland, sophomores Gust Kouvaris and Mark Blinstrub and junior Joe Krause came into the meet seeded fourth, but saved their best for last as they turned in a time of 3:03.78.
“They really stepped up,” Brother Rice coach Mike Venos said. “We have one senior on that relay, and he inspires the team. Patrick Nodland just does a great job of getting everyone inspired and ready to go. I never, ever doubt my swimmers. I know what they are capable of.”
Brother Rice pushed Saline to the limit and carried on the program’s history of excellence. The Warriors have won eight MHSAA team titles since 1994, their most recent in 2007.
Livonia Stevenson junior Nick Arakelian also set a Division 1 meet record en route to winning the 500-yard freestyle. Arakelian, in his first year of high school swimming, won in a time of 4:27.75.
A nationally-ranked club swimmer, Arakelian decided to go out for high school swimming this season, and was more than happy he did.
“Oh I’m very happy I decided to come out,” Arakelian said. “I just decided to try it for a change. It’s a lot of fun, and I like the team atmosphere.”
Arakelian helped Stevenson to a third-place finish as a team as he also took second place in the 200-yard IM and was a part of the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard free relay teams that also finished second.
“This was an incredible feeling,” Arakelian said. “I’m planning on coming out next year, and I’m very excited about next year.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Saline swimmers celebrate while en route to their fourth-straight MHSAA team title. (Middle) A Saline swimmer races Saturday at Holland Aquatics Center. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Dexter Extends Finals Win Streak to 4
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
March 9, 2019
YPSILANTI – It was only fitting that Casey Dolen was the last swimmer in the pool for Dexter on Saturday at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Boys Swimming & Diving Finals at Eastern Michigan University.
He was a member of the Dreadnaughts’ 2016 championship team. And he was there in 2017 and 2018 as well.
Dolen was the first to touch the wall in the 400-yard freestyle relay, helping his team win the event and lock down the program’s fourth straight Division 2 championship. He, along with senior Niklas Eberly and sophomores Michael Baumann and Clayton Kinnard, finished in a time of 3:06.84, comfortably beating out runner-up Birmingham Groves – which finished second overall in the team standings.
“This is a great group of kids, and to send these seniors out with four in a row is really special,” said Dexter head coach Michael McHugh, whose program has won five Finals titles since the 2012 season. “That’s our goal all year, but we never take anything for granted.
“The guys really stepped up. We knew Groves was going to come out strong. Our job was to not panic, not overreact and keep doing what we were doing. We knew we had a little bit of a lead (entering Saturday), so as long as we were mistake-free, we’d be OK.”
Groves did indeed come out strong. The Falcons quartet of senior David Helton, juniors Nolan Kamoo and Jackson Gugni and senior Hunter Reilly upended Dexter’s top-seeded 200 medley relay team to start the meet. Their time of 1:34.70 was the best of the weekend and gave their team an early six-point lead over the Dreadnaughts.
But it didn’t take long for Dexter to make its move. A runner-up finish by Dolen in the 200 freestyle helped cut Groves’ lead to three points – and it seemed to get the ball rolling for the Dreadnaughts.
Kinnard’s eighth-place finish in the next race, the 200 individual medley, gave his team an eight-point lead, one which it would not relinquish the rest of the day.
Dexter finished with 239 team points, besting Groves (203) and third-place Birmingham Seaholm (181.5). Midland Dow (162.5) and Grosse Pointe South (149) rounded out the top five.
Eberly was the star of the meet for Dexter. He won both the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly events. His 20.40 seconds in the 50 matched his preliminary time and beat runner-up Luke Lezotte of Midland Dow by a tenth of a second.
His time of 47.79 in the 100 butterfly helped him repeat in the event. Walled Lake Northern’s Zane Rosely was a distant second, with a time of 49.94.
“It was definitely a goal of mine, since I started high school, to break 47,” Eberly said. “You don’t see a lot of high schoolers do it. It really sets you up well going into college like that. I knew I could do 47.5 if I really tried. I fell a little bit short, but I’m unbelievably happy with 47.7. I think it’s a phenomenal time.”
Eberly was one of the top swimmers entering the finals and knew he needed to swim up to those high expectations if his team was to have a chance to four-peat.
“I was super happy to be able to hold my places and help the team,” he said. “My situation is definitely different than other kids’. A lot of them have to step up, climb up, maybe they’re seeded eighth or 16th and they have no place to go but up. Going into states, I have nowhere to go but down. So it really adds a lot of pressure.”
Joining Eberly as a two-event winner was Fraser junior Alex Capizzo, who was victorious in both the 200 IM and 500 freestyle, a pair of events he also won a year ago. He beat out Rosely in the IM and Walled Lake Western junior Eric Hieber in the 500.
Hieber easily won the 200 freestyle, beating out Dolen by more than 1½ seconds.
Dolen did pick up an individual title, narrowly edging Lezotte by two hundredths of a second in the 100 freestyle.
Other individual winners included Jack Hamilton of Berkley, whose time of 50.51 in the backstroke helped him beat out runner-up Ben Conroy of Gibraltar Carlson by nearly a second. And Byron Center senior Jacob Glover bested the field in the 100 breaststroke, finishing in a winning time of 56.38
Midland Dow’s Che Collin, Zach Fewkes, Hans Dehn and Lezotte swam a time of 1:25.13 to take first place in the 200 freestyle relay.
In the diving competition, Okemos junior Hunter Hollenbeck repeated as champion, scoring 462.95 points. Rochester Adams sophomore SooDong Kim and Wyandotte Roosevelt freshman Hudson Hill finished second and third, respectively, both eclipsing 400 points.
Groves, which finished third behind Dexter and Rochester Adams a year ago, is losing a few key seniors to graduation, but returns a good nucleus of athletes, which has head coach Ricky Forrest excited for what lies ahead for his team.
“(Dexter is) an experienced team, and I’ve got a lot of respect for what Mike does with his guys. Every single year, no matter where they’re at on the psych sheet, every team here knows that they’re going to bring it,” Forrest said. “We had an outstanding day during the prelims on Friday and a really good day (on Saturday). We’re going to be missing a lot of (senior) leadership and we’re going to need some boys to step up next year, but we’ve still got a really good core and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Rochester Adams finished sixth overall with 138 points, with Gibraltar Carlson (120), Detroit U-D Jesuit (102.5), Walled Lake Western (91) and Temperance-Bedford (86.5) rounding out the top 10.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dexter senior Niklas Eberly swims the winning butterfly during Saturday’s Division 2 Finals at Eastern Michigan University. (Middle) Finishers in the 100 freestyle, including Dexter champion Casey Dolen, look to the scoreboard after their race. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)