Panthers Make History Close to Home
November 17, 2012
By Alan Babbitt
Special to Second Half
HOLLAND – Senior Colleen Vande Poel did not realize at first the added significance of her West Ottawa girls swimming & diving team’s achievement.
Saturday's breakthrough went far beyond the pool for the Panthers.
Forty years after Title IX legislation was passed, West Ottawa claimed its first team MHSAA championship in any girls sport by winning the Division 1 meet at Holland Community Aquatic Center.
The Panthers cruised to a first-place score of 298.5 points in their own backyard — approximately five miles from their high school. They finished 26.5 points ahead of runner-up Farmington Hills Mercy.
“It didn’t really hit me we were champs until they announced our names,” Vande Poel said. “It’s really exciting. I didn’t even know that we were the only ones. It feels super special knowing that in the future people know that if they work hard enough and have their minds set, they can do it.”
Vande Poel and her teammates made history in record-setting fashion.
The Panthers set eight school records, one Division 1 meet record and one pool record during the two-day Final. They also won three events: senior Dani VanderZwaag in 1-meter diving, the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-freestyle relay.
West Ottawa applied lessons throughout the season the Panthers learned the hard way during a disappointing seventh-place finish in 2011, VanderZwaag and coach Steve Bowyer said.
“I think we knew we needed to work hard this year, and we needed to change some things we did last year that weren’t working for us,” Vande Poel said. “We worked harder. We just wanted to do it. We came here and did that.”
West Ottawa started the meet fast on Saturday.
The Panthers won the 200 medley relay in a near meet-record time of 1 minute, 45.14 seconds from Vande Poel, Chelsea Rish, Anna Battistello and Caroline Fender.
They came within two one-hundredths of a second of the Final and school record they set during Friday’s preliminaries.
West Ottawa’s second winning performance came in the fifth event.
VanderZwaag, a junior, secured a first-place diving score of 425.45 points on the final dive — a successful back somersault with a 1½ twist.
“I knew I could do it. I just took a deep breath and did it,” VanderZwaag said. “This team means so much to me. I love them all. We just keep working hard this season, trying our hardest.”
The Panthers came in first again in the ninth event. Anna Babinec, Lauren DeShaw, Fender and Elizabeth Fris won the 200 freestyle relay with a school- and pool-record time of 1:35.58.
The performance gave West Ottawa a cushion against expected push from Farmington Hills Mercy in the backstroke, Bowyer said.
“I felt the 200 free, if we could win that relay, we would put ourselves in position to win the meet,” Bowyer said. “We went amazing fast in that relay.”
The Panthers then needed a seventh-place finish in the finale — the 400 freestyle relay — to clinch the team title.
They avoided any nerves and a costly disqualification, instead setting a school record with a second-place effort of 3:30.53 from Babinec, Vande Poel, DeShaw and Fris.
They finished behind only Saline’s American Armstrong-Grant, Melanie Schroeder, Allison Eppinga and Maddy Frost, who won in 3:29.13.
Bowyer, also named Division 1 Coach of the Year by his peers, saw the fruition of a goal that started one year ago.
“I think we learned if you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to be rewarded at the end of the year,” Bowyer said. “We worked hard last year, but quality yards weren’t there. The focus each and every day wasn’t there.
“If you want to have success, you have to make sure you put in the work every day. This year, our seniors came ready to do that.”
Waterford Kettering sophomore Maddie Wright was named Division 1 Swimmer of the Year by the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association after winning two events, setting one Division 2 meet record and one pool one.
“I couldn’t be happier with my swims,” Wright said. “It feels amazing. After a long season, it’s a good feeling to see it all paid off.”
Wright established a new Division 2 best in the 100 butterfly by going 54.13 during the finals. She came within 0.15 of a second of the all-division Finals record of Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Margaret Kelly from 2005.
Wright also won the 200 freestyle by four seconds — finishing in 1:48.01.
“Support from my teammates helped,” Wright said. “I picked it up a lot when I realized what I had to do to swim fast. (I) just practiced every day.”
Hudsonville senior Danielle Freeman also set a Division 1 meet record in the 50 freestyle by going 22.96.
Third-place Saline (266) and fourth-place Zeeland (150) also took home trophies. It was the final high school girls meet for longtime Zeeland coach Mike Torrey.
PHOTO: Holland West Ottawa senior Colleen Vande Poel swims one of her events Saturday in helping Holland West Ottawa to the LP Division 1 championship. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
'All-Time Seaholm Great' Clifford Looking to Lead Maples to 4th-Straight Team Title
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 10, 2022
BIRMINGHAM – Even in the days leading up to the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals, Birmingham Seaholm coach Karl Hodgson might not know what to do about senior Samantha Clifford.
But make no mistake, that is a good thing.
Other than the breaststroke and diving, there’s really no event Clifford can’t excel at, which is giving Hodgson extra time to pause and think about lineup strategy.
“That part is nice,” Hodgson said. “It creates a lot of angst over making those decisions. But it is nice to have that problem.”
Unfortunately for Hodgson and the Seaholm program, there aren’t many more days left to enjoy having such a problem.
A standout for Seaholm since her freshman year, Clifford is about to finish her high school career as one of the all-time greats for the Maples.
She’s been a vital part of Seaholm winning the last three Division 2 titles, and odds are decent she’ll make it 4-for-4 in terms of being on a team champion when this year’s Finals title is decided next weekend at Calvin University.
Individually, Clifford won the LPD2 Finals title in the 100-yard freestyle last year in a time of 51.02, and was second in the 200 freestyle. She also anchored Seaholm’s winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
Hodgson said Clifford is among the top five in Seaholm’s top-times record book in half of the events.
“She’s meant everything to our program,” he said.
Clifford started swimming when she was 5 years old and started getting coached by Hodgson competitively with her summer club team when she was 6.
“I’ve known her all her life,” Hodgson said. “She was that dominant as a little kid. She’s one of the best racers I’ve coached.
“It’s something you can’t coach. She just has that ‘it’ factor.”
Clifford said she first got into the sport mainly because her older sister Megan was doing it, and they both pushed each other growing up and when they were swimming for Seaholm together during Samantha’s freshman and sophomore years.
Megan graduated after Samantha’s sophomore year, so the last two it’s been her time to be on her own and serve as a leader for the underclassmen on the squad.
“It was definitely very different,” Clifford said. “Not having her there was a big change, but I think the upperclassmen (last year) helped make that change easier.”
Since taking up the sport, Clifford said swimming always has had a soothing effect on her, especially when some days are harder than others.
“I just like racing a lot,” she said. “There’s just something about being in the water that calms me down.”
Water will definitely be a big part of Clifford’s life when she finishes up high school.
Clifford will swim and study at the U.S. Naval Academy. She said she’s always been interested in serving and that she clicked with the swim coaches there after a series of conversations.
She is also excited to be involved in STEM programs there and follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
Before she turns her attention toward college though, Clifford, who is also a flute player for the school’s band, is fully focused on her final days as a swimmer at Seaholm.
Clifford said it will be a challenge to swim at Calvin because she’s never swam there before, and she’ll have to adjust to the surroundings of the pool.
She admits going for four titles in a row as a team has been a different challenge than aiming for those championships earlier in her high school career.
“The first two years, it was more fun and, ‘Let’s go and get after it,’” Clifford said. "These last two years, it’s like we have to prove ourselves. It’s definitely more intense.”
Hodgson may not fully know which events Clifford will swim in the days leading up to the meet, but one thing is for certain – whatever Clifford swims, points will follow.
“She’ll go down as one of the all-time greats,” Hodgson said.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Seaholm’s Samantha Clifford, middle, launches into the water for the 100-yard freestyle championship race at last season’s LPD2 Finals at Oakland University. (Middle) Clifford, right, talks with Birmingham Groves’ Madison Helmick at the conclusion of the race. Clifford won, and Helmick was third. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)