![Northview swimming](/sites/default/files/2021-09/210924_swim_2H.jpg)
Northview Returning Champ Looking to Build on Stellar Finals Debut
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
September 24, 2021
GRAND RAPIDS – Addy Forbes made a splash in her debut at last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Swimming & Diving Finals.
The Northview sophomore standout will not go unnoticed this year.
In her first trip to the Finals, Forbes won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.15 seconds.
“She’s currently following the plan similar to last year, but she’s not going to come out of nowhere so we have to do the work,” Wildcats swimming & diving coach Rob Damuth said. “She’s a highly-driven kid, like a lot of our top swimmers are, and she’s just relentless in practice. She had a great taper, and our goal this year is to progress.”
Last season’s Finals weren’t held until mid-January due to a pause from the pandemic.
The chaos of the season didn’t affect Forbes’ performance.
“I kind of hoped that I would get first, but it was still surprising,” Forbes said. “I train in the offseason, so it was a pretty big drop from my last meet because of COVID and the break. It was just amazing to drop that much time and place the way I did.”
Forbes also finished fourth in the 200 individual medley at the Finals while helping a pair of relay teams (200 medley and 400 free) place among the top five at the championship meet.
While the backstroke is her strongest event, Forbes is consistently working to improve in others.
“We’ve focused on her off events, the 200 free and 100 fly, and she really likes swimming the fly,” Damuth said. “We need to improve her under water a bit for that event, but those are things we are focusing on other than the IM and back.
“Her bread and butter has been the backstroke, and her breaststroke is improving. Her IM is going to improve, too, and as she comes along with three years left she’s really going to pop in the IM. As she starts looking to swim in college, she has got to have events other than just in back.”
Forbes is looking forward to becoming more versatile and swimming faster times with all of her strokes.
“My 200 IM is my next best event, and I think I'm a little bit off of my USA cut so I would like to see that and just keep improving with every swim that I do,” Forbes said. “It would be awesome if I could do that and hopefully drop times in the other events.”
Forbes also has begun weight training three times a week.
“It’s very important for athletes if they are old enough to do weight training, and it's definitely a huge change from swimming,” she said. “I like swimming more, but it’s important for me to build the muscles outside of the pool because you can't really do that with just swimming.”
Damuth said the weight training can affect times, but will pay off down the road.
“Her body is beat down a little bit now, but she’s going to be stronger and her times are going to come down,” he said. “I think she’s going to have a great state meet, but it’s just getting through these dog days of September and early October where they are kind of beat down and not necessarily swimming that fast.”
Forbes, who comes from a swim family, knows the season is a marathon and not a sprint.
“It’s pretty early, but the entire team has been working their butts off to get that base for the season,” Forbes said. “I haven’t hit all my times, but I’m more focused on the process and doing well in my form, my turns and my breathing pattern.”
Forbes enjoys the camaraderie of swimming in the relays with her teammates.
“I definitely like relays better, and I just love the bonding and the connection between the team that you have in the relays where everybody needs to know when they are going and where they are,” Forbes said. “It’s awesome just to be able to finish and know that I did well for my team and I get to see those ladies pushing their hardest to try and do the best we can.”
While expectations will be increased, Forbes is taking them in stride.
“It’s definitely a little more nerve-wracking because people expect me to get first again,” Forbes said. “I hope to do that, but there is more pressure and I just want to keep improving in my other races and maybe get a few more records.”
Northview placed third as a team at last year’s Division 2 Finals, and with the plethora of returning talent, hopes to place among the top teams again in November.
“We returned everybody except for our diver, so we have a hole there, but we have all of our swimmers back and we gained a freshman sprinter that already qualified in the 50 so we have an added piece there,” Damuth said. “Division 2 is really deep this year, but we’re excited to get to the state meet and see what we can do.”
Forbes also is thrilled about the potential of this year’s team.
“I’m super excited because last year’s state finals team were juniors or underclassmen, so this year we have everyone back,” she said. “We’re definitely going to get more girls qualified for the state team, which will help build our numbers. We have some pretty awesome relays this year that I think are going to be pretty impressive.”
The Wildcats return the following swimmers who helped score points at last year’s Division 2 Finals: Jamie Forbes (200 and 500 freestyle), Peyton Oade (200 freestyle), Hasten Horling (50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke), Maddie Tay (50 freestyle) and Evan Arnold (100 freestyle).
Joining Addy Forbes with Finals cuts already this season are Jamie Forbes, Horling, Danika Fesseden and Lily Lindower.
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for four years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Rapids Northview’s Addy Forbes prepares to launch into the backstroke. (Middle) Forbes is a returning LPD2 Finals champion. (Photos courtesy of the Grand Rapids Northview athletic department.)
![Second Half by MHSAA](/sites/default/files/2021-02/2H-placeholder.png)
Swimming and Diving: Beware Falling Finals Records
November 19, 2011
Two 2010 MHSAA swimming and diving runners-up took the final step and claimed first-ever championships at Saturday’s Finals in Holland and Rochester.
The third MHSAA champion, Farmington HIlls Mercy, added a fifth-straight title despite moving up to Division 1 and a less familiar group of competitors in Ypsilanti.
A total of 12 records fell at the three Finals, including a few times that were the fastest in MHSAA Finals history, regardless of meet. Read on to find out who claimed all three team championships and all the broken records.
(Click for full results from all three Finals).
Division 1 at Eastern Michigan
Farmington Hills Mercy won its fifth-straight MHSAA championship -- but first in Division 1 after claiming Division 2 titles the last four seasons. The Marlins scored 258 points, 14.5 more than two-time reigning champion Saline.
Six Division 1 meet records fell. Ann Arbor Huron senior Anna DeMonte repeated as 200-yard individual medley champion with a Division 1 meet record time of 1:59.67. She did the same in the 100 backstroke with another meet record time of 54.56.
Other record breakers were Lake Orion senior Annie Jongekrijg in the 100 freestyle (50.32), Bloomfield Hills Marian’s Jaynie Pulte as a repeat champion in the 50 freestyle (23.23), Saline’s 200 medley relay of junior Maddy Frost, senior Sammy Richart and juniors Emily Lau and Cristina Czyrka (1:45.97), and Hudsonville’s 200 freestyle relay of seniors Michaela Rookus, Audra Thornton, sophomore Makayla Myers and junior Danielle Freeman (1:35.46).
Waterford freshman Maddie Wright also won two individual events: the 200 freestyle by more than a second in 1:49.04, and the 100 butterfly by more than a second in 54.82.
Division 2 at Holland Aquatics
After three seasons coming in second, Holland won the MHSAA title by 131 points over runner-up Birmingham Seaholm. The championship was the Dutch’s first in girls swimming and diving.
Senior Courtney Bartholomew finished her career with four more championships, and all four set records at some level. She improved on her Division 2 meet record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.06, more than two seconds better than her previous record time. She also set an all-Finals record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 51.99.
Holland’s 200 medley relay of Bartholomew, junior Melissa Vandermeulen, freshman Taylor Garcia and sophomore Holly Morren set an all-Finals record of 1:41.12. Morren, Garcia, senior Klare Northuis and Bartholomew also set a Division 2 meet record of 3:24.46 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Garcia added the Division 2 meet record in the 100 butterfly by winning in 54.39 seconds, more than two faster than the previous record.
Although she didn’t improve on her meet record set previously, Birmingham Groves senior Annie Lazor won the 100 breaststroke title for the fourth time, in 1:02.43.
Division 3 at Oakland
After two seasons of East Grand Rapids first followed by Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, the annual contenders switched places Saturday with Cranbrook-Kingswood winning the MHSAA championship -- also its first.
Cranbrook-Kingswood scored 328.5 points, followed by East Grand Rapids with 265.5.
Only one meet record was set, but three athletes won multiple individual championships. Plainwell freshman Mallory Comerford set that Division 3 meet record, swimming the 50 freestyle in 23.62. She also won the 100 freestyle in 50.46.
Cranbrook-Kingswood junior Kylie Powrie won the 500 freestyle (5:04.30) and 200 freestyle (1:54.98) and Bloomfield Hills Lahser sophomore Ines Chares won the 100 backstroke (56.2) and 100 butterfly (57.21).
East Grand Rapids junior Olivia Kassouni repeated as diving champion with a score of 451.45, and sophomore teammate Anna Stephens was a repeat champion in the 100 breaststroke, in 1:05.75.