Swimming and Diving: MHSAA Finals primer
November 18, 2011
East Grand Rapids, Holland and Farmington Hills Mercy are among the usual contenders who should again make runs at MHSAA girls swimming and diving championships this weekend.
But competitors from places like Dundee, Walled Lake Western and Waterford will be pushing the annual powers at three Finals located across the Lower Peninsula.
Eastern Michigan University will host the Division 1 Final, with Division 2 at the Holland
Aquatics Center and Division 3 at Oakland University. Preliminaries are Friday and championships will be decided Saturday.
Tickets cost $8, and competition begins at noon both days. Saturday’s championship races will be streamed live at FoxSportsDetroit.com and MHSAA.tv. Click for a full schedule and lists of qualifiers, their seed times and diving orders.
Here are some the teams, relays and individuals who could make the biggest waves:
Power struggles
The contending teams haven’t changed much over the last few seasons. Here’s how the annual favorites are stacking up against each other.
Division 1: Saline vs. Farmington Hills Mercy vs. Holland West Ottawa – Saline has claimed the last two MHSAA championships in this division after ending Ann Arbor Pioneer’s nine-year title run, and will have 21 individual entries this weekend. West Ottawa, last season’s runner-up, comes in with 19. But Mercy, which has won the last four Division 2 championships, will bring in 31 individual entries.
Division 2: Birmingham Groves vs. Holland – Mercy moving into Division 1 opens this meet up for a new champion, and Holland brings in 30 individual entries after finishing runner-up each of the last three seasons. But Groves also should be in the mix. The Falcons won four straight from 2003-06 and has 29 individual qualifiers.
Division 3: East Grand Rapids vs. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood – Two-time reigning champion East Grand Rapids is bringing 32 individual entries. But two-time reigning runner-up Cranbrook-Kingswood will try to overtake the Pioneers with its 25.
Pass the baton
At least one relay in each Final has a chance to make a run at a specific meet or overall record.
Hudsonville 200 freestyle – Seniors Michaela Rookus and Audra Thornton, sophomore Makayla Myers and junior Danielle Freeman have nearly a two-second edge coming in with a seed time of 1:35.82. Cutting just 14 hundredths of a second would put them on the record book list with the seventh-fastest Finals time.
Holland 200 medley – Senior Courtney Bartholomew, junior Melissa Vandermeulen, freshman Taylor Garcia and sophomore Molly Horren have swam this race in 1:45.26, which would rank fifth-fastest in MHSAA Finals history.
Holland Christian 200 freestyle – The team of senior Kaylie Wierda, sophomore Ashlee Sall, senior Kelsey Weener and freshman Sydney Asselin posted a seed time of 1:38.73. They’ll need to cut less than a second to beat Marian’s Division 3 meet record of 1:37.87 set in 2008.
Athletes to Watch
Courtney Bartholomew, Holland senior – The standout Dutch swimmer will attempt to add to her three individual MHSAA championships and four as part of relays. She has the top seed time in the 100 backstroke (54.53) and second-best in the 200 individual medley (2:05.13) – the two races she won in 2010. She holds the backstroke overall Finals record of 52.45.
Ines Charles, Bloomfield Hills Lahser sophomore – Is seeded first in Division 3 in both the 100 butterfly (57.36) and 100 backstroke (58.38), and also is part of three Lahser relays all seeded among the top four in her meet.
Brooke Edwards, Dundee senior – Will try to add to last season’s Division 3 championship in the 200 freestyle and fourth-place finish in the 100. She has the third-best seed time in the 200 (1:58.77) and sixth-best in the 100 (54.77) coming into this weekend.
Olivia Kassouni, East Grand Rapids junior – Hopes to defend her Division 3 diving championship after winning by 9.3 points in 2010 with a score of 435.80.
Annie Lazor, Birmingham Groves senior – She’s got the top Division 2 seed time of 1:03.69 in the 100 breaststroke amd will be going for her fourth championship in that race; she also holds the overall Finals record of 1:02.10. She’s also seeded first in the 200 IM (2:03.96) and will attempt to add that title as well after finishing second to Bartholomew last season.
Allie Murphy, Walled Lake Western junior – Is back at the Division 2 Final after winning last season’s diving championship with 410.45 points, three more than the runner-up.
Kylie Powrie, Cranbrook-Kingswood junior – Will try to repeat as the 500 freestyle Division 3 champion and has the top seed time in that event of 5:15.11. Her seed time of 2:00.13 in the 200 freestyle is 10th-best coming in.
Sami Stelpflug, Clarkston sophomore – Posted the top Division 1 seed times in both the 200 IM (2:04.14) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.85).
Anna Stephens, East Grand Rapids sophomore – Posted the top Division 3 seed time in the 100 breakstroke (1:06.40) after winning that race in 2010, and is third in the 200 IM (2:13.36).
Maddie Wright, Waterford United freshman – Enters her first MHSAA Final with the top Division 1 seed times in the 200 freestyle (1:50.26) and 100 butterfly (55.16).
PHOTO
Dive in: Holland senior Nicole Cordero is among those hoping to lead the Dutch to the Division 2 championship. She'll swim the 50 and 100-yard freestyles and on two relays.
GRCC Pulls Far Away from Rest to win LPD3
November 21, 2015
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – The 1-2 punch of Grand Rapids Catholic Central swimmers Riley Kishman and Susan LaGrand overwhelmed the field Saturday afternoon at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 girls swimming and diving championships at Eastern Michigan University.
They had plenty of help, too, as Grand Rapids Catholic Central won its first MHSAA team championship In girls swimming and diving with 299 points to far outdistance runner-up St. Clair (199) and third-place Holland Christian (197).
Kishman, a junior who was named the Division 3 Swimmer of the Year by the coaches association, won two individual events and swam on two championship relays. LaGrand, a sophomore, also won two individual events in addition to contributing to a championship relay and another relay that placed second.
“It feels really good,” said Kishman, who won the 100 breaststroke and the 200 freestyle. “We’ve been wanting this for a while, and I’m glad it finally happened.
“Coach told us if we were going in thinking that we have it, we won’t have it, so we went in like we were in second place. We knew we had a target on our backs, so we tried to just keep going.”
Kishman, a two-time Finals champion in the 200 individual medley, passed on the event in favor of the 200 freestyle, which she won in 1 minute, 51.01 seconds.
“I have been doing more freestyle lately, and I like the 200 free better,” she said. “I thought we would have a better chance at getting more points if I did that, and I’m glad I did it.”
Kishman did successfully defend her title in the 200 breaststroke in 1:03.20.
“I had my best time in that since my freshman year, so I was really happy about that,” said Kishman, who also swam on the winning 200 freestyle relay and the winning 400 freestyle relay.
LaGrand had one of the more exciting victories of the day when she came from behind to win the 100 butterfly over St. Clair senior Grace Shinske. It was the second consecutive MHSAA title in the butterfly for LaGrand, who set a meet record with a time of 56.85 seconds.
“It’s always better when you have somebody to race,” she said. “It was really great. I could not have gone the time I did without her pushing me.”
LaGrand’s other individual title came in the 200 IM, which she finished in 2:06.97, better than Kishman’s winning time from a year ago.
“It really feels good,” she said after the win. “I have an awesome team behind me that pushes me every day in practice, so that really helps.”
The 200 IM was just two events after the meet-opening 200 medley relay, which had LaGrand and Grand Rapids Catholic Central finishing second to St. Clair. It was a quick turnaround for LaGrand.
“It was a little stressful, but with good time management it’s all right,” she said. “You know what you are going into when you sign up.”
As impressive as Kishman and LaGrand were, Grand Rapids Catholic Central was far from a two-girl show. Six other girls scored points, including senior Liz Rabaut and sophomores Nicole Rotelle and Elise Merucci. All three scored four times, including on one championship relay.
Lauren Lomonoco, another senior, was on two championship relays and placed in another individual event.
“It’s amazing to see how far our team has come since our freshman year,” she said. “We were just trying to get in the top 10 in the state that year, so it’s really rewarding and overwhelming.
“It’s just a great way to end my career.”
Sophomores Emily Merucci and Hannah DeBoer also scored twice in individual events for Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Kishman and LaGrand were the only defending champions to repeat in their events, and two others failed to repeat as champions. In 1-meter diving, Allegan senior Erin Isola edged reigning champion Taylor Hosein of Milan 454.40 to 435.90. Isola had a lead of less than seven points coming into Saturday but put it away with three solid dives that totaled 139.50 points.
“It really hasn’t hit me yet … it’s like a dream come true,” she said after winning. “I’m really excited.”
She said her second dive – an inward 1½ somersault – was the key dive for her.
“Normally I don’t nail it as well as I did, and it got me a bunch of points to stay ahead of Taylor,” she said. “Taylor is a great diver, and it really could have been either one of us who won. It was really close.”
The other displaced champion was Rileigh Eding of Hamilton, who was edged by Shinske in the 100 backstroke. Shinske, who led LaGrand before finishing second in the exciting 100 butterfly, defeated Eding in the same fashion. Eding had a lead after 50 yards, but Shinske, in the final individual race of her high school career, surged back in the last 50 yards to pass her and win in 56.27.
“It was pretty exciting,” Shinske said. “At one point, I was thinking I was going to finish in second place, and then I realized that I could do it and I just went for it. It feels great.”
Shinske also teamed with Molly Likins, Heidi Likins and Alexis Smith to win the meet-opening 200 medley relay in 1:47.54.
Eding, who failed to repeat in the 100 backstroke, captured the 50 freestyle in 24.04 seconds. Other freestyle winners were Karlee Marsh of Tecumseh in the 100 freestyle (51.80) and sophomore Evelyn VanDeMark of Alma in the 500 freestyle (5:11.43).
Marsh, a junior, had finished third and fifth in two individual events last year.
“I’m really emotional, but it’s a great feeling,” she said. “It definitely helps that I was a second faster coming in, and it made me more confident. I think everybody did really good.”
But the best of those were the girls from Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
“It was a team goal to establish a championship feeling, and we accomplished that,” Grand Rapids Catholic Central coach Mio Vasic said. “I want to congratulate the girls on how they were able to balance their personal lives, school, academics and swimming. I’m very proud of them.”
PHOTO: (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Susan LaGrand swims her winning 200 individual medley Saturday. (Middle) St. Clair’s Grace Shinske works toward her butterfly championship. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)