Dexter Secures D2 Title in Final Race
November 21, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
ROCHESTER HILLS — All of her obligations for the weekend were complete.
Sophomore Annette Schultz won three events and anchored the championship-clinching relay performance as Dexter edged East Grand Rapids by five points for the team title in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 meet Saturday at Oakland University.
She went through all of the post-meet celebrations, standing on the podium with her teammates to accept the trophy, diving into the pool with them and their coaches (still in street clothes), posing with the trophy and conducting an interview.
Everything started to sink in as Schultz picked up her belongings from the pool-side bleachers, the last Dexter swimmer to depart the deck.
"Whew!" she said. "What a fun week!"
Fun, indeed.
Schultz started the finals popping off Dexter's winning 200-yard medley relay team, won the 200 and 100 freestyle races and capped the championship by securing third place for the Dreadnaughts in the 400 relay.
Dexter needed to finish in the top five in the final event, which East Grand Rapids won. The 32 points the Dreadnaughts received for taking third gave them a 256-251 victory over the Pioneers, who moved into Division 2 after winning the Division 3 title the last two years.
It is the second MHSAA title for Dexter, which won Division 2 in 2002. The Dreadnaughts have been second seven times, including three times to East Grand Rapids, which has a record 19 MHSAA championships.
How much did it bother Schultz that she didn't win all four of her events?
"It's not a problem at all," she said with a smile. "I'm very proud of getting that third, because we got first overall."
Schultz's two individual victories came in stacked fields that featured swimmers with MHSAA titles on their resumes.
With a time of 1:47.89 in the 200 freestyle, Schultz won by a sizeable margin of 3.35 seconds over Rochester Adams senior Claire McGinnis, who would go on to win the 500 freestyle. Taking third was East Grand Rapids senior Emily Converse, who was on two winning relays Saturday after winning seven of her eight events the last two years in Division 3.
In the 100 freestyle, Schultz won in 50.34 seconds to edge Bloomfield Hills Marian junior Sophia Schott by 0.33 seconds. Earlier, Schott won the 50 freestyle. Taking third was East Grand Rapids' Gabby Higgins, who won four events in Division 3 last year and two relays on Saturday. Fifth-place Lexus VanHoven of East Grand Rapids has five career MHSAA victories in relays.
"The 100 freestyle was anyone's game," said Schultz, who was named the Division 2 Swimmer of the Meet by the coaches association. "That was a race to the death on that one. I was so glad I got that third one. That was cool. All those girls pushed me to get there."
With two events remaining, Dexter was in third place with 188 points, 20 behind East Grand Rapids. The Dreadnaughts' comeback started in the 100-yard breaststroke, which Dexter senior Lizzy Merriman won in 1:03.68. Senior Kate Mesaros picked up 16 crucial points by taking third in 1:04.15.
"I was really nervous going in, because last year I was seeded second going into the finals and ended up getting sixth," Merriman said. "It was good to have one of my teammates next to me racing me. I have to give some credit to her, because she's my building block, I guess. It was pretty painful, but still good."
The performances of Merriman and Mesaros gave Dexter a one-point lead over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and a 13-point cushion over East Grand Rapids.
The Dreadnaughts closed the deal when the 400 freestyle relay team of senior Sarah Lynch, sophomore Sarah Zofchak, sophomore Amelia Kinnard and Schultz took third. Schultz closed with a 100-yard leg of 49.61 seconds, the fastest split in the event.
"I gave them the game plan," Dexter coach Cory Bergen said. "Safe starts and go like (crazy) when you hit the water. I went over it about 1,000 times, so they knew. I have the fastest freestyler in the meet at the end; we knew what we had to do."
Forest Hills Central was also in contention heading into the final event, finishing third with 247 points. A remarkable 80 of those points came in diving, as the Rangers swept the first four places and added another all-state finish with a seventh.
Junior Erin Neely repeated as the diving champion with a score of 485.20 points, a Division 2 meet record and only 4.35 points shy of the Lower Peninsula all-Finals mark set by Albion's Elyse Lee in 2003.
"I just felt like it was any other meet," Neely said. "Just go in there and dive."
Sophomore Colleen Kramer was second, junior Nicki Bailey third, senior Allison Fitzgerald fourth and junior Nicole Carlson seventh for Forest Hills Central.
"We really push each other to do our best," Kramer said. "It's nice to compete against them, because I'm always trying to do better and better."
No other team has swept even the top three places in the Lower Peninsula Finals. By putting five divers in the top seven, Forest Hills Central eclipsed the five divers in the top 10 by Birmingham Groves at the 1983 Class A meet.
"All of them increased their (personal records) by at least 30 points, which is so cool to watch as a coach," said Forest Hills Central diving coach Jasmine Ramahi, a former diver for Grand Valley State University.
"What's so great is they're all so close competitively diving-wise, but they can put that aside and be friends. It's really cool to watch how they push each other, because they know they're each other's best competition."
Proving that the Rangers' program isn't one-dimensional, sophomore Felicity Buchmaier took to the pool in the first event after diving and won the 100 butterfly in 55.60 seconds. Buchmaier was third last year behind senior Taylor Garcia of Holland and sophomore Emma Cleason of Ann Arbor Skyline, which moved into Division 1.
"I had a little bit of a feeling, because Skyline had left to go to Division 1 and Taylor Garcia graduated," Buchmaier said. "I came in third last year, so subconsciously I guess it was in my mind, but I had never dreamed it. I started crying yesterday when I knew I was the first seed; it was crazy."
Senior Claire Young became the first Grosse Pointe South swimmer to win two events in the same MHSAA Finals, taking the 200 individual medley in 2:04.78 and the 100 backstroke in 55.20 seconds.
"It's amazing," Young said. "It's been four long years training and working with awesome teammates helping me through it."
Defending-champion Marian finished in fourth place with 214.5 points. Leading the Mustangs was one of the stalwarts from their championship team, junior Sophia Schott. She repeated as the 50 freestyle champion in a personal-best 22.99 seconds. She won in 23.66 seconds last year, and has five MHSAA titles to her credit.
"It was my goal this year to break 23," Schott said. "I'm so happy I did it. I know I could never have done it without my teammates' support. Right before a race when you're super, super nervous, like so scared, you just look at your teammates, take a deep breath and it's like, 'I can breathe; they're all supporting me.'"
Rochester Adams’ McGinnis, who competed in club swimming during the fall until this year, won the 500 freestyle in 4:59.18.
"I just wanted to have fun my senior year," said McGinnis, who will swim for the University of Miami (Fla.) next year. "I thought it'd be fun to come out and try to win the 500. I wanted to be more part of a team, too. It's been really fun. It's a different dynamic, but I'm really happy I got to be part of something like this."
East Grand Rapids put itself in a position to win by winning the 200 and 400 freestyle relays with the quartet of VanHoven, Hanna Sanford, Converse and Higgins.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dexter celebrates its Division 2 championship from the top of the awards stand Saturday. (Middle) Swimmers launch into the pool for the backstroke championship race. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Holland Pushes Championship Streak to 2
November 17, 2012
By Jon Malavolti
Special to Second Half
ROCHESTER – After wading through three straight runner-up finishes before claiming its first MHSAA title last fall, Holland High won its second straight Lower Peninsula Division 2 girls swimming and diving championship Saturday at Oakland University.
“The girls did a great job,” Dutch coach Don Kimble said. “We had some kids that really swam really well. It’s tough to replace a team like we did last year. We had a great senior class last year, tough shoes to fill. They stepped up. There was a lot of pressure was on them.”
Holland won all three relays and finished first in four individual races, eventually ending up with 311.5 points.
Sophomore Taylor Garcia led the way, winning the 100-yard butterfly and 100 backstroke, as well as competing on the first-place 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays. She was named the Swimmer of the Year by the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association.
Garcia said winning the award was “very humbling.”
“I’m glad I had my team here to help me accomplish it,” she said.
Garcia added that it was a great experience for her team to defend its title.
“Especially after last year, it was just an incredible year, and I think to come back and prove that we still have a lot of talent in our program, I think it says a lot about how far we’ve come,” she said.
The addition of new squads, along with some annual powerhouses, made the meet a competitive one.
“This is a faster meet this year than it was last year,” Grosse Pointe South coach Eric Gunderson said. “The cuts were faster to get in, the top 16, and top 8 times across the board were faster.”
Rochester Adams coach Tim Hickey called the meet “insanely fast.”
“We had a few new teams in our division, which really made things a lot faster this year.”
One of the new additions to Division 2 was this year’s second-place finisher – Ann Arbor Skyline. The Eagles ended up with 255.5 points.
“We’re so proud,” Skyline junior Shannon Cowley said. “We have so many awesome people. I could not be happier.”
Skyline coach Maureen Isaac said her team, which swam at the Division 1 Final last year, performed well in preliminaries and was glad to see it carry over into the finals.
“Yesterday we did what we wanted to do, they were perfect Friday swims, and we also knew we hadn’t scored one point,” Isaac said. “So we had to come back and do it today, and the preparation really fell into place for us.”
Senior Ashleigh Shanley paced the Eagles, winning the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke titles, while also swimming on the second-place 400 relay and third-place 200 medley relay.
Isaac said that the team knew it had a “huge opportunity” to do well this year – which was just the program’s fifth of existence.
“It’s just been an unbelievable experience,” she said of the Eagles’ growth. “You don’t have any baggage, every rule is your own, every expectation for the kids. It is an exceptional situation, and I know part of it is because we got to start from scratch and really build it how we wanted to. And they have completely bought into it.”
Kimble had high praise for Holland’s next closest finisher, impressed by how far they’ve come.
“The addition of Skyline was great,” he said. “That speaks to those kids and the parents and the coaches; everybody’s put in time. That’s a unique situation where they’ve grown, it’s tough to start on the ground floor like that. But very good job.”
The day’s lone record-breaking performance came in the diving competition, as Walled Lake Western senior Allie Murphy finished first with 442.80 points – just enough to edge the old record of 441.80 set by Holland’s Paige Kortman in 2009.
“I’ve been working hard all season to get state champion,” Murphy said. “The record is a bonus.”
Murphy said she was looking up the record recently and figured she was capable of doing it, and was excited to accomplish it. Yet things didn’t start out in record-breaking fashion, as she struck the board on one of her early attempts during the finals.
“I got really nervous,” Murphy said.
But she bounced back quickly.
“I had to focus on the next dive,” she said. “Had to brush it off, had to realize I was still in the game.”
The MHSAA title is Murphy’s second Division 2 diving championship. She also won in 2010, but finished second in last fall.
Murphy’s diving coach at Western, Casey Guntzviller, said her concentration and focus was “really impressive” at the finals.
“Something as simple as hitting the board can set you off, but instead she garnered her focus and strength and really finished strong,” he said.
PHOTO: Swimmers take off during a race at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final on Saturday at Oakland University. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)