Seaholm Finds Next Gear After Fast Start
November 19, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – Four events into the preliminaries Friday, Birmingham Seaholm girls swimming coach Karl Hodgson knew something special was brewing.
On Saturday, his pot boiled over as the Maples won the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University. Seaholm finished with 287.5 points to outdistance runner-up and reigning champion Dexter, which had 250. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central was third with 215.
It was the first MHSAA team title in girls swimming and diving for Seaholm since it ran off three in a row from 1995-97. Hodgson was an assistant coach on those teams.
“In the first four events on Friday, the medley relay did well and Allie (Russell) dropped two seconds in her I.M. to qualify first,” said Hodgson, who was named the Coach of the Meet by LPD2 coaches. “I had a 200 swimmer Hannah Erickson do her lifetime best, and in the 50 (Haley) Dolan and (Linnea) Anderson had lifetime bests.”
So, with that kind of performance Friday, it would seem Hodgson was relaxed and slept well Friday night.
“Not a chance,” he said with a chuckle. “Not with Dexter hanging around.
Actually, Hodgson said the start of this quest began last year when the Maples finished fifth as Dexter captured the title.
“That was when the girls realized that they had the talent to do it and that they could do it,” he said.
With the excellent performances from Friday behind them, the Maples began the finals portion of the meet in style Saturday by winning the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Nichole McMaster, Russell, Anderson and Dolan finished in 1 minute, 43.98 seconds to win by nearly 3 seconds.
“That was huge,” Hodgson said. “It told me that I had four kids who were on. We set a school record on Friday and came back and crushed it on Saturday. That really set the tone. It was a big deal.”
The swimmers agreed that the first event was a tone-setter.
“After that, everyone’s adrenaline was so up, and that’s when we knew we had a chance of winning,” said McMaster, a senior.
Russell, another senior, also felt the medley relay was the key.
“Our medley relay has always been kind of our strong suit,” she said. “So to lead off the meet with a win, I think that sort of set in motion what could happen.”
Dolan, a junior, had the only individual title for Seaholm. She won the 50 freestyle in 23.56 seconds. As a sophomore, she made it to the MHSAA Final but failed to qualify for the championship heat in the 50.
“This year I’ve been doing a lot of outside training with a trainer, and we worked with a lot of weights, and I think that helped a lot,” she said. “Karl is an amazing coach too, and last year I think I just had an off race.”
Dolan, who also was fifth in the 100 freestyle, was the only three-time Finals champion for Seaholm, which also won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.49 with a team of Anderson, Russell, Erickson and Dolan.
The Maples surrounded the three race victories with plenty of depth in the scoring. Russell had the lone runner-up finish as she was second in the 200 I.M.
“I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “I would rather win the state title with my team than as an individual.
“Our freshman year, the state meet was here and got it started for us without really knowing what we were doing, so to finish it off here in my senior year is great.”
Erickson chipped in with a third place in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle, while Anderson was third in the 50 freestyle and fourth in the 100 butterfly.
“This is amazing; there is nothing like it,” Anderson said. “We knew we had a chance, and we knew we all had to do our best to win it.”
Runner-up Dexter was led by junior Annette Schultz, the swimmer of the meet a year ago when the Dreadnaughts won the title. She was no less spectacular Saturday as she repeated as champion in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle and also swam the anchor leg on the 400 freestyle relay team that finished first.
Schultz came close to breaking the Division 2 Finals records in both the 100 and 200 freestyles. Her time of 50.30 seconds in the 100 was just short of the record (49.87), and her 1:48.27 in the 200 threatened the record mark of 1:47.88. Schutz was joined by teammates Amelia Kinnard, Grace Kacmarek and Sarah Zofchak in the 400 freestyle relay, which won in 3:31.14.
Schultz was not too disappointed in failing to break a Finals record.
“I’m just hoping that next year I can improve on them and get a state record,” she said. “I dropped my time in the 100, and that was what I was looking for.
“I just wanted to get some best times, and I did. I got a best time.”
Olympic swimmer Allison Schmitt, who still holds two all-class Finals records, including in the 200 freestyle, attended the meet and was thrilled to watch the competition.
“Swimming for four years at the state meet was a great experience, and coming back and seeing these girls doing the same thing that I did eight years ago is great,” Schmitt said. “It’s great to be back.
“These girls were little girls when I was in high school, so to see them succeed doing what they are doing is amazing, and I’m cheering for my records to be broken just like everyone else.”
Felicity Buchmaier of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central was named the swimmer of the meet by the LPD2 coaches. Buchmaier, a junior, won the 100 butterfly in 54.04, and she added the 100 backstroke in 55.30.
“It’s a big relief,” she said. “I felt like I had a lot of expectations from both myself and from other people.”
Buchmaier repeated as champion in the 100 butterfly.
“It was just as exciting as the last time,” she said. “I tried to block out as much emotion as possible, but my body started to hurt – as usual – and I had to get it in my head that it was just another race.”
Forest Hills Central also had the champion in diving, and it might have been the best finish of the meet. Anna Hansen, a sophomore who moved to Grand Rapids from Chicago last year, trailed by three points going into the final dive of the meet. She nailed a forward 2½ somersault in the tuck position – 2.4 degree of difficulty – to score 50.40 points and pass Taylor Shegos of Fenton.
“I was really nervous,” Hansen said, “but I just focused on what I needed to do and nothing else.
“That is my favorite dive, so I was confident with it.”
Hansen’s victory extended the dominance in diving by Forest Hills Central. It was without two-time champion Erin Neely, who missed this season with an injury, but still had four of the top seven finishers.
“Erin is such a big supporter of the team,” Hansen said. “She really has pushed us, so it means a lot to take her place.”
Seaholm, Dexter and Forest Hills Central combined to win nine of the 12 events. The other three were won by Vicki Postmus of Byron Center in the 200 I.M., Charlotte Pierce of Birmingham Groves in the breaststroke and Julia Boswell of Royal Oak in the 500 freestyle.
But the day belonged to Seaholm.
“It’s so surreal I can’t believe it,” Doan said. “It’s so exciting. I think it has sunk in a little but later it’s really going to hit me. It’s crazy.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Birmingham Seaholm poses with its Division 2 championship trophy. (Middle) Anna Hansen of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Loy Norrix Swim & Dive Rooted in Community
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
November 12, 2019
KALAMAZOO — When Paul Mahar was hired to coach at Loy Norrix High School, he had nine returning swimmers on a team of just 14 girls.
That was in 2004, and the program was on the verge of becoming a co-op with Kalamazoo Central High School.
But Mahar turned the girls swimming & diving program around in a “rags to riches” story, said athletic director Andrew Laboe.
Norrix has 45 girls on this year’s team, with two individual and three relay team qualifiers so far for the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals on Nov. 22-23 at Oakland University.
Four divers – juniors Samantha Vande Pol, Laurel Wolfe, Sofie Santos and freshman Wen Wadsworth – are all headed to Regionals this week hoping to qualify for the Finals as well.
“(Mahar) has built a program through blood, sweat and tears with excitement, building a community education youth program and through the non-stop drumbeat of recruiting within our school,” Laboe said.
The Knights ended the regular season with a 7-2 record, including a win over perennial power Battle Creek Lakeview.
“Beating Lakeview was a big milestone for them,” Laboe said. “(Norrix is) a very young team this year, and we are hoping to build on that in the next years.”
Senior Carly Loken said a key to the team’s success is the girls’ relationships with each other.
“We have a lot of girls who swam club, and we’re all friends,” she said. “Also, (it helps) being able to pull in kids their freshman and sophomore years and welcome them into the group, and (we) really enjoy spending time together.”
Mahar prefers to deflect the attention from himself to the athletes, but his enthusiasm for the program is evident.
“My first few years I just had my upperclassmen pull kids in, just kids recruiting kids,” he said. “The last 10 years or so with me being in the building (as a teacher), I’ve been able to create relationships with kids and bring them out.
“Just siblings coming out and friends bringing friends out, that’s the big part of it.”
Loy Norrix finished third at the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference championships over the weekend, not a surprise to sophomore Annika Schnell.
“It’s important that we have fast girls, but we also have swimmers who hold our team together,” she said. “We have a lot of depth.”
Community strong
One key to Mahar’s success is a community program he started which now includes K-Central.
“The first few years it was called Knights United,” he said. “Then we had a great conversation with Kalamazoo Central parents to bring swimming back to the city of Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo Public Schools.
“We sat down and agreed we would come together, so we changed it to Kalamazoo United. We started with 25 boys and girls, and now we’re at about 250 kids year round.”
The program, hosted six months at Norrix and six at Central, includes children as young as 4 years old in the “Learn to Swim” class, and up to 18 years old.
Schnell, who became the first Knight headed to the MHSAA Finals when she qualified in the 50-yard freestyle, started in the community program at age 9 and now works with the younger swimmers.
Over the weekend, she also qualified in the 100 butterfly.
One advantage, she said, is having the same coach when girls transition to the high school team.
Mahar agreed.
“The majority of the kids who are on the team I’ve known since they were in third or fourth grade. So I’ve created a relationship with all these kids who are in the water right now for over a decade, and it’s been really great,” he said.
Loken also came through the community program.
“Coach Mahar has been my coach ever since I was little, so I kind of grew up with him and I always knew that I wanted to be a part of this environment,” she said.
“I remember one practice when I was little, (high schoolers) came and helped us with strokes, and I really liked that and wanted to be a part of that group.”
Schnell qualified for the Finals last year and, while she did not make it to the second day’s championship and consolation races, she said it was a good learning experience.
“I didn’t do so hot last year,” she said. “I had an injury. That wasn’t very fun.
“This year, I’m hoping to make one more cut than last year. I didn’t really come in prepared last year, but now I have experience. It’s always good to go with friends.”
Schnell will have a few friends with her this year, with junior Ellie Haase in the 100 backstroke and all three relay teams headed to Oakland so far.
‘No captains, all leaders’
The coach encourages swimmers to be leaders.
“We decided to take away captains, and we asked the girls to start building better relations with each other and create leaders over there,” Mahar said. “Our motto is ‘No captains, all leaders.’
“That creates an opportunity for a newbie, which we call a first-year kid or a freshman or sophomore, a chance to step up and be a leader in some way. It doesn’t always have to be in the pool. Maybe it’s in the locker room. Maybe it’s in the classroom.”
Mahar, who retired this year from coaching the school’s boys team, said when he was first hired, he had no idea that he would still be at Norrix 15 years later.
“I’m fortunate that I made the decision to stay in Kalamazoo, not only to teach but also coach and raise my family here,” he said. “I have two female swimmers who will be coming up soon, so I’m excited about that.”
Those are his daughters, Grace, an eighth grader, and Lillian, a sixth grader. Both participate in the community feeder program.
“I’m very fortunate that I have so many families, parents, athletes who have stuck with us and built this together, and that’s really the only reason we are as successful as we are today,” he said.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kalamazoo Loy Norrix celebrates its victory at the Allegan Invitational this fall. (Middle) Clockwise from top left: Carly Loken, Annika Schnell, Ellie Haase and coach Paul Mahar. (Below) Haase prepares to launch during one of her races. (Top and below photos and Haase head shot courtesy of the Loy Norrix girls swimming & diving program; Loken, Schnell and Mahar head shots by Pam Shebest.)