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.)
GRCC Pulls Far Away from Rest to win LPD3
November 21, 2015
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – The 1-2 punch of Grand Rapids Catholic Central swimmers Riley Kishman and Susan LaGrand overwhelmed the field Saturday afternoon at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 girls swimming and diving championships at Eastern Michigan University.
They had plenty of help, too, as Grand Rapids Catholic Central won its first MHSAA team championship In girls swimming and diving with 299 points to far outdistance runner-up St. Clair (199) and third-place Holland Christian (197).
Kishman, a junior who was named the Division 3 Swimmer of the Year by the coaches association, won two individual events and swam on two championship relays. LaGrand, a sophomore, also won two individual events in addition to contributing to a championship relay and another relay that placed second.
“It feels really good,” said Kishman, who won the 100 breaststroke and the 200 freestyle. “We’ve been wanting this for a while, and I’m glad it finally happened.
“Coach told us if we were going in thinking that we have it, we won’t have it, so we went in like we were in second place. We knew we had a target on our backs, so we tried to just keep going.”
Kishman, a two-time Finals champion in the 200 individual medley, passed on the event in favor of the 200 freestyle, which she won in 1 minute, 51.01 seconds.
“I have been doing more freestyle lately, and I like the 200 free better,” she said. “I thought we would have a better chance at getting more points if I did that, and I’m glad I did it.”
Kishman did successfully defend her title in the 200 breaststroke in 1:03.20.
“I had my best time in that since my freshman year, so I was really happy about that,” said Kishman, who also swam on the winning 200 freestyle relay and the winning 400 freestyle relay.
LaGrand had one of the more exciting victories of the day when she came from behind to win the 100 butterfly over St. Clair senior Grace Shinske. It was the second consecutive MHSAA title in the butterfly for LaGrand, who set a meet record with a time of 56.85 seconds.
“It’s always better when you have somebody to race,” she said. “It was really great. I could not have gone the time I did without her pushing me.”
LaGrand’s other individual title came in the 200 IM, which she finished in 2:06.97, better than Kishman’s winning time from a year ago.
“It really feels good,” she said after the win. “I have an awesome team behind me that pushes me every day in practice, so that really helps.”
The 200 IM was just two events after the meet-opening 200 medley relay, which had LaGrand and Grand Rapids Catholic Central finishing second to St. Clair. It was a quick turnaround for LaGrand.
“It was a little stressful, but with good time management it’s all right,” she said. “You know what you are going into when you sign up.”
As impressive as Kishman and LaGrand were, Grand Rapids Catholic Central was far from a two-girl show. Six other girls scored points, including senior Liz Rabaut and sophomores Nicole Rotelle and Elise Merucci. All three scored four times, including on one championship relay.
Lauren Lomonoco, another senior, was on two championship relays and placed in another individual event.
“It’s amazing to see how far our team has come since our freshman year,” she said. “We were just trying to get in the top 10 in the state that year, so it’s really rewarding and overwhelming.
“It’s just a great way to end my career.”
Sophomores Emily Merucci and Hannah DeBoer also scored twice in individual events for Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Kishman and LaGrand were the only defending champions to repeat in their events, and two others failed to repeat as champions. In 1-meter diving, Allegan senior Erin Isola edged reigning champion Taylor Hosein of Milan 454.40 to 435.90. Isola had a lead of less than seven points coming into Saturday but put it away with three solid dives that totaled 139.50 points.
“It really hasn’t hit me yet … it’s like a dream come true,” she said after winning. “I’m really excited.”
She said her second dive – an inward 1½ somersault – was the key dive for her.
“Normally I don’t nail it as well as I did, and it got me a bunch of points to stay ahead of Taylor,” she said. “Taylor is a great diver, and it really could have been either one of us who won. It was really close.”
The other displaced champion was Rileigh Eding of Hamilton, who was edged by Shinske in the 100 backstroke. Shinske, who led LaGrand before finishing second in the exciting 100 butterfly, defeated Eding in the same fashion. Eding had a lead after 50 yards, but Shinske, in the final individual race of her high school career, surged back in the last 50 yards to pass her and win in 56.27.
“It was pretty exciting,” Shinske said. “At one point, I was thinking I was going to finish in second place, and then I realized that I could do it and I just went for it. It feels great.”
Shinske also teamed with Molly Likins, Heidi Likins and Alexis Smith to win the meet-opening 200 medley relay in 1:47.54.
Eding, who failed to repeat in the 100 backstroke, captured the 50 freestyle in 24.04 seconds. Other freestyle winners were Karlee Marsh of Tecumseh in the 100 freestyle (51.80) and sophomore Evelyn VanDeMark of Alma in the 500 freestyle (5:11.43).
Marsh, a junior, had finished third and fifth in two individual events last year.
“I’m really emotional, but it’s a great feeling,” she said. “It definitely helps that I was a second faster coming in, and it made me more confident. I think everybody did really good.”
But the best of those were the girls from Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
“It was a team goal to establish a championship feeling, and we accomplished that,” Grand Rapids Catholic Central coach Mio Vasic said. “I want to congratulate the girls on how they were able to balance their personal lives, school, academics and swimming. I’m very proud of them.”
PHOTO: (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Susan LaGrand swims her winning 200 individual medley Saturday. (Middle) St. Clair’s Grace Shinske works toward her butterfly championship. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)