Preview: 3 Champs Look for 3rd Straight
March 10, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Birmingham Brother Rice, Birmingham Seaholm and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood all are seeking their third straight Lower Peninsula boys swimming and diving championships this weekend.
But only two are favored to add another title – and both favorites are facing arguably the toughest competition of their current reigns.
Michigan also will say good-bye to an accomplished group of seniors that have won a combined 16 individual championships – 13 in swimming and three in diving – as they make their final MHSAA Finals appearances.
See below for team favorites and top individuals to watch at all three meets. Preliminaries are Friday, with championship races and diving Saturday. All three Finals also will be streamed live and can be watched with subscription on MHSAA.TV.
Click for lineups and seed times for all three meets.
LP Division 1 at Holland Aquatics
Team contenders: Birmingham Brother Rice is competing for its third straight LP Division 1 championship and fourth straight top-two finish after winning last year’s Final by 111 points. The Warriors have 18 swimmers seeded to score, with all three relays enter seeded second. But Ann Arbor Skyline should provide a formidable challenge after finishing runner-up in Division 2 a year ago. The Eagles have 12 swimmers seeded to score including three tops seeds, plus a diver that finished third at his Regional.
Spencer Carl, Holland West Ottawa junior – Posted top-five finishes last season in the butterfly and 200-yard freestyle and is seeded first this time in the butterfly (50.53) and second in the free (1:39.95).
Cameron Craig, Monroe senior – Held the LP Division 1 Finals backstroke record for a season after setting it as a sophomore while also winning the butterfly that winter; Craig is seeded first both in the individual medley (1:47.17) and backstroke (47.84), with that backstroke time 55 hundredths of a second faster than the current all-Finals record set in 2002 and the IM time 11 hundredths of a second faster than the all-Finals record set a year ago.
Micah DeJonge, Zeeland senior – Holds the top seed in the 500 freestyle (4:30.90) and third seed in the 200 (1:40.68) after taking fourth in both races a year ago.
Drew Grady, Birmingham Brother Rice senior – Finished second in the breaststroke and 10th in the 50 last season and might have the best chance of all his teammates to add an individual title with the seventh seed in the 100 (46.86) but the second, only hundredth of a second behind, in the breaststroke (57.98).
Jonathan Lee, Detroit Catholic Central sophomore – Should make a big jump after taking 13th in the breaststroke and qualifying in the IM as a freshman last season. Lee is seeded second in the IM (1:53.83) and first in the breaststroke (57.97) this weekend.
Trayton Saladin, Bridgman senior – The reigning champion in the 500 also finished ninth in the 200 free last season; he is seeded ninth in the 200 (1:44.16) and third in the 500 (4:40.70).
Gabriel Trevino, Zeeland junior – Finished sixth in the 100 freestyle and seventh in the IM in 2015, but enters this meet seeded first in the 50 (20.97) and fifth in the 100 (46.59).
Ryan Vander Meulen, Ann Arbor Skyline senior – Last season’s 200 freestyle champion in LP Division 2 will swim his final high school meet as the top seeds in LP Division 1 in the 200 (1:38.83) and 100 (45.92). He was second in the 100 in LP Division 2 last year.
Jake Herremans, Rockford senior – Posted the highest LP Division 1 Regional score by nearly 15 points after winning LP Division 1 Finals championships as both a sophomore and junior. His 528.45 score in 2015 is the meet record.
LP Division 2 at Saginaw Valley State University
Team contenders: Birmingham Seaholm has won the last two LP Division 2 titles but is ranked only fourth; top-ranked Dexter is the favorite to take the championship back after last winning in 2012 and finishing second in 2014. The Dreadnaughts have 14 top-16 seeds, including three top seeds, plus two divers after finishing third a year ago. Warren DeLaSalle, ranked second, has 19 top-16 seeds including two top seeds, and a diver. And don’t forget about fourth-ranked Seaholm, which has 12 seeded to score including two top seeds, plus the reigning diving champion and another who finished fourth at their Regional.
Scott Carstens, Battle Creek Lakeview senior – Finished fifth in the 50 and ninth in the backstroke last season and will look to finish his career with his first individual title; Carstens is seeded first in the 50 (20.97) and fifth in the backstroke (53.20).
P.J. Desmet, Warren DeLaSalle senior – Finished second in the backstroke and sixth in the butterfly last season and also is looking to go out with a first championship; he’s seeded first in the butterfly (51.58) and second in the backstroke (52.22) and also swims on the top-seeded 200 medley relay (1:35.38).
Graham Miotke, Rochester Adams sophomore – Should make a big jump after finishing 10th in the 500 and 14th in the 200 freestyle as a freshman. Miotke is seeded first in the 500 (4:36.96) by nearly nine seconds and fourth in the 200 (1:43.53).
Jacob Montague, Grosse Pointe South senior – The Blue Devils’ standout won Division 2 championships in the breaststroke and IM last season, setting meet records in both. He’s top-seeded in the breaststroke (56.96) and IM (1:49.40), by more than five seconds in the latter.
Nehemiah Mork, Midland Dow senior – The Dow speedster also won two races last season, the 50 and 100 freestyles. He’s seeded only third in the 50 (21.09) but only 12 hundredths of a second off the top, and first in the 100 (45.90) by more than a second.
Robbie Zofchak, Dexter senior – Part of the Dreadnaughts’ title hopes rest on Zofchak, last season’s champion in the backstroke (setting the meet record) who also finished second to Montague in the IM. He’s seeded first in the backstroke (50.44) and 200 freestyle (1:42.07) and swims on the top-seeded 400 freestyle relay (3:10.29).
Sebastian Fay, Birmingham Seaholm senior – He won last season’s championship by 9.9 points and is the favorite to repeat after posting the top Regional score in Division 2 by 39 points.
LP Division 3 at Eastern Michigan University
Team contenders: The last two LP Division 3 Finals have ended the same way – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood first and Chelsea second, by 130.5 points last season but by only 25 and a few tenths in 2014. The top-ranked Cranes have 18 top-16 seeds including three top seeds this time. East Grand Rapids, the champion in 2013 and third-place finisher last season, is ranked No. 2 and also has 18 seeded to score with three top seeds, plus brings a Regional diving champion in junior Grant Williams. Chelsea is expected to remain in the hunt, ranked No. 3 and with 14 seeded to score including two top seeds, plus two divers.
Rudy Aguilar, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep junior – Posted four top-eight places in Division 1 over his freshman and sophomore seasons at Brother Rice, including runner-up finishes in the 200 and 500 freestyles last year. He’s seeded second in the backstroke (52.52) and seventh in the 100 freestyle (48.33) this weekend.
Christian Bart, East Grand Rapids sophomore – Finished second in the breaststroke and IM as a freshman and is seeded second in the breaststroke (58.07) and first in the IM (1:53.44) this time.
Skyler Cook-Weeks, Holland Christian sophomore – After finishing second in the 500 and sixth in the 200 freestyles as a freshman, Cook-Weeks is seeded first in both with a time of 1:43.17 in the 200 and 4:37.77 in the 500.
Giorgio DelGrosso, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood senior – The reigning champion in the breaststroke also finished third in the IM last season; he’s seeded first in the breaststroke (57.94) and second to Bart in the IM (1:57.46).
Andy MacGregor, East Grand Rapids senior – He won the 100 and 200 freestyles last season and also has been part of two championship relays over the last two Finals. He’s seeded second to Skyler-Weeks in the 200 (1:44.06) and also second in the 100 (46.95) by two hundredths of a second.
Joey Mangner, Chelsea junior – He’s seeded just ahead of MacGregor in the 100 (46.93) after finishing second to him in 2015, and also seeded first in the 50 (21.02) after winning that race last season.
Alec Nyboer, Hamilton senior – Set the LP Division 3 meet record in winning the butterfly last season and also took third in the backstroke; he’s seeded first in the butterfly (50.40) and third in the backstroke (53.15).
Joey Puglessi, Grand Rapids Catholic Central senior – The reigning champion in the backstroke set the meet record last season and is seeded first this weekend (52.37). He’s also seeded sixth in the 200 (1:46.99) after placing 13th a year ago.
Andrew Trunsky, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood senior – Trunsky was first in the 500 and third in the 200 freestyles as a junior and is part of a strong field in both again, seeded second in the 500 (4:42.65) and fourth in the 200 (1:45.25).
East Grand Rapids 200 freestyle relay – Half the names are new after last season’s meet record-setting victory in 1:26.06. But Bart and MacGregor will join junior Cade Vruggink and senior Mitchell McMahon in an attempt at going faster. They enter with a top seed time of 1:26.91.
WO Last-Second Win Will Live Forever
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 29, 2019
They’re going to be talking about the final second of this swimming & diving season for a long time at Holland West Ottawa.
By sixth hundredths of that second, the Panthers edged Detroit Catholic Central to finish first in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals at Holland Aquatic Center. West Ottawa led DCC by only two points heading into that final race, and the 40 additional points for the win – compared to 34 for DCC as runner-up – clinched for the Panthers’ first MHSAA championship in this sport since 1971.
That would be plenty to earn West Ottawa the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” honor for March. But it’s just the finish of the story.
The Panthers also had come in runners-up last season and in 2015. They’ve won 47 straight dual meets, stretching back more than five seasons, and six straight league titles. West Ottawa also won all of its invitationals this winter.
But claiming the ultimate championship brought an even greater amount of significance to those achievements.
“This year, this was the expectation,” Panthers coach Steve Bowyer said. “Going into that last relay, there was a lot of pressure because this was a culmination of everything these seniors had been through the last four years. Obviously, as a coach, you’re just sitting there hoping it’s going to go your way, because of what the expectation has been.
“For this group of boys, even if they’d gone in and swam the way they did and gotten beat, it’s still a successful season. But this was the one meet these guys had been working for because we’ve gotten the previous conference championships and invite wins, and after finishing runner-up twice the last 4-5 years, this was the goal for this group.”
The Panthers secured the team win in part with first places in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley from senior Derek Maas, the 200 medley swam by Maas, senior Khadin Soto, junior Gavin Temple and freshman Kevin Maas and the 400 with junior Jamahl Hogan and senior Sam Smith leading off for Maas and then Soto.
The medley relay’s time of 1:31.01 was the third-fastest in MHSAA Finals history, all classes and divisions included. Maas’ IM time of 1:46.70 also ranked third in that event, and Soto’s runner-up time in the breaststroke of 55.33 ranked eighth on the all class/division list for that race. Maas won the butterfly in 48.02 and holds the West Ottawa school records that race and the IM, as does Soto in the breaststroke. The 200 medley relay also set a school mark this season, topping a record board that surely ranks as one of the most impressive in the state – consider that during this decade alone, West Ottawa had 11 individual and five relay Finals champions.
But the team title was another level of accomplishment.
The feeling on this run was different than when Bowyer led the West Ottawa girls team to the LPD1 title in Division 1, because of the great expectations. That girls team was looking for a third or fourth-place Finals finish but pushed into contention with a big first day.
This boys team was ranked No. 1, and as noted, finished first in every dual and invite – made all the more impressive considering West Ottawa’s Ottawa-Kent Conference Red also included LPD1 third-place Hudsonville, 13th-place Rockford, 18th-place Grand Haven and 31st-place East Kentwood.
Keep in mind as well that West Ottawa isn’t the only swimming power, much less MHSAA champion, in its community. Holland Christian won its second straight LPD3 title last month, and West Ottawa won by 35 points when those two met in December. West Ottawa also took a 46-point dual win over neighbor Zeeland, which went on to finish 12th in LPD1, and a 56-point dual win over Holland High, which finished 16th in LPD2.
All set the stage for the Panthers’ Finals run, and last-second win, which has been replayed during post-meet get-togethers, a school assembly, and when Bowyer has had some moments to himself as he’s watched it, said jokingly, “probably more than I should.”
“Being the number one-ranked team all year long, and to have some of the early success we had and put up the times we did, going into that meet, I felt pretty confident,” Bowyer said. “We felt it was going to be our year. We’d had good teams in the past. But a few years ago we ran into Brother Rice which was phenomenal, and Ann Arbor Skyline last year had a great year. This year, we felt it was our year.
“Detroit Catholic Central, I felt, had a phenomenal meet, made things closer than a lot of people expected, and I definitely tipped my hat to them. We feel fortunate to be on the winning end on that touch.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
February: Lowell wrestling – Read
January: Farmington United gymnastics – Read
December: Warren Woods-Tower wrestling – Read
November: Rochester Adams girls swimming & diving – Read
October: Leland boys soccer – Read
September: Pickford football – Read
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Holland West Ottawa celebrates its first MHSAA Finals championship in boys swimming & diving since 1971. (Middle) Khadin Soto was among the team’s stars during the LPD1 meet. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)