#TBT: Groves Claims 1st Swim & Dive Title
September 12, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The 1987 and 1988 Lower Peninsula Class A Finals were two of the most closely-contested in MHSAA Girls Swimming & Diving history. And after falling just short in 1987, Birmingham Groves edged the rest to win its first championship in the sport in 1988.
Groves scored 150 points in 1987 at Michigan State University's McCaffree Pool, just seven fewer than champion Ann Arbor Pioneer. But although individual butterfly champion Janet Caraher graduated the following spring, Groves took that last step up the podium at MSU the next fall with 117 points – six more than runner-up Birmingham Seaholm, 12 more than Midland Dow and 32 more than distant fourth-place Pioneer.
Groves was paced by a pair of champions: senior sprinter Laura Fischer won both the 50 and 100-yard freestyles after finishing second and fifth in those races, respectively, in 1987. Senior Becky Callam also improved from second in 1987 to first in diving after also winning the event at the 1986 Final. The team's swimmers were coached by Darin Abbasse and its divers by Dave Eddy.
The Falcons went on to win four straight Division 2 titles from 2003-06 under coach Chris Tennyson, and remain a power, finishing fourth in Division 2 last fall.
Click to read all of the names that go with the photo above.
#TBT: Pioneer Blazes Another Pool Path
September 14, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Few if any Michigan high school sports have seen the bar continue to rise and records continue to fall like swimming & diving since the turn of this century.
But as winning times continue to rev faster and faster, the 2002 Ann Arbor Pioneer girls team continues to hold a lofty spot as arguably the most dominating in MHSAA history.
The 2002 Finals were the first in the Lower Peninsula organized by two divisions instead of the traditional class format, and Pioneer entered having won the last two LP Class A titles.
The Pioneers claimed that first Division 1 title with an astounding 476 points, and by 275 on the rest of the field. No LP Division 1 team has broken 400 points at a Final since, and Pioneer’s 184.5-point win in 2008 has come closest to that 2002 margin of victory.
Pioneer placed the champions in all three relays, three individual races and diving that Nov. 23 at Eastern Michigan University. The team was led by future three-time Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce, and her swims that day in the 100-yard freestyle (48.59 seconds), as part of the 200 freestyle relay (Joyce, Margaret Kelly, Leigh Cole, Suzannah Merte – 1:33.71) and in the 50 (22.04) as the lead leg in that relay still stand as the oldest all-Finals records in MHSAA history. At the time, the 100 freestyle and 200 relay times also broke national girls high school records, as did Joyce’s winning and then-MHSAA record time of 1:46.34 in the 200 freestyle.
The 2002 championship run was the 10th of 16 guided by legendary coaches Denny and Liz Hill (Liz was his assistant until becoming the co-head coach in 2007 and has been part of the staff for all 16 titles). It also was not only the team’s third straight, but ended up being part of a string of nine consecutive MHSAA Finals wins.
In addition to Joyce and the 200 freestyle relay’s wins, Pioneer won the 200 medley relay (Kelly, Ilene Lesch, Melissa Jaeger, Ally Wyatt) in 1:46.14, Jaeger won the butterfly in 56.33, the 400 freestyle relay (Cole, Jaeger, Merte, Joyce) won in 3:26.96 and Ellen Van Cleve won diving with a score of 446.10.
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. Jaeger, Cole and Kelly swam at University of Michigan, Lesch at Arizona State University, and Van Cleve also dove for the Wolverines.
PHOTO: Ann Arbor Pioneer celebrates the Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship; future Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce stands middle, just below the trophy.