Pioneers Make Every Second Count in D3
March 9, 2013
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – Rarely has a fifth-place finish meant more than it did Saturday afternoon to East Grand Rapids at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
East Grand Rapids went into the final event – the 400 freestyle relay – needing to finish fifth to guarantee the overall meet championship. A sixth-place finish paired with a first place by Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood would have left East Grand Rapids in second place.
Incredibly, Cranbrook-Kingswood tied Bloomfield Hills Lahser for first place in the final relay, and East Grand Rapids got the fifth-place finish it needed to win the Final championship by four points (278-274). It was the 10th championship for East Grand Rapids, which won the Division 3 title in 2008 and 2010 and won the Class B-C-D title every year from 1976-82.
“This is cool. Very cool,” said East Grand Rapids coach Butch Briggs, who has coached the Pioneers to all 10 MHSAA championships. “We had to hold fifth place (in the 400 freestyle relay), and they did a great job.
“They haven’t quit all year. We won our conference meet by a half-point, so these kids have been tough all year long.”
For a while, it looked like Cranbrook- Kingswood would not pull off first place in the 400 freestyle relay. The Cranes were third for the majority of the race before Matthew Liu finished the final 100 yards in stirring fashion. Earlier, Liu had won the 100 butterfly in 51.60 seconds.
Cranbrook-Kingswood came into the 400 freestyle with just the sixth-fastest prelim time of the eight finalists, but sliced 3.47 seconds off that time, finishing in 3 minutes, 12.99 seconds.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Cranbrook-Kingswood coach Karl Hodgson said. “They all dropped about the same amount of time across the board. It was a total team effort.
“We knew we had an outside shot. We were like a 3:21 coming in, and we end up going 3:12. That’s crazy fast for us.”
East Grand Rapids, meanwhile, was seventh after the first 50 yards and stayed between fourth and sixth after that. The Pioneers were fifth when Kurt Swieter dove into the water for the final 100 yards. He knew what he had to do.
“That last relay, we knew if Cranbrook was to get first, we couldn’t fall back, so I just went into that relay with the mindset that we were going to win,” said Swieter, a junior who was joined on the relay team by sophomore Jack Filion and freshmen Nathan Hein and Andy MacGregor. “I knew that we were fifth, and I knew that Cranbrook was moving. I saw them swimming in before I dove, and I wasn’t going to let it go.”
East Grand Rapids senior Matt Hooper had just successfully defended his individual MHSAA championship in the 100 breaststroke when the 400 freestyle relay was held, and all he could do was watch the drama unfold.
“Our guys were super stoked,” Hooper said. “We had two freshmen on that relay, and to see them step up like that was awesome. I believed in them from the start. We have a really fast freshman class, and they really got it done. We couldn’t have done it without them for sure.
“Our butterflier really stepped up big, and our backstroker was a full second faster than (Friday). We all had to get together and do it as a team, and that was the big thing, the team. Everyone showed up, and everyone performed well.”
Hooper certainly showed up and performed well. He helped the Pioneers win the first event – the 200 medley relay – and then not only defended his title in the breaststroke but broke the LP Division 3 meet record for the second day in a row after breaking it on Friday. Hooper’s winning time was 56.12 seconds.
“It was nerve-wracking,” he said. “I was telling my coach I think this meet was truly one of the only times I can say my heart was beating out of my chest before a race. I couldn’t swallow before the race.”
In the 200 medley relay, Hooper swam the breaststroke as East Grand Rapids won in 1:35.58 – breaking the school record set by the Pioneers two years ago with Hooper as a member of the relay.
Hooper’s day ended with a team championship, an individual championship complete with a meet record, and a relay championship, also complete with another meet record.
“It’s a really big honor to be on a team with these guys and to help out Coach Briggs get one more state championship before I’m done,” Hooper said. “It’s a heck of a way to go out. I couldn’t have asked for a better season or a better four years.”
There were several other outstanding efforts in addition to Hooper and East Grand Rapids. Parker Cook-Weeks of Holland Christian repeated as champion in the 500 freestyle in 4:38.27 and also won the 200 freestyle in 1:41.21. David Alday of Chelsea won the 100 freestyle in 46.85 and the 200 individual medley in 1:52.88, narrowly missing the LP Division 3 meet record of 1:52.80.
Alday won both of his races in come-from-behind fashion as he passed the leader in the final 25 yards.
“That’s how I like to do it,” Alday said, “lay back and see what I can do late in the race. In the last 25 (of the individual medley) I didn’t breathe once. I just stuck my head down.”
The victory in the individual medley was especially gratifying to Alday, who was limited last year after breaking his back when, as he put it, “I had a large kid jump on me.” Alday was limited to just freestyle events at last year’s MHSAA Final.
Cook-Weeks had a different challenge in winning his MHSAA titles. In both races, he had to battle his good friend Swieter, who swam the final leg of the 400 freestyle for East Grand Rapids. Cook-Weeks beat him by nearly a second in the 200 freestyle, and then the two had a virtual match race in the 500 freestyle as they finished within 1.35 seconds of each other but nearly five seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
“Kurt and I are longtime friends, and we always have a battle and stay with each other,” Cook-Weeks said. “Kurt’s a great swimmer, no doubt about that, and we stuck together and fought it out. It was an iron man race.
“We just battled, and the last 50 I tried kicking it in because I just knew that I could do more. I wanted to make my parents, my family and my coaches proud and show that I can defend my title in the 500.”
Ollie Smith of Milan won the 50 freestyle in 21.04, and freshman Joey Puglessi of Grand Rapids Catholic Central took the 100 backstroke in 52.75. Detroit Country Day won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:26.61.
In 1-meter diving, Marshall sophomore Henry Swett outdistanced his nearest competitor by more than 20 points as he repeated as champion. Swett, who said he has trained on the trampoline with his brothers, said becoming a four-time MHSAA champion is one of his goals – but it comes with a price as he seemingly is the favorite whenever he competes.
“It puts more pressure on me, but I kind of like it that way,” said Swett, whose total of 431.20 fell just short of his winning total of 435.65 a year ago.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Grand Rapids' Matt Hooper swims to his third straight MHSAA championship in the 100-yard breaststroke Saturday. (Middle) The Pioneers celebrate their first team title since 2010. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Preview: Finals Opportunities Abound for Swim & Dive Contenders
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 9, 2023
Even with two returning team champions expected to reign again, it’s fair to say there are abundant opportunities for first-time winners to climb the podiums at this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving Finals.
Ann Arbor Pioneer and East Grand Rapids are pursuing third-straight team titles in Divisions 1 and 3, respectively. But the top-three ranked contenders in Division 2 either haven’t won a Finals or haven’t won in over a decade. And of 27 individual events across the three meets, only six will welcome back last year’s winners as the great majority graduated last spring.
Preliminaries at all three Finals sites begin at noon Friday, with Saturday championship events starting at noon as well. Both days of all three meets will be streamed live and viewable with subscription on MHSAA.tv. For information on purchasing tickets, plus psych sheets, dive orders and more, visit the Boys Swimming & Diving page – and see below for a glance at team and individual contenders to follow.
Lower Peninsula Division 1 at Calvin University
Reigning champion: Ann Arbor Pioneer
2022 runner-up: Northville
2023 top-ranked: 1. Ann Arbor Pioneer, 2. Northville, 3. Detroit Catholic Central
Pioneer has won the last two LPD1 championships, last year by 98 points with a total of 365. With 18 entries seeded to score and five top seeds – including all three relays – the Pioneers certainly are favorites to extend that streak. Northville’s runner-up finish last season was its highest at a Finals since winning its lone title in 1973, and the Mustangs have 13 entries seeded to score. Detroit Catholic Central placed eighth last season and is seeking its first championship, and has an intriguing mix with nine entries seeded to score including a top seed, plus two divers.
Olin Charnstrom, Oxford junior: After finishing 13th in the 100-yard backstroke and just missing the final heats in the 50-yard in 2022, he has an opportunity for a big move as the backstroke top seed (49.44 seconds) by a second and the third seed in the 100-yard freestyle (46.54).
Ryan Gurgel, Canton senior: Last season’s champion in the 100-yard butterfly and runner-up in the 200-yard freestyle is the first seed in both races this weekend in 50.64 and 1:42.16, respectively.
Luke Mychalowych, Detroit Catholic Central junior: He finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and just missed the final heats in the 100 free last winter, but enters this weekend top-seeded in the breaststroke (57.25), eighth-seeded in the 200-yard freestyle and a possibility to swim on two top-four seeded relays.
Gabriel Sanchez-Burks, Ann Arbor Pioneer senior: After a big jump last season that saw him finish second in the 50, seventh in the 100 free and as part of championship and runner-up relays, he’s lined up for an even bigger finish to his high school career. He has top seeds in the 50 (20.25) and 100 (45.31) and is likely to swim on two of the three top-seeded relays, and his 50 seed time is only 24 hundredths of a second off the LPD1 record swam by Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central’s Henry Schutte in 2018.
Owen Stevens, Zeeland sophomore: He debuted at the Finals with a sixth place in the 200-yard individual medley and fourth in the 500-yard freestyle last year, and he returns as the top seed in the IM (1:54.30) and 500 (4:38.99) and possible swimmer on two top-three seeded relays.
Ann Arbor Pioneer 200 freestyle relay: The Pioneers have a seed time of 1:25.53, nearly two seconds faster than second-seeded Holland West Ottawa and about 2½ seconds off the LPD1 record of 1:23.25 swam by West Ottawa in 2021.
Julian Cardenas, Rockford junior: He was last season’s LPD1 diving runner-up, slightly more than 43 points back with a score of 413.55 – but he posted the highest LPD1 Regional score last week of 486.40 to clear his qualifying meet field by 70 points.
Alex Poulin, Waterford Mott senior: Last season’s diving champion with a score of 456.70 posted the second-highest LPD1 Regional score last week, 428.80, to win his qualifying meet by eight points.
Lower Peninsula Division 2 at Holland Aquatic Center
Reigning champion: Ann Arbor Skyline
2022 runner-up: Detroit U-D Jesuit
2023 top-ranked: 1. Birmingham Groves, 2. Detroit U-D Jesuit, 3. Grosse Pointe South.
Jesuit missed a first Finals championship in this sport last season by 25 points and will make another run following 14 entries seeded to score with four top seeds – including two relays – plus two divers. But favored this time is Groves, which finished fourth a year ago, second as recently as 2019 and is seeking its first championship since 2010. Groves has 19 entries seeded to score, with two top seeds. Grosse Pointe South is another regular contender and placed third last season, 53 points off the lead. The Blue Devils also are seeking a first championship and were runners-up in 2021. They have 11 entries seeded to score with three top seeds including a favored relay, and five divers including the reigning champion.
Austin Briggs, Byron Center senior: He finished 10th in the 50 and 11th in the 100 free last season but will push toward the front entering this weekend seeded first in the 50 (20.94) and second in the 100 breaststroke (58.34), with his time in the latter only one-hundredth of a second behind the top seed.
Sean Diffenderfer, Walled Lake Northern senior: The reigning champion in the 500 and fourth-place finisher in the 200 free is seeded fifth in the 500 and 10th in the 200 this weekend.
Ian Duncan, Birmingham Groves senior: He was third in the 200 free and fourth in the 500 in 2022 and should contend again in both seeded third in the 200 (1:43.45) and first in the 500 (4:41.78) while also likely to swim on two of the team’s three top-five seeded relays.
Max Haney, Fenton senior: Last season’s butterfly runner-up and fifth-place finisher in the IM could cap high school in a big way seeded first in the IM (1:51.38), by more than a second, and second in the backstroke (50.48).
Angus MacDonald, Birmingham Groves junior: Another Groves standout, he’s seeded first in the breaststroke (58.33), third in the IM (1:53.35) and also likely will swim on two of those contending relays. He finished runner-up in both the IM and 500 last season.
Keiran Rahmaan, Grosse Pointe South senior: He finished third in the backstroke, fourth in the butterfly and led off the LPD2 Finals record-setting 200-yard medley relay last season, and he also was part of a relay champ in 2021. He could add substantially to those accomplishments; he’s seeded first this weekend in both the butterfly (49.61) and backstroke (49.91) and likely will swim on the top-seeded 400 freestyle relay (3:10.14).
Evan Tack, Detroit U-D Jesuit sophomore: His Finals debut last season included a sixth place in the IM, 10th in the breaststroke and two top-three relay finishes. He enters this weekend seeded first in the 100 (46.24) and 200 frees (1:41.25) and as part of two top-two seeded relays including the favorite in the 200 freestyle (1:27.09).
Logan Hepner, Grosse Pointe South senior: Last season’s diving champion by more than 49 points went 618.85 to set the pace across LPD2 at last week’s Regionals, although Birmingham Seaholm senior Grayson Davis was his runner-up and the only other to break 600 (or 500) with a 601.90.
Lower Peninsula Division 3 at Oakland University
Reigning champion: East Grand Rapids
2022 runner-up: Holland Christian
2023 top-ranked: 1. East Grand Rapids, 2. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 3. Holland Christian.
The last two seasons have finished the same way at the top with EGR first and Holland Christian second. The Pioneers are favored again on the strength of 13 entries seeded to score – including two top seeds – and two divers competing. Holland Christian – most recently champion in 2019 and 2018 – doesn’t have a top seed but also has 13 entries seeded to score plus two divers. Cranbrook is seeking its first championship since winning four straight from 2014-17, and has the people to do so with 15 entries seeded to score, including three top seeds, and a diver.
Carter Kegle, East Grand Rapids junior: He finished first in the 500, second in the 200 free and swam on two top-three relays last season, and he returns as the top seed in the 500 (4:40.95), second seed in the 200 (1:43.81) and expected to swim on two top-three seeded relays.
Alec Lampen, Manistee junior: He finished sixth in the backstroke and helped all three Manistee relays place last season, and he should be a major point scorer again seeded first in the 50 (20.92) and backstroke (51.40) and swimming on two top-seven seeded relays.
London Rising, Adrian freshman: He’ll make his Finals debut as the top seed in the 200 free (1:41.71), by two seconds, and the fourth seed in the butterfly, plus he’s expected to swim on two second-seeded relays.
Ethan Schwab, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood senior: He’ll look to add to a relay championship he helped win in 2021, seeded first this time in the IM (1:53.99) and breaststroke (55.92) and as a possibility to swim on two of three top-six seeded relays including the favorite in the 400-yard freestyle (3:13.77). He finished second in both the 500 and breaststroke last season.
Liam Smith, Otsego freshman: Another standout freshman, he enters the weekend seeded first in the butterfly (50.54) and second in the IM (1:55.25).
Ben Sytsma, Grand Rapids Christian junior: The reigning champion in the 100 free and runner-up in the 50 – and champion as well as part of 200 and 400 freestyle relays – is the top seed in the 100 (45.88), the second seed in the 50 (20.95) by just three-hundredths of a second and could swim on the top-seeded 200 free relay plus another.
Mitch Brown, Chelsea junior: Last season’s diving runner-up to record-setting senior Charley Bayer from East Grand Rapids is in position to ascend after positing a division-best 538 to win his Regional last week – clearing the rest of LPD3 by 61 points.
PHOTO Swimmers launch during a Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals race in 2022. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)