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.)
Seaholm Finds Next Gear After Fast Start
November 19, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – Four events into the preliminaries Friday, Birmingham Seaholm girls swimming coach Karl Hodgson knew something special was brewing.
On Saturday, his pot boiled over as the Maples won the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University. Seaholm finished with 287.5 points to outdistance runner-up and reigning champion Dexter, which had 250. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central was third with 215.
It was the first MHSAA team title in girls swimming and diving for Seaholm since it ran off three in a row from 1995-97. Hodgson was an assistant coach on those teams.
“In the first four events on Friday, the medley relay did well and Allie (Russell) dropped two seconds in her I.M. to qualify first,” said Hodgson, who was named the Coach of the Meet by LPD2 coaches. “I had a 200 swimmer Hannah Erickson do her lifetime best, and in the 50 (Haley) Dolan and (Linnea) Anderson had lifetime bests.”
So, with that kind of performance Friday, it would seem Hodgson was relaxed and slept well Friday night.
“Not a chance,” he said with a chuckle. “Not with Dexter hanging around.
Actually, Hodgson said the start of this quest began last year when the Maples finished fifth as Dexter captured the title.
“That was when the girls realized that they had the talent to do it and that they could do it,” he said.
With the excellent performances from Friday behind them, the Maples began the finals portion of the meet in style Saturday by winning the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Nichole McMaster, Russell, Anderson and Dolan finished in 1 minute, 43.98 seconds to win by nearly 3 seconds.
“That was huge,” Hodgson said. “It told me that I had four kids who were on. We set a school record on Friday and came back and crushed it on Saturday. That really set the tone. It was a big deal.”
The swimmers agreed that the first event was a tone-setter.
“After that, everyone’s adrenaline was so up, and that’s when we knew we had a chance of winning,” said McMaster, a senior.
Russell, another senior, also felt the medley relay was the key.
“Our medley relay has always been kind of our strong suit,” she said. “So to lead off the meet with a win, I think that sort of set in motion what could happen.”
Dolan, a junior, had the only individual title for Seaholm. She won the 50 freestyle in 23.56 seconds. As a sophomore, she made it to the MHSAA Final but failed to qualify for the championship heat in the 50.
“This year I’ve been doing a lot of outside training with a trainer, and we worked with a lot of weights, and I think that helped a lot,” she said. “Karl is an amazing coach too, and last year I think I just had an off race.”
Dolan, who also was fifth in the 100 freestyle, was the only three-time Finals champion for Seaholm, which also won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.49 with a team of Anderson, Russell, Erickson and Dolan.
The Maples surrounded the three race victories with plenty of depth in the scoring. Russell had the lone runner-up finish as she was second in the 200 I.M.
“I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “I would rather win the state title with my team than as an individual.
“Our freshman year, the state meet was here and got it started for us without really knowing what we were doing, so to finish it off here in my senior year is great.”
Erickson chipped in with a third place in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle, while Anderson was third in the 50 freestyle and fourth in the 100 butterfly.
“This is amazing; there is nothing like it,” Anderson said. “We knew we had a chance, and we knew we all had to do our best to win it.”
Runner-up Dexter was led by junior Annette Schultz, the swimmer of the meet a year ago when the Dreadnaughts won the title. She was no less spectacular Saturday as she repeated as champion in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle and also swam the anchor leg on the 400 freestyle relay team that finished first.
Schultz came close to breaking the Division 2 Finals records in both the 100 and 200 freestyles. Her time of 50.30 seconds in the 100 was just short of the record (49.87), and her 1:48.27 in the 200 threatened the record mark of 1:47.88. Schutz was joined by teammates Amelia Kinnard, Grace Kacmarek and Sarah Zofchak in the 400 freestyle relay, which won in 3:31.14.
Schultz was not too disappointed in failing to break a Finals record.
“I’m just hoping that next year I can improve on them and get a state record,” she said. “I dropped my time in the 100, and that was what I was looking for.
“I just wanted to get some best times, and I did. I got a best time.”
Olympic swimmer Allison Schmitt, who still holds two all-class Finals records, including in the 200 freestyle, attended the meet and was thrilled to watch the competition.
“Swimming for four years at the state meet was a great experience, and coming back and seeing these girls doing the same thing that I did eight years ago is great,” Schmitt said. “It’s great to be back.
“These girls were little girls when I was in high school, so to see them succeed doing what they are doing is amazing, and I’m cheering for my records to be broken just like everyone else.”
Felicity Buchmaier of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central was named the swimmer of the meet by the LPD2 coaches. Buchmaier, a junior, won the 100 butterfly in 54.04, and she added the 100 backstroke in 55.30.
“It’s a big relief,” she said. “I felt like I had a lot of expectations from both myself and from other people.”
Buchmaier repeated as champion in the 100 butterfly.
“It was just as exciting as the last time,” she said. “I tried to block out as much emotion as possible, but my body started to hurt – as usual – and I had to get it in my head that it was just another race.”
Forest Hills Central also had the champion in diving, and it might have been the best finish of the meet. Anna Hansen, a sophomore who moved to Grand Rapids from Chicago last year, trailed by three points going into the final dive of the meet. She nailed a forward 2½ somersault in the tuck position – 2.4 degree of difficulty – to score 50.40 points and pass Taylor Shegos of Fenton.
“I was really nervous,” Hansen said, “but I just focused on what I needed to do and nothing else.
“That is my favorite dive, so I was confident with it.”
Hansen’s victory extended the dominance in diving by Forest Hills Central. It was without two-time champion Erin Neely, who missed this season with an injury, but still had four of the top seven finishers.
“Erin is such a big supporter of the team,” Hansen said. “She really has pushed us, so it means a lot to take her place.”
Seaholm, Dexter and Forest Hills Central combined to win nine of the 12 events. The other three were won by Vicki Postmus of Byron Center in the 200 I.M., Charlotte Pierce of Birmingham Groves in the breaststroke and Julia Boswell of Royal Oak in the 500 freestyle.
But the day belonged to Seaholm.
“It’s so surreal I can’t believe it,” Doan said. “It’s so exciting. I think it has sunk in a little but later it’s really going to hit me. It’s crazy.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Birmingham Seaholm poses with its Division 2 championship trophy. (Middle) Anna Hansen of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)