Marquette Regains UP Boys Title
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
February 15, 2014
MARQUETTE — It was a great Saturday to be a Marquette swimmer as the Redmen swimming and diving team earned its first Upper Peninsula title in four years with 331 points at its home pool.
The Redmen were followed by defending champ Sault Ste. Marie with 306 points and Kingsford with 181.
Marquette topped the standings in all 11 swimming events after Sault Ste. Marie grabbed the top three spots in Friday’s diving competition.
“We knew Sault Ste. Marie would be real good in diving,” Marquette coach Nate McFerrin said. “This is a pretty awesome moment. We wanted all the kids (boys and girls) on the podium (for post-meet photos) because as an adult you don’t get many moments like this.”
A trio of Marquette swimmers had a hand in four firsts, including senior Tony Lackey, junior Nate Rotundo and sophomore Sam Williams.
Lackey won the 50-yard freestyle race in 23.65 seconds, 100 freestyle (53.66) and helped the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays to victories
Rotundo, helping the 200 and 400 freestyle relays to firsts, also won the 100 backstroke (1:03.00) and 200 individual medley (2:07.82).
“They (Sault) got far ahead of us in diving, but we have some real good swimmers,” Rotundo said. “I’m pretty proud of this team. We really wanted this meet because we hadn’t won it since 2010. Our medley relay was just .3 second off the school record (1:44.74), which is pretty impressive. The school record is our goal for next year. We came in here knowing we had to do our best."
Williams captured 100 butterfly (56.03) and 500 freestyle (5:10.67) and helped the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays as well.
“I had been training real hard, but tapered off this week,” said Williams, who swam personal bests in both of his individual races. “We were behind (Sault) going into the 500 freestyle. Also, I wasn’t the top seed in butterfly, which really motivated me. I really wanted to come through for our team.”
Freshman Ben Luke also helped the 200 freestyle relay to victory, which gave the Redmen their first lead (236-233), and Luke also placed third in 100 backstroke (1:06.61) and fourth in 200 IM (2:26.18).
“I’ve been swimming for eight years and this is the best meet I’ve had in my life,” Luke said. “I’m happy with all my races and my teammates’ races. I really wanted to swim today and dropped four seconds from my previous best (in the 200 IM).
“In my opinion, the breaststroke is the most challenging because it takes a lot of technique and skill. But Nate (Rotundo) has mastered that.”
Sault junior Levi Furr topped the standings in diving with 186.65 points, followed by junior Kyle Flickinger (179.9) and sophomore Eric Finley (172.95).
“Diving has been one of our strongest events all year,” Sault coach Denise Mayer said. “That fired our kids coming into today’s swimming events.
“Marquette has very strong swimmers. Nate (coach McFerrin) and his staff should be very proud of them. I’m proud of all our kids, too. There wasn’t a kid on this team that didn’t swim a personal best.”
Not only was McFerrin proud of what the Redmen accomplish, he was impressed with Williams’ performance in the 500.
“Sam dropped 10 seconds in the 500, which is nearly unheard off for a swimmer of his caliber,” said McFerrin, who completed his third year as head coach. “I’m finally getting the feeling this team is becoming ours. I’ve come a long way in learning how to prepare a team for this meet. We’ve been there, done that. We can do it again.”
Also winning individual races for Marquette were junior Collin McCommons in 200 freestyle (1:56.98) and freshman Andrew Kilpela in 100 backstroke (1:00.24).
PHOTOS w: (Top) Marquette sophomore Sam Williams finishes off a 100-yard butterfly championship Saturday at the UP Swimming and Diving Finals. (Middle) Teammate Tony Lackey celebrates his 100 freestyle championship. (Photos courtesy of Jarvinen Photos.)
Finals: Another Star, Another Saline Title
March 10, 2012
YPSILANTI – Saline entered Saturday’s Division 1 Finals at Eastern Michigan University with two swimmers who had combined for six individual MHSAA championships over the past two seasons.
Juniors David Boland and Adam Whitener pushed that total to 10. But the name of junior teammate Josh Ehrman will be the one most stamped in the MHSAA record book for his performances in helping Saline to a third-straight team title.
Ehrman swam a 55.36 in the breaststroke to set an all division/class record, and set another Division 1 record with a preliminary time of 1:49.34 in the individual medley – before losing to teammate Boland in the Final. Ehrman also was a member of two record-setting relays as Saline scored a team total of 326.5 points to edge runner-up Rockford by 92.5.
“It makes me feel really good, but I couldn’t have done it without those guys. I’ve been swimming with David and Adam since I was 9 years old,” Ehrman said. “They’re two of my best friends, and that’s what makes for great competitors. We trained together year-round for seven years, and it makes us all better.
“It bodes well for next year I think. We’ll have some guys we have to replace, but we’ll try to do it.”
Total, Saline had champions in seven of 12 events. Boland, Whitener, Ehrman and senior James Fisher also teamed to break Saline’s own all-division/class record in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:04.26. Ehrman, Boland, senior Tom Walls and junior Michael Bundas opened the meet with a Division 1 record 1:33.95 in the 200 medley relay.
The finish made it tough to believe that Saline did lose a meet this season, to Birmingham Seaholm when some of the Hornets were sick and others didn’t swim their best. But Ehrman said that loss clearly refocused the team – something that should continue to carry over.
“We’ve got to keep challenging them. They’ve certainly got a lot of improving to do. I think we could swim better than we did today,” Saline coach Todd Brunty said. “I’m going to go back and find a way we can get faster, find out what we’ve got to work on. In the world of swimming, all across the country and the Olympic level – which some of these guys are going to aspire to – there’s a lot of ways we can get better. We’re going to keep trying to do that as a team, and that’s the best part. It’s not just one person.”
The third relay record also fell Saturday. Rockford’s 200 freestyle relay of seniors Nick Dulak, Bryan Wasberg, sophomore Craig Wasberg and senior Eric Chisholm swam a 1:24.34 to crash the mark.
Chisholm said he was disappointed to fall short of setting the meet record in the 50 freestyle, but he still won that race in a time of 20.76. He also finished second to Whitener in the 100 freestyle.
“(My favorite was) probably breaking the record with my team on the 2(00) free relay. We all worked really hard to get it,” Chisholm said. “We’re happy. We all swam well, as best as we could on the given days. That’s all you can do.”
While Saline and Rockford were expected to shine, the most surprising of Saturday’s finishes came from Lansing Legacy senior Blake Howe. Legacy is a co-op team made up of all three Lansing public schools – Everett, Eastern and Sexton – and Howe earned its signature accomplishment by finishing ahead of reigning champion Victor Zhang of Canton to win the 100 backstroke in 50.83 seconds.
That time was only three hundredths off the Division 1 Final record. Howe also finished third in the butterfly.
“ Pulling off that third turn, I saw him and I was that much ahead, and I’m like that was it. This is the last 25 (yards) of my high school career. I’ve got to win,” Howe said. “Coach said when you do your workout, states is where you get your paycheck and you can cash that in. And I cashed it in.”
Click for full Division 1 results.
Division 2 at Holland Aquatics Center
All season, reigning champion Birmingham Seaholm was ranked No. 1 in Division 2. And all season, Dexter was No. 2.
But despite only one single-event championship – in the 200 freestyle relay – the Dreadnaughts edged Groves 320-298.5 on Saturday, with Seaholm coming in third.
Dexter did post nine top-three finishes to go with the relay win by seniors Mark Brown, John Eber, Nate Kilian and junior Brennan Maisch.
Groves – ranked No. 3 entering the postseason – had champions in five events, led by senior Scott Crosthwaite. He won the 200 freestyle in 139.47 and the 500 in 4:33.26. He also swam on the champion 400 freestyle relay and runner-up 200 freestyle relay.
Click for complete Division 2 results.
Division 3 at Oakland University
St. Joseph was ranked just No. 4 entering the postseason and had never won an MHSAA Final – finishing runner-up in both 1980 and 1968.
But in the closest of this winter’s Finals, the Bears scored 250 points to edge Grand Rapids Christian by five, East Grand Rapids by 22 and Hamilton by 36.5.
St. Joseph got wins in four events, including a pair by freshman Ben Carter in the 100 freestyle (46.67) and the 50 freestyle (21.34). His prelim 50 time of 21.05 set a Division 3 record.
Spring Lake senior Nick Zacek also won two races, the butterfly (51.52) and 200 freestyle (1:41.78).
Click for complete Division 3 results.
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