Flashback 100: Ann Arbor Pioneer's Unstoppable Streak Stretches 9 Seasons
September 6, 2024
Ann Arbor Pioneer's girls swimming & diving team is celebrating its 2002 Lower Peninsula Division 1 title in the photo above, and the Pioneers remain the record holders for longest Finals championship streak in that sport with nine consecutive from 2000-08.
Pioneer has won a total of 20 Finals team titles in girls swimming & diving, 16 under the direction of longtime coach Dennis Hill and the last four under the leadership of current coach Stefanie Kerska. The Pioneers also have finished Finals runners-up 11 seasons.
Future Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce swam on the 2001 and 2002 Pioneer teams, setting all-Finals records as a senior in the 50-yard freestyle (22.04), 100 freestyle (48.59), 200 freestyle (1:46.34), and as part of the 200 freestyle relay (1:32.77). She still holds those all-Finals records in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events, and at one point she owned the national high school records for both races as well.
Joyce went on to swim at Georgia, winning 18 NCAA championships and setting two national records, and she competed at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympics for Team USA, winning a total of four medals.
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Previous "Flashback 100" Features
Aug. 30: Detroit dePorres Rushes to 1995 Class CC Football Championship - Read
Performance of the Week: Temperance Bedford's Hannah Smith
September 30, 2022
Hannah Smith ♦ Temperance Bedford
Swimming ♦ Senior
Smith has senior-season goals, and Saturday’s Monroe County championship meet provided significant momentum as she seeks to fulfill them. Smith was named Athlete of the Meet after winning the 500-yard freestyle in 5:29.47 and qualifying for the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals in the 200 free, also in victory with a time of 2:01.17. Both times were faster than what she posted in swimming those races last season at the LPD2 championship meet.
The senior standout also swam on two relays at last season’s Finals – her team’s 400 free relay finished 16th – and competed on three Finals-qualifying relays as a sophomore and on the 16th-place 200 freestyle relay as a freshman. Her 200 and 500 freestyle times from Saturday both rank just outside the top 50 in the state this season, all divisions combined, in those respective events, and the 500 time was less than three seconds off the Finals-qualifying standard for LPD2 this season. Smith also plays soccer for Bedford, joining the program for the first time this past spring.
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2022-23 Honorees
Sept. 22: Helen Sachs, Holland West Ottawa cross country - Report
Sept. 15: Nina Horning, Lake Orion volleyball - Report
Sept 8: Arturo Romero, Muskegon Oakridge soccer - Report
Sept. 1: Austin King, Midland Dow tennis - Report
Aug. 25: Olivia Hemmila, Troy Athens golf - Report
(Photos courtesy of Hannah Smith.)