Marquette Boys Sweep Swim Events to Repeat as UP Finals Champ
By
Travis Nelson
Special for Second Half
February 19, 2022
MARQUETTE – The Marquette boys swimming & diving team’s dominant season continued into the Upper Peninsula Finals with another impressive victory to close out the season Saturday.
Marquette won all 11 swimming events and posted second, third and fourth-place finishes in diving, and finished the meet with 368 points to repeat as champion. Houghton was next at 265. Sault Ste. Marie placed in third with 114 points, edging out Rudyard’s 106, and Manistique finished fifth with 87 points.
Marquette’s depth showed all season, and coach Nate McFarren was pleased to see it transfer to the season’s concluding event.
“I think I said last year, but I’m going to say it again this year: We never had this much depth,” McFarren said. “Winning every event except for diving, and even in diving going two, three and four (places) behind a U.P. record holder – pretty solid performance by everybody.”
Marquette’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of senior Bobby Caron and juniors Liam McFarren, Colin Vanderschaaf and Maverick Baldwin broke the school, pool and U.P. Finals records, formerly set by Marquette in 2017, by a full second in 1:29.93. There was some doubt within the team that they could break the record, but their biggest performance on the biggest stage shattered it.
“It was incredible. We were three seconds away from the record and we broke it by a full second,” Liam McFarren said. “We never thought that we would be able to do this today. We were all hoping for it, but it honestly took us all by surprise. We all swam the best times in our entire lives.”
The 200 medley relay team of McFarren, Vanderschaaf, Baldwin and junior Andrew King were also close to snapping a record, missing out by two tenths of a second. McFarren also captured individual victories in the 100 butterfly and 100 free.
Vanderschaaf also had a stellar day with individual wins in the 200 free and 100 breaststroke. The work he put in helped him earn this moment.
“(I’ve been) working hard in and out of the pool and trying to recover and swim as fast as I can,” Vanderschaaf said.
Other individual Marquette victories came from freshman Sevi Voigt in the 200 individual medley and 500 free, King in the 100 backstroke and Baldwin in the 50 free. The 400 free relay team of Caron, King, Voigt and freshman Trevor Crandell also pulled through in the final event.
“It felt really good after all the practices, all the little mishaps throughout the season and everything between,” Liam McFarren said. “It just felt good to be able to get in the water and do more than what we thought we could actually do.”
Houghton’s Quinn Aho claimed the victory in diving. His 269.90 score bested the previous record, set in 2003, by 5.1 points. The Gremlins also posted seven runner-up finishes in the meet to claim second place as a team.
PHOTOS (Top) Liam McFarren cheers on a Marquette teammate during the 200 freestyle relay Saturday. (Middle) Teammate Colin Vanderschaaf swims the 100 breaststroke on the way to winning that race. (Photos by Daryl Jarvinen. For more, email [email protected].)
High 5s - 2/28/12
February 28, 2012
Every Tuesday, Second Half honors 2-4 athletes and a team for its accomplishments during the current season.
Have a suggestion for a future High 5? Please offer suggestions by e-mail to [email protected]. Candidates often will have accomplished great things on the field of play -- but also will be recognized for other less obvious contributions to their teams, schools or the mission of high school athletics as a whole.
Alec Mooradian
Detroit Catholic Central senior
Wrestling
Mooradian won two matches by pin and a third by decision during last weekend's MHSAA Division 1 Team Finals as Detroit Catholic Central won its second championship in three seasons. This weekend, he can become the 16th wrestler in MHSAA history to claim a fourth Individual Finals championship. He's 44-2 this season and will wrestle this weekend at 152 pounds. His previous championships came at 112, 119 and 135. (He could also become the 17th to accomplish the four-peat, depending on when his championship match ends. St. Johns' Taylor Massa also is going for a fourth individual title.) Mooradian has signed to wrestle next season at Columbia.
Up next: "I plan on studying business/economics at Columbia, but I am not quite sure of what I want to do as an occupation."
I learned the most about wrestling from: "My coach Mitch Hancock. He also instilled in me a great work ethic that is much more important than anything else I have learned in this sport."
I look up to: "My father. He has made countless sacrifices to put me where I am at now in my life as a wrestler and as a person."
What I enjoy most about wrestling: "... is seeing the countless hours of work I put in pay off at the end of each season. I attribute the success I have had the last four years to working extremely hard and making good decisions on and off the mat."
Colin MacQuarrie
Sault Ste. Marie senior
Swimming
MacQuarrie set two U.P. Finals records – he won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.85 seconds (breaking the former record of 22.18 set by his school’s Peter Stevens in 2003) and the 100 butterfly in 52.80 (former record was 53.62, set by his school’s Thomas Stabile in 1988). The previous butterfly record was the oldest in the U.P. Finals section of the MHSAA record book, and his 50 times qualified for All-America honors from the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association. He also played football and runs track.
"I have a passion for swimming that goes back many years. I love the thrill of competition, watching my times improve makes me want to continue swimming."
Up next: MacQuarrie hopes to continue swimming and college level and plans to study aviation with a major in air traffic control management or aviation administration. "I hope to be an Air Traffic Controller and help ensure safety and efficiency for travelers."
I learned the most about swimming from: "I have had a handful of coaches, assistant coaches, and fellow swimmers throughout the years that have developed me into the swimmer I am today. ... Each person has played an important role."
I look up to: "My fellow teammates and other athletes at my school who push me to be my best and work hard with me in practice."
Before a race: "I prepare myself mentally by visualizing my race. I also listen to a lot of hip-hop music to pump myself up."
St. Johns wrestling
The Redwings get the slight edge over the other three MHSAA champions from the weekend because of their status as arguably the best team, regardless of division.
St. Johns defeated Lowell 41-18 in the Division 2 Final, and beat its three weekend opponents by a combined score of 161-35.
The Redwings haven't lost to an in-state opponent since 2010. They finished 25-1 this season, with that lone loss to Ohio powerhouse Lakewood St. Edward, and also beat eventual Division 1 champion Detroit Catholic Central earlier this winter. St. Johns should shine again this weekend, with 13 Individual Finals qualifiers including three reigning champions and two who finished runners-up at their weights in 2011.