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.)
Title IX at 50: Pioneer's Joyce Legendary in Michigan, National Swim History
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 9, 2021
Michigan has had no shortage of achievers in the swimming pool over a half-century of girls swimming & diving sponsorship by the MHSAA. But nearly two decades after her last high school race, Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Kara Lynn Joyce's achievements remain among the highest of standards.
Joyce starred on the 2001 and 2002 teams that were the second and third, respectively, of Pioneer’s nine straight champions in Lower Peninsula Class A and then Division 1 (with that reclassification in 2002). She was part of four race champions both years – in the 100-yard freestyle and as part of the 400 freestyle relay at both Finals, while as a junior in the 50 and as part of the 200 medley relay and as a senior in 200 freestyle and 200 free relay.
Her name remains an incredible 16 times in the MHSAA girls swimming & diving record book, including seven times on the all-Finals lists (for performances from all Classes and Divisions combined). Her 50 (22.04 seconds – leading off a relay) and 100 (48.59) freestyles in 2002 remain all-Finals record, as does the 200 freestyle relay (1:32.77) she swam with Margaret Kelly, Leigh Cole and Jennifer Merte that season. Her winning 1:46.34 in the 200 as a senior is second all-time at the Finals only to another future Olympian, Canton’s Allison Schmitt, who finished nine hundredths of a second faster five years later.
Joyce’s 50 remains fifth all-time in the national record book, and her 100 ranks 13th on that list. Pioneer’s 2002 200 freestyle relay ranks sixth nationally.
Joyce went on to swim at University of Georgia and then during the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. She won four silver medals, two each as part of 400-meter freestyle and 400-meter medley relays.
That 2002 Pioneer team is still considered arguably the most dominant in MHSAA history. The Pioneers claimed that first LP Division 1 title with 476 points, by 275 over the rest of the field. No LP Division 1 team has broken 400 points at a Final since.
Joyce has become a strong voice in leadership training for teenage girls in athletics. In 2017, she founded Lead Sports Co., which serves as a “home base for teenage girl athletes, parents and coaches with comprehensive online courses in Leadership, Confidence, Sports Psychology, and more.”
Second Half's weekly Title IX Celebration posts are sponsored by Michigan Army National Guard.
Previous Title IX at 50 Spotlights
Nov. 2: Royal Oak's Finch Leading Way on Football Field - Read
Oct. 26: Coach Clegg Sets Championship Standard at Grand Blanc - Read
Oct. 19: Rockford Girls Set Pace, Hundreds After Have Continued to Chase - Read
Oct. 12: Bedford Volleyball Pioneer Continues Blazing Record-Setting Trail - Read
Oct. 5: Warner Paved Way to Legend Status with Record Rounds - Read
Sept. 28: Taylor Kennedy Gymnasts Earn Fame as 1st Champions - Read
Sept. 21: Portage Northern Star Byington Becomes Play-by-Play Pioneer - Read
Sept. 14: Guerra/Groat Legacy Continues to Serve St. Philip Well - Read
Sept. 7: Best-Ever Conversation Must Include Leland's Glass - Read
Aug. 31: We Will Celebrate Many Who Paved the Way - Read
PHOTOS Ann Arbor Pioneer celebrates the Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship; Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce stands middle, just below the trophy. (MHSAA File Photos.)