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.

Northview swimming“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.)

Pioneer Seniors Leave Legacy with 2nd-Straight Finals Win

By Scott DeCamp
Special for MHSAA.com

November 20, 2021

HOLLAND – Ann Arbor Pioneer boasts one of the deepest traditions in MHSAA girls swimming & diving history.

It goes back to the days of legendary coach Dennis Hill, who guided the Pioneers to their first state title in 1979 and retired with 16 championships in Lower Peninsula Class A or Division 1.

The latest wave of talent was determined to carry on that tradition and leave its mark. Led by a strong group of seven seniors, Pioneer overwhelmed the competition in capturing a second-straight Division 1 title Saturday at Holland Aquatic Center.

The Pioneers claimed first place in five of 12 events, including all three relays, and showed off their superior depth in a runaway victory. They totaled a whopping 405.5 points to leave the rest of the pack far behind. Saline was runner-up with 247 points, followed by Brighton in third place with 217.5.

“We just had to take care of ourselves all season,” Pioneer sixth-year coach Stefanie Kerska said. “As nice as it may seem to be out so far in front, we made it a point to not get complacent, to not cut corners and, like I said, to not take our foot off the gas. 

“So, that was really the challenge of the year, to just stay motivated, still being as dominant as we were this year.”

Last season, Pioneer captured the 17th Finals championship in program history in similarly dominant fashion. Pioneer racked up 368 points, ahead of Farmington Hills Mercy (184), which edged the Pioneers by only half a point for the 2019 Division 1 title.

Last year, and especially this weekend, the Pioneers were essentially competing against themselves. In five events, they had two top-six finishers, and three in another event.

Division 1 SwimmingAmong the 19 all-state finishes (top eight in each event) for Pioneer, 15 placed in the top four of their respective races. 

“It means everything. Last year was our first time winning a state championship in our four years,” Pioneer senior Vivian VanRenterghem said. “Obviously, with COVID, the experience was a little bit different – we didn’t get to do it until January. 

“So, getting to do it here – prelims, finals, the real deal – definitely meant more, and I think to come out the other end of last year was everything for us.”

Senior Lily Cramer led the way for Pioneer with a first-place finish in the 200-yard free (1:48.95), plus she swam legs on winning 200 free relay and 400 free relay teams and took second in the 100 breaststroke. Sophomore Stella Chapman won the 200 IM (2:01.98), swam legs on first-place 200 medley relay and 400 relay teams, and placed second in the 100 backstroke.

VanRenterghem and senior Holly Pringle both swam legs on the Pioneers’ winning 200 free relay and 400 free relay teams. Senior Edwina Jalet swam a leg on the Pioneers’ first-place 200 medley relay, while senior Amelia Weyhing and junior Sophia Guo swam as part of the victorious 200 free relay.

Cramer said that the intrasquad competition pushes everybody to be better.

“Everyone wants to do well, and I think that makes everybody a little nervous, but also we knew what we were able to do and we were able to execute that to the best of our ability,” Cramer said.

“We do everything together, so to be able to win together is a really good feeling.”

Plymouth senior Brady Kendall was the lone two-event individual winner for the two-day competition. She swam to first place in the 50 free in 22.63 seconds and captured first in the 100 butterfly in 53.35.

Rockford sophomore Megan Jolly finished at the top in 1-meter diving with 419.20 points. Grand Haven sophomore Rosalee Springer captured first in the 100 free (50.55). Brighton junior Victoria Schreiber was first in the 500 free (4:57.27). Middleville Thornapple Kellogg senior Abby Marcukaitis took the top honor in the 100 backstroke (55.07). Livonia Stevenson junior McKenzie Siroky was first in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.85).

In addition to the seven seniors, Pioneer’s team featured two juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen.

“I’ve got a lot of seniors, and luckily they’ve been able to really leave their mark on this team over the last few years, and so those underclassmen sort of know what the expectations and requirements are to continue this,” Kerska said. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge from here on out. Those seven seniors have really built this program back up.”

Kerska wanted the senior group to leave a legacy, and those seven swimmers did just that. They carried on the rich Pioneer tradition and started another Finals-title string with their back-to-back achievement.

The Pioneers won four Class A championships in a row under Hill from 1989-92, and nine straight for the Hall of Fame coach from 2000-08. They also collected titles in 1985 and 1987.

Pioneer’s seniors did not lose a single dual meet in their high school careers, and five of them are headed to swim at the Division I collegiate level.

VanRenterghem and Cramer have been swimming together since fourth grade.

“This sport is a lot of work, but it’s always been worth it,” VanRenterghem said. “I think a lot of us have a really exciting next four years, but I think we’re never going to forget where we came from and I’ll always be cheering for Pioneer.”

Said Cramer: “We started this together and we ended this together, and I think it’s a really good way to go out.”

Click for full results.

PHOTOS by High School Sports Scene.