MHSAA Finals primer
December 16, 2011
East Grand Rapids, Holland and Farmington Hills Mercy are among the usual contenders who should again make runs at MHSAA girls swimming and diving championships this weekend.
But competitors from places like Dundee, Walled Lake Western and Waterford will be pushing the annual powers at three Finals located across the Lower Peninsula.
Eastern Michigan University will host the Division 1 Final, with Division 2 at the Holland Aquatics Center and Division 3 at Oakland University. Preliminaries are Friday and championships will be decided Saturday.
Tickets cost $8, and competition begins at noon both days. Saturday’s championship races will be streamed live at FoxSportsDetroit.com and MHSAA.tv. Click for a full schedule and lists of qualifiers, their seed times and diving orders.
Here are some the teams, relays and individuals who could make the biggest waves:
Power struggles
The contending teams haven’t changed much over the last few seasons. Here’s how the annual favorites are stacking up against each other.
Division 1: Saline vs. Farmington Hills Mercy vs. Holland West Ottawa – Saline has claimed the last two MHSAA championships in this division after ending Ann Arbor Pioneer’s nine-year title run, and will have 21 individual entries this weekend. West Ottawa, last season’s runner-up, comes in with 19. But Mercy, which has won the last four Division 2 championships, will bring in 31 individual entries.
Division 2: Birmingham Groves vs. Holland – Mercy moving into Division 1 opens this meet up for a new champion, and Holland brings in 30 individual entries after finishing runner-up each of the last three seasons. But Groves also should be in the mix. The Falcons won four straight from 2003-06 and has 29 individual qualifiers.
Division 3: East Grand Rapids vs. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood – Two-time reigning champion East Grand Rapids is bringing 32 individual entries. But two-time reigning runner-up Cranbrook-Kingswood will try to overtake the Pioneers with its 25.
Pass the baton
At least one relay in each Final has a chance to make a run at a specific meet or overall record.
Hudsonville 200 freestyle – Seniors Michaela Rookus and Audra Thornton, sophomore Makayla Myers and junior Danielle Freeman have nearly a two-second edge coming in with a seed time of 1:35.82. Cutting just 14 hundredths of a second would put them on the record book list with the seventh-fastest Finals time.
Holland 200 medley – Senior Courtney Bartholomew, junior Melissa Vandermeulen, freshman Taylor Garcia and sophomore Molly Horren have swam this race in 1:45.26, which would rank fifth-fastest in MHSAA Finals history.
Holland Christian 200 freestyle – The team of senior Kaylie Wierda, sophomore Ashlee Sall, senior Kelsey Weener and freshman Sydney Asselin posted a seed time of 1:38.73. They’ll need to cut less than a second to beat Marian’s Division 3 meet record of 1:37.87 set in 2008.
Athletes to Watch
Courtney Bartholomew, Holland senior – The standout Dutch swimmer will attempt to add to her three individual MHSAA championships and four as part of relays. She has the top seed time in the 100 backstroke (54.53) and second-best in the 200 individual medley (2:05.13) – the two races she won in 2010. She holds the backstroke overall Finals record of 52.45.
Ines Charles, Bloomfield Hills Lahser sophomore – Is seeded first in Division 3 in both the 100 butterfly (57.36) and 100 backstroke (58.38), and also is part of three Lahser relays all seeded among the top four in her meet.
Brooke Edwards, Dundee senior – Will try to add to last season’s Division 3 championship in the 200 freestyle and fourth-place finish in the 100. She has the third-best seed time in the 200 (1:58.77) and sixth-best in the 100 (54.77) coming into this weekend.
Olivia Kassouni, East Grand Rapids junior – Hopes to defend her Division 3 diving championship after winning by 9.3 points in 2010 with a score of 435.80.
Annie Lazor, Birmingham Groves senior – She’s got the top Division 2 seed time of 1:03.69 in the 100 breaststroke amd will be going for her fourth championship in that race; she also holds the overall Finals record of 1:02.10. She’s also seeded first in the 200 IM (2:03.96) and will attempt to add that title as well after finishing second to Bartholomew last season.
Allie Murphy, Walled Lake Western junior – Is back at the Division 2 Final after winning last season’s diving championship with 410.45 points, three more than the runner-up.
Kylie Powrie, Cranbrook-Kingswood junior – Will try to repeat as the 500 freestyle Division 3 champion and has the top seed time in that event of 5:15.11. Her seed time of 2:00.13 in the 200 freestyle is 10th-best coming in.
Sami Stelpflug, Clarkston sophomore – Posted the top Division 1 seed times in both the 200 IM (2:04.14) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.85).
Anna Stephens, East Grand Rapids sophomore – Posted the top Division 3 seed time in the 100 breakstroke (1:06.40) after winning that race in 2010, and is third in the 200 IM (2:13.36).
Maddie Wright, Waterford United freshman – Enters her first MHSAA Final with the top Division 1 seed times in the 200 freestyle (1:50.26) and 100 butterfly (55.16).
PHOTO
Dive in: Holland senior Nicole Cordero is among those hoping to lead the Dutch to the Division 2 championship. She'll swim the 50 and 100-yard freestyles and on two relays.
Title Awards Adams' Sustained Success
December 12, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Rochester Adams girls swimming & diving program had known plenty of success before this season.
The Highlanders entered the fall with seven straight top-10 MHSAA Finals finishes and having celebrated 12 individual event champions over their impressive history. Adams was coming off a third place in Lower Peninsula Division 2 in 2017 – its best showing during that recent run – and with one of those individual champs in senior Lisa Lohner back to lead another title chase.
On Nov. 17 at nearby Oakland University, Adams finished the climb by earning the first MHSAA Finals championship in the school’s swimming & diving history.
The Highlanders – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for November – scored 250 points, 30 more than runner-up Birmingham Seaholm. And the title actually was the first for either of the school’s pool programs, girls or the similarly prolific boys, who tied their highest finish by coming in runner-up in Division 2 last winter.
“It is just kind of that elation of always having strong kids in our program,” Adams coach Tim Hickey said in describing the lasting feeling from finishing the title run. “Swimming is pretty big in our area, so we’ve always had some great athletes come through the program, (and we’re) pretty consistently top 10 in the state. I guess to make that final hurdle to put it all together and win that first title is just an incredible feeling. It’s so nice to see all that hard work the athletes put in really paid off for them.”
Of course, Lohner was a big part of the effort, helping push that individual event championship total to 15. She finished first in the 500 (4:58.17) and 200-yard (1:51.49) freestyles and anchored the winning 200 freestyle relay (1:36.76) and seventh-place finisher in the 400 free (3:36.13).
But her teammates picked up a sizable scoring load. In fact, the Highlanders scored in every swimming race – including the 50 freestyle, where they took eighth and a tie for 12th despite entering the meet without an athlete seeded to score among the top 16.
Adams took 15 athletes to the meet, and 11 scored points – with that scoring spread across three freshmen, three sophomores, one junior and four seniors. Joining Lohner in scoring in one or more events or relays were seniors Maddy Fleury, Alex Waack, Valentina Rengifo, junior Fernanda Camacho-Castro, sophomores Claire Sweetwood, Meghan Fleury and Allison Danko and freshmen Lauren Woodman, Yitian Zhang and Olivia Goodman.
“A lot of things just came together this year,” said Hickey, who completed his 24th season leading the program. “We had several athletes back from injuries who either missed last year completely or we didn’t even know at the beginning of the year if they’d be able to compete. We had just a very strong senior class which has obviously been at that level for many years, three freshmen coming in … again, a lot of pieces of the puzzle all coming together this year.
“What makes it really great is that it was a total and complete team effort. We needed everyone there and everyone to perform well, and it really happened.”
Adams also won the Oakland Activities Association Red championship for the fifth straight season, ahead of Seaholm and also Division 1 Finals third-place finisher Harrison/Farmington.
Lohner will continue her career at University of Toledo.
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
October: Leland boys soccer – Read
September: Pickford football – Read
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams’ Lisa Lohner swims to the championship in the 500 freestyle at last month’s LPD2 Finals. (Middle) Fernanda Camacho-Castro readies for her leg of the 400 relay while Alex Waack cheers on Valentina Rengifo. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)