Rice 3-Peats at Meet Loaded with Stars
March 12, 2016
By Butch Harmon
Special for Second Half
HOLLAND – On paper, it appeared the Birmingham Brother Rice boys swimming and diving team had an easy road to winning the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Swimming and Diving Finals at the Holland Aquatic Center. Totaling 313 points, Brother Rice outdistanced second-place Saline by 77 points.
But winning the title, Brother’s Rice’s third consecutive, was anything but easy as the Warriors overcame plenty of obstacles during the season and then held off a number of impressive teams in this weekend.
“We went through a lot of adversity this year,” Brother Rice coach Mike Venos said. “We almost lost a kid to meningitis this year, and we also lost some kids that we expected to score points for us this year.”
To overcome the hurdles, Brother Rice closed ranks and used its overall team depth to march to its third straight title.
“This was the best team effort I’ve been around,” Venos added. “That was the big key for us, our team effort. Our overall team depth carried us all year. The kids understand that the most important thing is the Warrior on our chest and not any individual glory. They always put the team first.”
That team-first attitude showed up in the relays where Brother Rice swimmers won two of three and finished second in the third.
Brother Rice captured the 200-yard medley relay as sophomore Alex Margherio, senior Drew Grady, junior Jake Zalinski and junior Jack Grady turned in a winning time of 1:31.55. The Warriors also won the 400 freestyle relay as Zalinski, senior Bobby Powrie, Margherio and junior Patrick Olmsted turned in a winning time of 3:05.94.
Brother Rice also had an individual champion as Drew Grady won the 100 Breaststroke by more than two full seconds with a time of 55.18.
The lone relay not won by Brother Rice was the 200 Freestyle Relay. Ann Arbor Pioneer, the fifth-place finisher overall, captured race as senior Andrew Heise, senior Joe Riggs, junior Noah Frassrand and senior Jason Orringer-Hau turned in a time of 1:24.41 to edge Brother Rice by fourth tenths of a second.
Individually, Monroe senior Cameron Craig put on a spectacular show of swimming excellence, winning a pair of individual titles in LP Division 1 and all-Finals record times.
One of the top high school swimmers in the country, Craig won an MHSAA title as a sophomore. Last year, however, Craig took the year off from high school swimming to train for the upcoming Olympics.
“This is my senior year and I just wanted to come and see everyone that I competed against as a freshman and a sophomore,” Craig said. “This is really a good way to end the year.”
Craig, who will swim collegiately at Arizona State University, raced to victory in the 200 individual medley in a record time of 1:45.42. He set his second Division 1 and all-Finals record in the backstroke in a time of 47.33.
“I’ve been training real hard for this,” Craig said. “It was a goal of mine to win these state titles and set new all-class records.”
A local swimmer also came away with a pair of individual titles. Holland West Ottawa junior Spencer Carl won the closest event of the meet when he took first place in the 200 freestyle. Carl edged Ann Arbor Skyline’s Ryan Vander Meulen by one hundredth of a second in a time of 1:37.15 while Vander Meulen finished in 1:37.16.
“I’m extremely happy,” Carl said. “He was seeded a full second ahead of me. I think my underwaters were the difference. The last 25 yards I did super. That was what I’ve been focusing on all season.”
The MHSAA title was the first of Carl’s career, but he was not finished for the day. Four events later the local standout added a second title as he won the butterfly in 48.25. That time also set an LP Division 1 Finals record.
“It means a lot to do it close to home,” Carl said. “I had a lot of friends and family here. To do this in front of them is really special.”
Carl wasn’t the only local swimmer to shine in front of the hometown fans, as senior Micah DeJonge of nearby Zeeland won the 500 freestyle in a time of 4:29.23. DeJonge also helped Zeeland to a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay and a third-place finish as a team overall.
The diving competition developed into a tight, two-way battle between Saline junior Dakota Hurbis and Rockford senior Jake Herremans.
Herremans came into the event as the two-time reigning champion and LP Division 1 Finals record holder. Hurbis finished second as a freshman and third last year.
This time it was Hurbis who came out on top, as he totaled 516.8 to edge Herremans, who finished a score of 514.55.
“Going in, I really wanted this to be the best meet I’ve had,” Hurbis said. “I really focused on my dives, and once I started hitting my dives I got into a nice rhythm. This is really big for me.”
Hurbis’ efforts helped Saline secure a second-place finish in the team standings.
Jackson O’Dowd, a senior from Livonia Stevenson, was another swimmer who broke through. He won the 50 freestyle in 20.70.
“I finished third in two events last year,” O’Dowd said. “This is a big deal for me and a lot of fun. I was really hoping to win one my senior year.”
Vander Meulen, a champion last season in LP Division 2, did win a close race Saturday in the 100 freestyle. His time of 45.75 edged Henry Schutte of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central by four hundredths of a second. Skyline finished fourth overall as a team.
PHOTOS: (Top) Members of the Brother Rice boys swimming and diving team hoist an MHSAA Finals championship trophy for the third straight season. (Middle) Monroe’s Cameron Craig swims the individual medley, one of two races he won on the day. (Below) Holland West Ottawa's Spencer Carl swims for the win in the butterfly. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Seaholm Dominates in Regaining D2 Title
March 8, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
YPSILANTI – One by one, members of the Birmingham Seaholm boys swimming and diving team approached coach Tom Wyllie – who was completely soaked after a post-meet dip in the pool – and greeted him with a big hug.
When one swimmer offered a handshake, Wyllie insisted on a hug.
“It’s hugs; we’re all family,” Wyllie told the swimmer. “Soak it in.”
They were soaking in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 champions after a dominating performance Saturday at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
Seaholm started the meet with an emphatic statement – an LP Division 2 Finals record performance in winning the 200 medley relay – and ended with a huge exclamation mark – another LP Division 2-record performance in winning the 400 freestyle relay. In between, Seaholm won the 200 freestyle relay, and junior Jack Russell captured the 200 IM for the Maples’ only individual championship of the meet.
The Maples finished with 357.5 points in a complete domination of the meet as Dexter was second with 203. They also won the MHSAA championship in 2011 and were second in 2012 and third in 2013.
Seaholm had 10 swimmers qualify for at least one individual event, and nine swimmers qualified in two. That all happened in an outstanding effort during preliminaries Friday.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 16 years of coaching,” Wyllie said of Friday’s performance. “We were very deep across the board; we had swimmers qualify in every event, and we qualified four 100 freestylers in the top eight – and only had one individual state champion.
“That goes to that team concept – it takes a team to win.”
The 200 medley relay opened in impressive fashion as Evan Burke, Russell, Cliff Ross and Matt Perham won in 1 minute, 33.41 seconds, narrowly edging Grosse Pointe South’s effort of 1:34.23. The previous LP Division 2 Finals record was 1:34.81 set by Holland in 2013.
“That relay probably would not have been that fast if it had not been for Grosse Pointe South,” Wyllie said. “They were right there with us neck and neck and pushing us really hard. We walked away with the win and a record on top of that. It just set the tone for the rest of the day.”
The individual highlight of the day for Seaholm came in the third race – the 200 IM – when Russell won in 1:52.10 – more than a second better than his time in the preliminaries. Robbie Zofchak of Dexter was a close second in 1:52.28.
“I had no clue if I won,” Russell said. “When I touched, I just looked at the board and saw first. I thought he caught me on the end.
“My coach told me that I would have him on the breaststroke, but he’ll be gunning for me on the freestyle. When I looked over in the last 25, I saw he was catching me off the turn. I just put my head down, didn’t breathe and touched the wall and hoped for the best.”
Russell also was third in the 100 breaststroke and swam the second leg on the winning 200 medley relay team.
While Seaholm had only one individual champion, it had several standouts.
- Senior Nathan Anderson was on both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays that won, and he also tied for second in the 100 freestyle and was third in the 50 freestyle. “The most important part of that day was getting first with my relays,” Anderson said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that without them. Because of them, I got what I wanted – I got my first place.”
- Junior Enrique Hernandez was on the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays in addition to taking fourth in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 200 freestyle.
- Senior Mike Shaben also swam on the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and was fifth in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the 100 freestyle.
- Perham, a senior, was on the winning 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay, and added a sixth-place finish in the 50 freestyle and an eighth-place finish in the 100 backstroke.
- Burke, Cliff Ross and Nick Ross each were on one winning relay team. Burke added a fourth-place finish in the 200 IM and was seventh in the 100 breaststroke. Nick Ross was seventh in the 200 freestyle and eighth in the 100 freestyle, while Cliff Ross was seventh in the 100 butterfly.
- Sophomore Sebastian Fay was runner-up in diving after placing 24th a year ago.
With the team championship secure, Seaholm went into the final event – the 400 freestyle relay – on a mission. Crosstown rival Birmingham Groves set the meet record of 3:05.63 in 2011, and in the preliminaries Friday, Seaholm was in the neighborhood with a 3:06.99.
They weren’t to be denied in the final, with Anderson, Shaben, Nick Ross and Hernandez teaming up to win in 3:05.13, shaving a half-second off the LP Division 2 record.
“The state record has always been one of our goals,” Shaben said. “The entire season we’ve been eying it. Two seniors, Nathan Anderson and me, we’ve really wanted to end our season with that record.”
While Seaholm dominated, there were other standouts as well led by Holland senior Thomas Rathbun. He successfully defended his championships in both the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. His winning time of 4:28.75 in the latter was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the runner-up, and he won the 200 in 1:38.74.
Both times were better than his winning performances from 2013.
“I feel like that was the most important part,” Rathbun said of his times. “The placing doesn’t mean that much to me – it’s great to be first – but to me it’s more about the times and if I improve on myself.”
Rathbun also was rebounding from a difficult situation last summer.
“Coming into the season, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” he said. “I had an off-summer dealing with some mono and bronchitis, so it was a slow start.
“I worked through some stuff, and now it feels pretty good.”
The other successful defending champion was junior John Vann of Battle Creek Lakeview, who repeated in the 100 butterfly. His winning time of 49.23 was better than his 50.83 in 2013.
“It feels really good,” said Vann, who also was second in the 200 freestyle. “I was definitely more confident this year just knowing I had a state championship under my belt, and it just felt really good that I could compete with everybody and just get out there and race them.
“I took it out a lot faster than Friday, and it hurt a lot more in the end, but it was definitely worth it.”
White Lake Lakeland senior Will Walker, who finished second to Vann in the 100 butterfly, won the 50 freestyle in 20.83 seconds, while Nick Leshok of North Farmington won the 100 freestyle in 46.03 seconds.
The 100 backstroke went to Jason Wesseling of Jenison in 50.05 (just off the meet record of 50.04), and Xinghao Wang of Grand Ledge took the 100 breaststroke in 55.77 seconds.
The diving portion of the meet went to Swartz Creek senior Jason Maxwell, who outdistanced the field with 437.50 points as runner-up Fay of Seaholm had 375.20. Maxwell had a healthy lead for his final dive – a reverse double somersault in the tuck position.
However, the day and the meet belonged to Seaholm.
“Everybody played their part – the hugs – we’re one giant family,” Wyllie said. “When family cares about each other, you don’t want to let each other down. Everybody does their part.
“My son was on the last state championship with me. He was a senior and a captain, so that was a different feeling. I was wondering how this one would feel, and it feels like I have 45 sons; it’s just incredible. Both state titles are unique in their own way.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Swimmers launch for a leg of a relay Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final. (Middle) A swimmer surges ahead during his race at Eastern Michigan University. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)