Marquette 'Electrifies' with 3rd Title in 5 Years
By
Ryan Stieg
Special for Second Half
March 13, 2021
MARQUETTE – For the second year in a row, the Marquette boys swimming & diving team climbed atop the Upper Peninsula podium, and on Saturday, they did it in dominant fashion.
The Redmen finished with 421 points, 194 more than second-place Houghton, while Sault Ste. Marie (170) edged Kingsford (107) for third.
This was also Marquette’s third team championship in five years.
Marquette won eight of the 12 events, including all three relays (200-yard medley, 200 freestyle, 400 free).
“I don’t think it was really going to be a surprise,” Marquette head coach Nathan McFarren said. “I don’t want to sound cocky, but coming in, we were pretty stacked. We’ve broken records, but I don’t know if we’ve ever had this much depth. A couple of events we went 1-2-3. We won every single relay outright. The whole day was electrifying.”
Liam McFarren and Colin Vanderschaaf both won two events for Marquette with McFarren winning the 200 free and 100 butterfly and Vanderschaaf taking the 500 free and 100 breaststroke. Maverick Baldwin added a win in the 100 free.
According to Coach McFarren, both Liam McFarren and Vanderschaaf finished the season undefeated, including relays, and the coach said the whole team was locked in from the start.
“The focus this year having a team of mostly sophomores is way up,” he said. “Shortened season and everything came together in the end. It was pretty sweet.”
Morgan Burd earned two titles for Sault Ste. Marie, in the 50 free and 100 backstroke, and Cameron Bauers won the 1-meter diving competition Friday night. Houghton’s Davin Evans was the other individual champion as he won the 200 individual medley.
All in all, McFarren was extremely pleased with his team’s performance and knew from the opening event it was going to be a fun afternoon.
“Oh my God, it was amazing,” he said. “I could tell from the moment I showed up that was going to be an electrifying day.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette's Liam McFarren charges through his win in the 200-yard freestyle Saturday. (Middle) Sault Ste. Marie's Morgan Burd makes his move toward the 100 backstroke championship. (Photos by Daryl Jarvinen.)
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].)