Garcia, 'Perfect' Again, Keys Holland
November 23, 2013
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
YPSILANTI – Holland High School junior Taylor Garcia had a perfect day Saturday at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 girls swimming and diving championships.
Again.
One year after winning four titles (two individual and two relay), Garcia successfully defended all four championships at the Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
Garcia’s performance led Holland to its third consecutive Division 2 team championship in convincing fashion with 287 points – far ahead of runner-up Portage Central (235) and third-place Bloomfield Hills.
“It’s definitely very humbling,” Garcia said. “It definitely was a great experience.”
It definitely was a great performance, too.
Garcia and teammates Anna Giesler, Abi Johns and Clara Steeby opened the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay. Last year, Holland won the same event with Garcia and three others.
Garcia went on to win the 100 butterfly for the third year in a row, breaking her LP Division 2 record with a time of 54.01 seconds – slightly faster than the record-setting 54.39 she swam in 2011.
“That was a fun little add-on,” Garcia said of the record. “It was something that I definitely had in the back of my mind that I wanted to accomplish.”
A few events later, she successfully defended her championship in the 100 backstroke in 52.95 – a second off the LP Division 2 record but faster than her winning time in 2012. The final MHSAA title came in the 400 freestyle relay – the final event of the meet – as Garcia teamed with seniors Holly Morren, Cassie Misiewicz and Emily Johns to finish first in 3 minutes, 27.79 seconds.
It meant a lot to the three seniors to swim that final race – the final race of their high school careers.
“It really sunk in during the 4 by 1(00),” Morren said. “We all kind of looked at each other and said, 'This is our last time,’ and we all started crying a little bit.”
Holland led that race from first splash to final touch.
“This is really a great moment, not only for this group but for all the groups that went before us and the younger girls who will be coming into this program,” said Garcia, who will enter her senior year with 12 individual and relay MHSAA championships and three team titles.
Holland had one other individual championship as Morren won the 50 freestyle in a side-by-side battle with Hanna Pfershy of Birmingham Groves. After winning the preliminary on Friday by two-hundredths of a second over Pfershy, Morren won Saturday by three-hundredths of a second over Pfershy (23.59 to 23.62).
“It was really hard to tell (who finished first), so I just looked at the board really quickly,” Morren said. “I couldn’t tell going into it.”
She said having Pfershy there to push her was a help.
“I think it definitely helps – it pushes you,” she said. “Like when you get tired and there’s not someone there pushing you, you kind of give up. But if there is someone right there, you find another gear.”
Morren also had a runner-up finish as she failed to successfully defend her 2012 title in the 100 freestyle, while Misiewicz was runner-up in the 200 and 500 freestyle events. Morren, Misiewicz, Giesler and Emily Johns also took second for Holland in the 200 freestyle relay.
Mollie Pulte of Bloomfield Hills Marian was the other individual double winner in the meet. Pulte won the 200 in 1:48.37 – a day after breaking the LP Division 2 Finals record with a time of 1:47.90 in the preliminaries. Then, Pulte set another meet record as she won the 100 in 49.87 seconds. The previous record of 49.96 was set by Emily Bos of Holland in 2009.
“It was awesome,” Pulte said. “I came out (Friday) and broke the state record, and I got my momentum going (Saturday) and did the best I can.”
Pulte also swam the anchor leg for Marian as it won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.24, again setting a meet record. Maren Taylor, Hannah Richard and freshman Sophia Schott swam the first legs and put Pulte in position to come from behind to win the event.
“They did a good job of keeping us up there, and I just wanted to get out there and race,” Pulte said. “You can normally see the person next to you when you breathe, but I just kept my head down and raced.”
Runner-up Portage Central had one champion in junior Madison Umberger, who won the 200 individual medley in 2:03.79, and Battle Creek Lakeview senior Brooke Rowe won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.53.
Fraser senior Alli Shereda came from behind to win the diving with 412.10 points. She was in second place after the preliminaries and semifinals on Friday, and she was still second before her final dive – a front two-and-a-half tuck.
“Actually, that dive is one of my worst dives. So I just went at it like I meant it, and I really thought I went over a lot (on the entry),” said Shereda, who finished 10th last year. “I just focused and acted like it was a practice, because I always do my best at practice. I just acted like it was a bigger, fancier practice."
The best finish of the day might have been turned in by Bay City Western junior Krissy Harmon in the 500 freestyle. Harmon trailed Holland’s Misiewicz – the two-time defending champion in the event – by a substantial margin entering the final 50 yards and never grabbed the lead until the final few. She beat Misiewicz in 4:59.42; Misiewicz finished in 4:59.46.
“I didn’t see her until the finish,” Harmon said. “I’ve been working really hard on my back half, so I’m glad it paid off. I didn’t know if I could win; all I wanted to do was break five minutes. That was my goal.”
Misiewicz is one of several seniors who will be missed next year at Holland, and Morren felt it was a special group.
“I just felt like the seniors had a lot more leadership this year, and it was fun to be able to lead a bunch of the younger girls,” Morren said. “We’ve all grown really close, especially in the last two weeks. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know everyone on the team.”
Holland also had a first-year coach in Dan Kimble, the son of former coach Don Kimble, who coached the Holland girls for 10 years. Don Kimble moved on to Byron Center.
“I knew coming into this that there were some pretty big shoes to fill,” Dan Kimble said. “Luckily, I swam for him for a long time, and last year I was able to assist both the boys and the girls teams so I kind of got to see him in a bit of a different light on the deck.
“I feel like I had a decent amount of experience knowing the program and what’s been done in the past, and I just tried to continue it as much as possible.”
PHOTO: (Top) A pair of Holland swimmers talk poolside during Saturday's Finals. (Middle) The Holland girls swimming and diving team poses with its Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship trophy after winning the meet for the third straight season.
Mercy Regains Top Spot in Division 1
November 23, 2013
By Jon Malavolti
Special to Second Half
ROCHESTER – The Marlins are back. Back on top.
Farmington Hills Mercy reasserted its status as MHSAA champion by out-swimming the competition at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final on Saturday at Oakland University.
Mercy, which won five straight titles from 2007-11 before finishing second last year, scored 271 points en route to reclaiming another crown.
“We all worked together on this,” Mercy junior Roxy Griffore said. “We had a really great team, and we worked really hard.”
Marlins coach Shannon Dunworth said the team quietly went about its business all season long, working long every day, knowing what lay ahead and with it all leading to this moment.
“I think all year long we had high expectations, but we don’t talk about it,” he said. “The battle is every day in practice. You don’t do a length without measuring up. Even though this happened so quick, it was three full months of preparing.
“We’re fortunate to have them the few months that we do, and take advantage of all the work they do year round.”
As for starting another streak of MHSAA titles, Dunworth wasn’t too worried about that.
“Every group is unique,” he said. “I never cheapen it with how many in a row. This team only has the chance to win it one time, and they did. And that’s great. Next year will be a whole different ball game.”
Griffore was the Marlins’ lone individual champion on the day, winning the 50-yard freestyle. She also finished fourth in the 100 freestyle.
“She’s a very quiet, unassuming individual,” Dunworth said of the junior nicknamed “Gator.” “She’s an alligator when she gets in the pool. I spend a lot of time working with her, and it’s a big reward for me.”
Griffore also swam on two Mercy relay teams that racked up points, the first-place 200 freestyle relay and the second-place 200 medley relay. In the 200 freestyle, she teamed up with juniors Maddy Loniewski and Alaina Skellett and freshman Kathleen McGee. In the 200 medley, it was senior Elliot Schinella, senior Hannah Knoop, sophomore Ellyse Conn and Griffore. Loniewski, Skellett, McGee and Schinella later teamed up to take fourth in the 400 freestyle relay and wrap up the overall title.
The Marlins needed every point they could get to stay ahead of the competition, including second-place Saline (251 points), third-place Ann Arbor Skyline (177), fourth-place South Lyon (169) and fifth-place Rockford (127).
“We have tremendous respect for everybody here because we know how hard our kids work, and just to get here, you have to be very dedicated and very determined,” Dunworth said. “So you want to beat people you have the utmost respect for. The Skylines, the Salines, the Rockfords, the South Lyons, that makes it worthwhile. There were a lot of fast swims.”
Saline relied on not only fast swimming to score points, but strong diving as well. Freshman Amy Stevens won the diving crown, while teammates Miranda Eberle, a sophomore, took third and fellow freshman Camryn McPherson finished sixth.
Stevens said she and her teammates worked hard all year to reach this point and was proud to see it pay off.
“I was really happy to see the finish of all them,” Stevens said. “Personally I did a lot of work this season, and it just helped seeing the success of my teammates around me. That helped me work harder. Miranda was there pushing me the whole season to get better, as I was pushing her to get better. The competition was very talented.”
Saline diving coach Alex Gauvin said most of the Hornets’ pressure comes from themselves, not outside competition.
“I’ve never had a harder working group of girls. It shows up and pays off,” he said. “We use that in practice all the time,” he added, referring to competing against each other. “Having that friendly competition on the team (helps) a lot. I couldn’t be happier with the way that they dove today. It’s going to be a good couple of years at Saline.”
Skyline slipped past South Lyon in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. The teams had been tied at 137 points heading into the finale, which the Eagles won, thanks to the team of freshman Emma Cleason, sophomore Kaelan Oldani, senior Shannon Cowley and sophomore Katie Portz. Cleason, Cowley, Portz and freshman Kate Orringer had earlier teamed up to win the 200 medley relay in record-setting fashion with a meet-best time of 1:44.45. Portz also won the 100 freestyle for Skyline, a program rapidly on the rise after finishing as the runner-up in LP Division 2 last year.
“I continually say I’m the luckiest person I know, because I get great athletes, I get unbelievable parents who allow me to coach and support me when I want to do my job, and not everybody has that luxury. So that’s what really makes a difference here,” Skyline coach Maureen Isaac said. “And these swimmers totally buy in to what we’re doing at Skyline. I ask them to work really hard, and they do, and clearly they get the rewards. And it’s just an amazing group. The karma on this team, and the vibe on this team, is just amazing.”
But Isaac and the Eagles aren’t content yet, hoping to add bigger and better things to their trophy case.
“We’re going to keep working on winning a title. Division 1, it’s so much harder, and we just set the bar and these kids found it. So that’s what’s really exciting, and so now we’re not afraid of that anymore. And so, just to get more and more qualifiers, and for us, it’s all about creating opportunities for more and more kids, and that’s what we want to do.”
Waterford United junior Miranda Tucker turned in one of the Finals’ most impressive performances in preliminaries of the 100 breaststroke, where Friday at Oakland she broke the LP Division 1, overall MHSAA and pool records with a time of 1:01.36. She ended up winning the event Saturday as well as finishing first in the 200 individual medley in 2:00.31.
“The competition helps a lot,” she said. “Everyone works so hard, and I know a lot of them well too. Even in the ready room we’re saying, ‘Good luck; hey you’re doing awesome today,’ but then once that music starts playing, and we start walking out, it’s just completely serious.”
Junior teammate Maddie Wright matched Tucker with a record-setting performance, turning in a time of 53.88 in the 100 butterfly setting LP Division 1, overall MHSAA and pool marks. She also finished first in the 200 freestyle.
“I was definitely really nervous today, this morning. But when I got to the pool, I did my warmup, I did everything I needed to do,” she said. “And when it came to the race, I wanted to win really bad. And I wasn’t going to let anyone take that away from me.”
South Lyon senior Chanel Bonin got in on the record-setting action as well, making her time of 54.16 the new backstroke standard in LP Division 1.
“It was, not just this season, but just putting forth effort all year long, really working at everything that I could, trying my best,” she said. “Last year I finished third in the 100 butterfly, and seventh in the backstroke, so coming out on top was kind of a big deal this year.”
Bonin was proud of her teammates as well, as South Lyon improved on its fifth-place finish from 2012.
“Our team did really well,” she said. “It was very unexpected for us to do what we did today. And everyone had amazing swims left and right. It was really exciting.”
Rounding out the first-place finishes was Northville freshman Laura Westphal, who outpaced the competition in the 500 freestyle.
PHOTOS: (Top) Waterford United junior Miranda Tucker finishes up a record-setting swim of the 100 breaststroke. (Middle) Saline freshman Amy Stevens won the diving championship at her first MHSAA Finals. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)