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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Performance of the Week: Ann Arbor Pioneer's Stella Chapman
September 30, 2021
Stella Chapman ♦ Ann Arbor Pioneer
Swimming ♦ Sophomore
Saturday’s Northville girls swimming & diving invitational was billed as a “Meet of Champions” as it included the winning teams from all three 2020 Lower Peninsula Finals – Ann Arbor Pioneer, Birmingham Seaholm and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood – plus the Mustangs, who are ranked No. 2 in LPD1 this fall behind only Pioneer. The field included a handful of past individual and relay champions, including Chapman – the reigning LPD1 title winner in the 100-yard backstroke who also swam on champion 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays last season as a freshman.
On Saturday, she was part of four first-place finishes as Pioneer topped the team standings as well. Chapman won the 200 individual medley by nearly four seconds in 2:07.64 and the backstroke by 1.4 seconds in 57.76. Her 200 medley relay with teammates Edwina Jalet, Holly Pringle and Sophia Guo won by more than two seconds in 1:48.93, and her 400 freestyle relay with Amelia Weyhing, Autumn Bullinger and Vivian VanRenterghem won in 3:35.96, just under a second ahead of the field.
@mhsaasports🏊♀️POW: Stella Chapman #performanceoftheweek #mhsaa #swim #highschoolsports #tiktalk #pioneer #interview #TikTok@mistudentaid
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2021-22 Honorees
Sept. 23: Riley Hough, Hartland cross country - Report
Sept. 16: Josie Bloom, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Report
PHOTOS courtesy of the Ann Arbor Pioneer girls swimming & diving program.