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.)

Longtime Friends from Rival Schools Heading to Finals as Tritons Teammates

By Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com

November 17, 2023

Traverse City Central’s Ella Cabbage and Traverse City West’s Kira Adams have competed in pools with and against each other for as long as they can remember.

Northern Lower PeninsulaThey also attend schools considered each other’s biggest rival.

Yet, they will be rooting for each other at the weekend’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Girls Swimming & Diving Finals at Eastern Michigan University. Adams’ family will be cheering on Cabbage as much as they do her. Same for Cabbage’s family.

They are not rivals this weekend. The girls with a long-time friendship are teammates. West and Central are in a cooperative program for swimming along with Traverse City St. Francis. The co-op goes by the moniker Traverse City Tritons.

Adams and Cabbage, both juniors, came into the season listed among the swimmers to watch in Northern Michigan. They didn’t disappoint, leading the Tritons to their third straight Coastal Conference title.

This weekend’s Finals will provide them with a very special moment. They both plan to look for each other the second they finish their respective events. They are treasuring the opportunity to compete in the Finals together.

“One hundred percent we always do,” Adams said of the chance they will be the first person they see after competing. “We get to warm up with each other at the same time and prepare to race together as well.”

Cabbage agreed.

Adams swims one of her races this season. “I go right after Ella so we’ll be together the whole way,” Adams said.  ‘We will get see other compete — It is very special.”

Adams and Cabbage hope their families capture more memories for future viewing.

‘We have videos of Kira swimming and me in the background screaming and vice versa,” Cabbage said. “I wouldn’t want to go to states with anyone else.

“Our families are really close,” Cabbage continued. “It’s really special for it being just the two of us in the Finals.”

Adams used the conference finals to meet the MHSAA Finals qualifying time in the 100-yard breaststroke. She also competed well in the 200 individual medley, backstroke and freestyle events in 2023. Cabbage had qualified in the 100 backstroke early in the season.

Cabbage and Adams were at last years’ Finals, Cabbage a member of the 200 medley relay that finished 16th and Adams an alternate for the relay.

They were really looking forward to getting on the road to the Finals this week, recalling last year’s trip featuring inclement early winter weather at Oakland University, second-year coach Megan Petroelje noted. She was the driver for last year’s qualifiers and will be again this year.

“Last year we had quite a snowstorm on our way down,” Petroelje said after noting the weather forecast for the trip to Ypsilanti. “Unfortunately, it was not the best start.  

“We basically fought the weather all the way down and all the way home,” she continued. “I am excited to see two these two perform in a completely different environment than they’re used to, and I think they’re excited too.”

Cabbage launches during a meet this fall. Petroelje is thrilled to have two individual qualifiers. It is the first time in many years the co-op produced two individual finalists. For a long time this season, Cabbage was concerned she was going to be alone.

“Kira slid in at the end, and it was awesome,” Petroelje said. “I am so thankful they get to do this together.

“It is so much more fun to train with someone and have someone to motivate you and keep you accountable,” she continued. “The fact that there are two, I am super excited about.”

Adams and Cabbage have been teammates since their beginning days of swimming with their club Traverse City Breakers. They trained as youngsters in the same pools – the Grand Traverse YMCA and the Traverse City Civic Center. Petroelje also coached the qualifiers as Breakers.

While they currently attend rival schools, the don’t think of themselves as rivals in any way shape or form.

“We’ve grown up swimming together,” Adams said.  “While some people might see it as a rivalry, it’s really not for us because we’ve known each other for so long.”

Tom SpencerTom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.

PHOTOS (Top) From left: Traverse City Tritons Ella Cabbage, coach Megan Petroelje and Kira Adams. (Middle) Adams swims one of her races this season. (Below) Cabbage launches during a meet this fall. (Photos by Andrea Hartman.)