Skyline Soars to 1st Finals Championship
March 10, 2018
By Jason Schmitt
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – The groundwork was laid Friday.
But the celebration was years in the making.
At the conclusion of the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Swimming & Diving Finals at Eastern Michigan University, Ann Arbor Skyline coach Mo-Jo Isaac performed a near-perfect back flip off the 3-meter diving board – something she’s been doing for years when her teams accomplish something special.
The occasion certainly called for the coach to take a dip in Jones Natatorium Saturday afternoon. The Hawks cruised past the competition, scoring 274 team points to top the field and bring home the first MHSAA championship in program history.
“Whenever my girls teams (at Skyline) would accomplish a milestone, or something big would happen, that’s kind of what we do,” said Isaac, who’s in her second year coaching the boys program. “Today, I had kind of forgotten about it, but a bunch of our girls were here to cheer on the guys and they were like, ‘No, Coach Mo-Jo, you’ve got to jump.’ ”
Skyline picked up wins in five of the meet’s 12 events, with senior David Cleason leading the way with a pair of individual titles. He was tops in the 200-yard individual medley, winning in a time of 1:49.81. He also bested the field in the 500 freestyle, where he edged out Livonia Stevenson’s Ben Rojewski with a time of 4:30.50.
Cleason’s teammate, Michael MacGillivray, was second in the 200 IM, while winning a title of his own in the 100 breaststroke (55.01). Both Cleason and MacGillivray were members of the team’s winning 400 freestyle relay, with senior Samuel Jyawook and junior Kyle Tschannen. Their winning time was 3:04.99, beating out runner-up Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and third-place Harrison-Farmington Unified.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Cleason, who accounted for 40 points by himself and helped his team earn 50 more in the two relay events he swam. “Me and Michael (MacGillivray) have been dreaming about winning that 4x100 free relay and winning the team title for so long and now that we’re seniors, doing it and winning it in our last swim meet, it’s perfect.”
Skyline’s final individual event championship came in the 1-meter diving event. Junior Henry Schirmer repeated as champion, scoring 503.85 points to outdistance runner-up Cade Hammond of Brighton, who scored 448.45.
“I feel like we won the meet yesterday, even though no one scored a point,” Isaac said. “We talked about doing it as a team, and we couldn’t do it if everyone wasn’t there for each other. We were on fire yesterday and we qualified really well.”
Holland West Ottawa, which entered the Finals ranked No. 2 in the state behind Skyline, lived up to its ranking by finishing second with 207 points. The Panthers won two of the three relays and saw junior Derek Maas capture the 100 backstroke title. Maas, who finished runner-up in the event a year ago, left nothing to chance Saturday, winning in a time of 50.23, better than a second ahead of runner-up Parker Wasielewski of Livonia Stevenson.
Maas joined teammates Julian Barrios, Ryan Langdon and Khadin Soto on the Panthers’ winning 200 medley relay team (1:31.91). Langdon, Barrios, Jacob Boersema and Sam Smith took top honors in the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:24.54.
Forest Hills Central junior Henry Schutte repeated as champion in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events. His time of 20.01 in the preliminary Friday set an all-Division MHSAA Finals record in the 50. He nearly duplicated the feat Saturday, finishing with a winning time of 20.04. Zeeland’s Austin Mills was second in the 50, while Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Adam Orringer-Hau was runner-up to Schutte in the 100.
“I am beyond happy with everything I did today,” said Schutte, who helped his team to a fourth-place finish. “I have to thank my coaches, my family, my teammates, shoot, even the people in my races. We’re all pushing each other to do our best, and every race is so fun. I love it.”
Orringer-Hau, the top seed in the 200 freestyle, won the event in a time of 1:38.66. He was third at last year’s Finals.
Four-time reigning team champion Birmingham Brother Rice had its streak end, but not without a fight. The Warriors finished third, behind Skyline and West Ottawa, with 154 points. Senior Alex Margherio captured the lone individual title for Rice, winning the 100 butterfly in a time of 48.43. Howell’s Henry Bauer was second in a time of 50.09.
Northville finished fifth overall with 141 team points, with Ann Arbor Pioneer (131), Detroit Catholic Central (127), Saline (116), Zeeland (100) and Harrison-Farmington (81) rounding out the top 10.
PHOTOS: (Top) Skyline's Henry Schirmer rotates through one of his dives on the way to repeating as LP Division 1 champion Saturday. (Middle) Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central's Henry Schutte looks to the scoreboard as the other competitors in the 50 finish their sprints. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Performance: Holland Christian's Skyler Cook-Weeks
March 17, 2018
Skyler Cook-Weeks
Holland Christian senior – Swimming
Cook-Weeks capped an outstanding career at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Saginaw Valley State University with two more individual and two relay titles to help Holland Christian to its first MHSAA team title since 1989 and earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Cook-Weeks won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:37.27 and the 500 in 4:25.84, and also swam on the victorious 200 (1:24.89) and 400 (3:04.52) freestyle relays. His individual wins and the 400 freestyle relay all set meet records. Total, he finished his high school career with four individual and three relay Finals championships. All four times from Saturday also set school records, and Cook-Weeks also tops Holland Christian’s all-time leaderboard in the 50 (20.62) and 100 (45.03) freestyles.
After following five-time Finals individual champion brother Parker Cook-Weeks through Holland Christian, Skyler also will follow Parker to Queens University (N.C.) – which is competing this weekend for a fourth straight NCAA Division II championship. Skyler plans to study business and architectural design and spends part of his Holland Christian school day in work study with an uncle’s construction company.
Coach Todd Smeenge said: “Skyler’s success has been due to a strong work ethic and drive to get faster. Skyler sets goals that are just far enough out that he has to really work hard to make those goals. He is not the biggest kid on the team, but his heart makes up for what he might lack in stature, and his stamina takes over from there. Skyler is like the energizer bunny in the pool. It's not often that a workout taxes him beyond what his body can handle. When it does, he recovers and attacks his goals again the next day. … As far as the team goes, his work ethic pushes a lot of his peers, but it is really his words of encouragement to younger athletes, guys that are trying out the sport for the first time, that is going to be missed. He isn't flashy about it, but I often see the little things he does and says on the deck at meets that encourages or positively challenges those newer or younger swimmers.”
Performance Point: “The end part was the best part,” Cook-Weeks said of Saturday’s Finals, “because that’s when we won the meet and sealed it off with the 400 free relay, and that sealed the whole thing for us to win our first championship in 20 years. … Each practice we would always push each other to be the best; even if it was warm-up we would go fast. But once we got to the main sets, that’s where we’d push each other. Even for the kids who just started out, their freshman year, we wanted to push them to be the best that they can be. … I’m happy with how it turned out. At the beginning of the season, if somebody would say, ‘You’re going to win a state championship at the end of the season,’ I would say I don’t think we would. But in the end, we got it done.”
Picked up from Parker: “After my sophomore year, I went to his DII nationals in Indianapolis, and I went there and I watched how their team interacted with each other and treated everyone. And I took that to my junior year and to my senior year, to be more interactive – help people with what they need to be helped with and be a better teammate and a better leader.”
Building faith: “I think (becoming a leader) helped me become a better person, and it helped my faith a lot because my faith when I came in as a freshman wasn’t that good. But it progressed better and better throughout the years. I got into praying before each race, and praying for others that they could do the best they could do.”
Mr. Versatile: “I’ve always been known as a distance swimmer, but I kinda developed into more of a sprinter. So I can do the 50 and 100 but I was really known for the 200, 500, 1,000 and mile. When I first swam (the mile) in the summer of 2014, I wanted to scratch out of it because I hadn’t done it before. It took forever. Once I swam the mile for the first time, I went a pretty decent time. After that I developed into a different swimmer with a lot of endurance. I want to try to take that into sprint events because that’s where I can help out the team.”
Back on dry land: “Everyone at school has probably only known me as a swimmer, like that’s all he focuses on. But when I get home I like to watch other sports and hang around with friends. … I like to watch football – I root for the Carolina Panthers.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2017-18 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2017-18 honorees:
March 8: Dakota Greer, Howard City Tri-County wrestling - Read
March 1: Camree' Clegg, Wayne Memorial basketball - Read
February 23: Aliah Robertson, Sault Ste. Marie swimming - Read
February 16: Austin O'Hearon, Eaton Rapids wrestling - Read
February 9: Sophia Wiard, Muskegon Oakridge basketball - Read
February 2: Brenden Tulpa, Hartland hockey - Read
January 25: Brandon Whitman, Dundee wrestling - Read
January 18: Derek Maas, Holland West Ottawa swimming - Read
January 11: Lexi Niepoth, Bellaire basketball - Read
November 30: La'Darius Jefferson, Muskegon football - Read
November 23: Ashley Turak, Farmington Hills Harrison swimming - Read
November 16: Bryce Veasley, West Bloomfield football - Read
November 9: Jose Penaloza, Holland soccer - Read
November 2: Karenna Duffey, Macomb L'Anse Creuse North cross country - Read
October 26: Anika Dy, Traverse City Central golf - Read
October 19: Andrew Zhang, Bloomfield Hills tennis - Read
October 12: Nolan Fugate, Grand Rapids Catholic Central football - Read
October 5: Marissa Ackerman, Munising tennis - Read
September 28: Minh Le, Portage Central soccer - Read
September 21: Olivia Theis, Lansing Catholic cross country - Read
September 14: Maddy Chinn, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Skyler Cook-Weeks launches during the 200-yard freestyle at the LP Division 3 Finals. (Middle) Cook-Weeks follows the line on the way to the start for the 500. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)