Preview: Fast Finals in Weekend Forecast
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 25, 2021
Lower Peninsula boys swimming & diving has come back in a big, or rather really fast, way this winter.
The sport was halted days before last season’s MHSAA Finals. But contenders have sped through this season at an impressive pace – and have loaded this weekend’s championship meets with plenty of storylines.
Diving is Friday and all swimming Saturday – click for more meet details (and note that in Division 3 all diving is at Hamilton High School and all swimming at the Holland Aquatic Center). Because of the large numbers of participants, spectators are not allowed this weekend – but both days of all three meets will be streamed live and viewable with subscription on MHSAA.tv.
Here’s a glance at team and individual favorites:
Lower Peninsula Division 1 at Hudsonville
Top-ranked teams: 1. Ann Arbor Pioneer, 2. Holland West Ottawa, 3. Detroit Catholic Central.
With no Finals competed in 2020, Holland West Ottawa remains the reigning champion – and is expected to give a mighty Pioneer team its strongest competition. Pioneer is seeking its first championship since 2009 and first top-two Finals finish since 2011, and enters with all three relays and 25 individual entries seeded to score plus three divers competing. West Ottawa will have all three relays competing with 11 individual entries seeded to score. DCC was the runner-up to West Ottawa at that most recent Finals two seasons ago, and the Shamrocks will attempt to earn their first championship with all three relays and 12 entries seeded to score and one diver competing.
Matt Adanin, Saline junior – He’s the favorite in the backstroke at his first Finals with a seed time of 49.94, and he’s also seeded third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.76).
Conner Halberg, Northville senior – After also qualifying as a top contender in the 500 and 200 freestyles last season, Halberg enters this weekend top-seeded in the 500 (4:36.8) and second-seeded in the 200 (1:40.94).
Dane Herrick, Lake Orion senior – The top seed in the 50 (21.01) and fourth seed in the 100 freestyle (46.82) also was slated to contend in both in 2020.
Ryan Hume, Ann Arbor Pioneer junior – Slated to swim other races last season, Hume is a favorite in his pair of individual events this weekend with the top seed in the individual medley (1:52.58) and second seed in the 500 (4:37.74).
Matthew Segal, Ann Arbor Pioneer senior – He earned a third in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the breaststroke as a sophomore and was the favorite in the breaststroke and second-seeded in the IM last season. He comes into this weekend seeded first in both the 200 free (1:39.62) and breaststroke (53.99), the latter with a time only four tenths of a second off the all-division/class Finals record.
Fletcher Smith, Huron Valley United junior – He qualified in the backstroke and butterfly last year and this weekend should contend in both with the top seed in the butterfly (50.58) and seventh in the 200 free.
Jack VanHowe, Rochester junior – A backstroke contender and 100 free qualifier a year ago, he is the top seed in the 100 (46.35) and second seed in the backstroke (50.02) this time.
Ann Arbor Pioneer’s 400 freestyle relay – The Pioneers’ top seed time of 3:04.99 is 2.9 seconds faster than the field and 2.93 seconds off the all-division/class Finals record.
Cole Tremewan, Ann Arbor Pioneer senior – He finished fifth at the Finals as a freshman and second as a sophomore, and his 507.55 Regional score last week was nearly 27 points higher than the next contender’s total and one of only five scores across the three Regionals above 400.
Lower Peninsula Division 2 at Jenison
Top-ranked teams: 1. Birmingham Seaholm, 2. Grosse Pointe South, 3. Ann Arbor Skyline.
The Maples will be competing for a first team championship since winning back-to-back in 2014 and 2015 and enter the weekend with all three relays and 13 entries seeded to score plus three divers competing. Grosse Pointe South will make a run at its first team title since 1968, boasting all three relays and nine entries seeded to score and a diver competing. Skyline chased Pioneer during the regular season and could join its neighbor as a champion with all three relays and 10 entries seeded to score, plus a diver. Skyline won the Division 1 championship in 2018.
Aidan Boldt, St. Clair Shores Lakeview senior – He finished fourth in the 200 and 500 freestyles as a sophomore and had top-three seeds in both heading into last year’s Finals. This weekend he has the top seed in the 200 (1:42.16) and second seed in the 500 (4:39.05).
Gianni Carlino, Grosse Pointe North junior – He and Boldt will be chasing each other; Carlino also was expected to contend in the 200 and 500 freestyles last season and has the second seed in the 200 (1:42.90) and top seed in the 500 (4:38.84) this weekend.
Michael Grover, Byron Center junior – He made a jump to the fifth seed in the breaststroke in 2020 and this time is the top seed in that race (56.73) and eighth seed in the IM.
Jack Hamilton, Berkley senior – Hamilton has another chance to build on his backstroke championship and third place in the IM as a sophomore. He’s the top seed in the backstroke (49.30) for the third season in a row and this time by nearly two seconds, and he’s also the second seed in the IM (1:51.94).
Trevor Jones, Farmington senior – The top-seeded contender in both the IM (1:51.79) and 100 free (45.55) was ninth in the butterfly in Division 1 as a sophomore and expected to contend in the butterfly and 200 free in Division 2 last season.
Avery LeTourneau, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central senior – He was seeded to score in both the 200 free and butterfly last season and is again, this time sixth in the 200 and the favorite in the butterfly (49.69).
Micah Scheffer, Temperance Bedford junior – After taking fifth in the 50 and 11th in the 100 freestyle as a freshman, Scheffer was seeded eighth in both the 50 and butterfly last season. But this weekend he’s moved up to the top seed in the 50 (21.07) and third in the butterfly (50.72).
Kameron Liberman, Birmingham Seaholm senior – His 525.45 was the highest in all of Division 3’s Regionals last week. He improved from 12th at the Finals as a freshman to fifth as a sophomore.
Lower Peninsula Division 3 at Holland Aquatic Center/Hamilton
Top-ranked teams: 1. East Grand Rapids, 2. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 3. Holland Christian.
Even after the year off, there are some interesting streaks worth noting in this division. The 2018 and 2019 Division 3 Finals ended with Holland Christian as champion and East Grand Rapids as runner-up, and the Pioneers have actually finished second four straight seasons and last won the team title in 2013. Cranbrook was the champion four straight seasons from 2014-17. The Pioneers will bring potentially the two strongest divers plus all three relays and 13 entries seeded to score, while Cranbrook will lean on three relays and nine entries seeded among the top 16 in their events. Holland Christian’s three-peat could rely on three relays and 10 top-16 individual entries, plus a diver.
Charles Brown, Spring Lake junior – Brown has jumped from an expected middle-placing sprinter in 2020 to a major contender with the second-fastest 50 seed time (21.14) and best in the butterfly (51.08).
Jonas Cantrell, Mason senior – Cantrell is another of a handful of past champions getting another shot as he’s seeded first in both the 200 (1:40.01) and 500 (4:34.97) freestyles after winning the 500 and finishing third in the 200 as a sophomore.
Andrew Dobrzanski, Milan junior – Dobrzanski also is a past champion, having won the breaststroke and taken second in the IM in 2019. He’s seeded first in both this weekend with seed times of 54.79 and 1:50.87, respectively.
Colin Kalkman, Holland Christian senior – Kalkman was third in the IM and fifth in the backstroke and part of a championship relay two seasons ago, and he returns as the top seed in the 100 free (47.04) and second in the backstroke (53.04).
Tyler Ray, Pinckney junior – He was off to a great start with an eighth in the butterfly and 12th in the backstroke as a freshman and qualified for both in Division 2 a year ago. Back in Division 3 this weekend, he’s seeded first in the backstroke (52.95) and second in the butterfly (51.44).
Jacob Ryan, Detroit Country Day senior – He has posted a combined three top-eight Finals finishes in the 50 or 100 freestyles and was expected to pick up two more last season. He could be in for a big high school finale seeded first in the 50 (21.01) and second in the 100 (48.02) this weekend.
Charley Bayer, East Grand Rapids junior – Pioneers divers posted the two highest total scores at Regionals, with Bayer edging senior teammate Billy Kirchgessner. Bayer was eighth as a freshman in 2019, when then-sophomore Kirchgessner finished third, and both were slated to dive last season as well.
PHOTO: Matthew Segal, here against Ann Arbor Huron on Feb. 25, brings a pair of individual top seeds into the Division 1 Finals as he attempts to help top-ranked Pioneer secure its first team title since 2009. (Photo courtesy of We Love Ann Arbor.)
Dexter Extends Finals Win Streak to 4
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
March 9, 2019
YPSILANTI – It was only fitting that Casey Dolen was the last swimmer in the pool for Dexter on Saturday at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Boys Swimming & Diving Finals at Eastern Michigan University.
He was a member of the Dreadnaughts’ 2016 championship team. And he was there in 2017 and 2018 as well.
Dolen was the first to touch the wall in the 400-yard freestyle relay, helping his team win the event and lock down the program’s fourth straight Division 2 championship. He, along with senior Niklas Eberly and sophomores Michael Baumann and Clayton Kinnard, finished in a time of 3:06.84, comfortably beating out runner-up Birmingham Groves – which finished second overall in the team standings.
“This is a great group of kids, and to send these seniors out with four in a row is really special,” said Dexter head coach Michael McHugh, whose program has won five Finals titles since the 2012 season. “That’s our goal all year, but we never take anything for granted.
“The guys really stepped up. We knew Groves was going to come out strong. Our job was to not panic, not overreact and keep doing what we were doing. We knew we had a little bit of a lead (entering Saturday), so as long as we were mistake-free, we’d be OK.”
Groves did indeed come out strong. The Falcons quartet of senior David Helton, juniors Nolan Kamoo and Jackson Gugni and senior Hunter Reilly upended Dexter’s top-seeded 200 medley relay team to start the meet. Their time of 1:34.70 was the best of the weekend and gave their team an early six-point lead over the Dreadnaughts.
But it didn’t take long for Dexter to make its move. A runner-up finish by Dolen in the 200 freestyle helped cut Groves’ lead to three points – and it seemed to get the ball rolling for the Dreadnaughts.
Kinnard’s eighth-place finish in the next race, the 200 individual medley, gave his team an eight-point lead, one which it would not relinquish the rest of the day.
Dexter finished with 239 team points, besting Groves (203) and third-place Birmingham Seaholm (181.5). Midland Dow (162.5) and Grosse Pointe South (149) rounded out the top five.
Eberly was the star of the meet for Dexter. He won both the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly events. His 20.40 seconds in the 50 matched his preliminary time and beat runner-up Luke Lezotte of Midland Dow by a tenth of a second.
His time of 47.79 in the 100 butterfly helped him repeat in the event. Walled Lake Northern’s Zane Rosely was a distant second, with a time of 49.94.
“It was definitely a goal of mine, since I started high school, to break 47,” Eberly said. “You don’t see a lot of high schoolers do it. It really sets you up well going into college like that. I knew I could do 47.5 if I really tried. I fell a little bit short, but I’m unbelievably happy with 47.7. I think it’s a phenomenal time.”
Eberly was one of the top swimmers entering the finals and knew he needed to swim up to those high expectations if his team was to have a chance to four-peat.
“I was super happy to be able to hold my places and help the team,” he said. “My situation is definitely different than other kids’. A lot of them have to step up, climb up, maybe they’re seeded eighth or 16th and they have no place to go but up. Going into states, I have nowhere to go but down. So it really adds a lot of pressure.”
Joining Eberly as a two-event winner was Fraser junior Alex Capizzo, who was victorious in both the 200 IM and 500 freestyle, a pair of events he also won a year ago. He beat out Rosely in the IM and Walled Lake Western junior Eric Hieber in the 500.
Hieber easily won the 200 freestyle, beating out Dolen by more than 1½ seconds.
Dolen did pick up an individual title, narrowly edging Lezotte by two hundredths of a second in the 100 freestyle.
Other individual winners included Jack Hamilton of Berkley, whose time of 50.51 in the backstroke helped him beat out runner-up Ben Conroy of Gibraltar Carlson by nearly a second. And Byron Center senior Jacob Glover bested the field in the 100 breaststroke, finishing in a winning time of 56.38
Midland Dow’s Che Collin, Zach Fewkes, Hans Dehn and Lezotte swam a time of 1:25.13 to take first place in the 200 freestyle relay.
In the diving competition, Okemos junior Hunter Hollenbeck repeated as champion, scoring 462.95 points. Rochester Adams sophomore SooDong Kim and Wyandotte Roosevelt freshman Hudson Hill finished second and third, respectively, both eclipsing 400 points.
Groves, which finished third behind Dexter and Rochester Adams a year ago, is losing a few key seniors to graduation, but returns a good nucleus of athletes, which has head coach Ricky Forrest excited for what lies ahead for his team.
“(Dexter is) an experienced team, and I’ve got a lot of respect for what Mike does with his guys. Every single year, no matter where they’re at on the psych sheet, every team here knows that they’re going to bring it,” Forrest said. “We had an outstanding day during the prelims on Friday and a really good day (on Saturday). We’re going to be missing a lot of (senior) leadership and we’re going to need some boys to step up next year, but we’ve still got a really good core and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Rochester Adams finished sixth overall with 138 points, with Gibraltar Carlson (120), Detroit U-D Jesuit (102.5), Walled Lake Western (91) and Temperance-Bedford (86.5) rounding out the top 10.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dexter senior Niklas Eberly swims the winning butterfly during Saturday’s Division 2 Finals at Eastern Michigan University. (Middle) Finishers in the 100 freestyle, including Dexter champion Casey Dolen, look to the scoreboard after their race. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)