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.
'Outside Shot' Becomes Adams' Historic Win
November 17, 2018
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
ROCHESTER – In his more than two decades as the face of the Rochester Adams swimming & diving program, Tim Hickey has seen his share of great swimmers in his school’s pool, including former Olympian Peter Vanderkaay.
But Vanderkaay and those other standout swimmers weren’t able to achieve what the current Adams girls team accomplished at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals at Oakland University.
For the first time in school history, girls or boys, an Adams swim team was crowned state champion in swimming after the Highlanders finished off a dream season by collecting a meet-best 250 points.
Adams outlasted Oakland Activities Association Red rival Birmingham Seaholm, which was runner-up with 220 points.
Grosse Pointe South was third with 214 points.
“You can’t even really put it into words,” Hickey said. “Early in the season, we thought we had an outside shot. As the season progressed and as the kids started performing the way we needed them to, we knew we had a shot. We had some off swims in prelims that made it a little closer than we wanted. But this team came from behind after prelims to win our league meet, and came from behind to win this. It’s just amazing for these girls to come together like they have.”
Helping Adams’ cause was one of the state’s best overall swimmers in senior Lisa Lohner, who will continue her career next season at University of Toledo.
She won both the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.49) and 500 freestyle (4:58.17), and anchored the winning Adams 200 freestyle relay (1:36.76).
Lohner was indeed fighting off tears when the meet ended, although it actually didn’t have anything to do with helping Adams to historic success.
“I’m really sad because I’m done with high school swimming right now,” Lohner said. “It’s a lot right now. This is my family.”
Lohner entered as the heavy favorite in the 200 and 500 freestyle events going in, but admitted there were still a lot of nerves.
“Going into finals, I was really nervous because I knew a lot of people dropped a lot of times in prelims,” Lohner said. “I didn’t know what to expect. I was really nervous going in. (Coach Hickey) talked about it before today that we could be the first team to do it. We decided to not think about it today, but now it’s all coming down.”
While not having as much of a reason to celebrate as Adams, Seaholm head coach Karl Hodgson said his team had plenty to feel good about with its runner-up finish.
“We thought this was going to be a rebuilding year for us,” Hodgson said. “I would have been happy with a top-five. Somebody had us ranked second throughout the season, and I was like, ‘No, we’re not that good.’ But the girls swam great (Friday). Today, we just ran out of gas a bit.”
Having seen Adams up close throughout the season in league action, Hodgson said it was the Highlanders’ depth that separated them.
“When we swam against them in a dual meet, we swam head-to-head against them and almost pulled it off,” Hodgson said. “But they took all the fifth places, and we took the sixth places. That’s the main difference, their depth. They just keep coming at you."
The other individual star besides Lohner was Midland Dow junior Claire Newman, who won the 50 (23.08) and 100 freestyles (51.19).
Fenton freshman Gracie Olsen won the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:03.19, Walled Lake Western sophomore Kamila Podsiadlo won the diving title with 414.60 points, Grosse Pointe South senior Claire Fisher won the 100 butterfly in a time of 54.86, Grosse Pointe South senior Renee Liu won the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.88, and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central senior Jessica Schellenboom won the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:03.88.
Grosse Pointe South’s team of Liu, Fisher, Olivia You and Hannah Blanzy won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:46.61, while the Portage Central team of Sydney Sonday, Maggie Farrell, Audrey Vermeulen and Julia Semler won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:31.51.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams celebrates its first MHSAA Finals title in girls swimming & diving. (Middle) Freshman Kate Stanley helped Birmingham Seaholm to a second-place finish. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)