Jake Herremans of Rockford and Jackson Maxwell of Swartz Creek were champion divers in Divisions 1 and 2, respectively, while Xinghao Wang of Grand Ledge won the Division 2 100-yard breaststroke to lead the area in the boys’ state swimming and diving championships.
DIVISION 1 AT SAGINAW VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
Brother Rice claimed the Division 1 state title with 345 points compared to 202 for Livonia Stevenson.
Rockford was 10th with 81 points. The Rams were led by Herremans, who was first in the one-meter dive. Shane Phillips was eighth.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Craig Wasberg, David Dewberger, Timmer Hoffmeister, and Chris Lemoine was sixth with a time of 1:36.87.
“We had a great season, but not a great state meet,” said Rockford coach Tom Parks. “Our divers did well, and we had a few really good performances, but not our best. We disqualified a relay which really hurt us. I hate to say it, but it was pretty obvious it was not a great call by the official. Regardless, I’m very proud of my team and all their hard work.”
DIVISION 2 AT EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Birmingham Seaholm won the Division 2 title with 357.5 points, finishing ahead of Dexter with 203. Midland Dow was ninth at 122.5, Grand Ledge 11th at 68, Okemos 12th at 67, Heritage 13th at 55, and Waverly-Lansing Catholic 14th at 53. Jackson Maxwell scored all of Swartz Creek’s 20 points by winning the one-meter dive. Xinghao Wang of Grand Ledge was first in the 100-yard breaststroke in 55.77 seconds, while Logan Yearham and Tyler Miller of Heritage were fourth in 58.07 and sixth in 59.74, respectively.
Top local performances also included Ben Rentz taking fourth for Waverly-Lansing Catholic in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:41.83. Nehemiah Mork was fourth for Midland Dow in the 500-yard freestyle, while Jake Seeterlin of Okemos was ninth. Wang was third in the 100-yard butterfly in 50.60 seconds and Ian Polland of Okemos ninth in 51.41 seconds.
Midland Dow placed second and seventh in the 100-yard freestyle, with Mork clocking a time of 46.47 seconds and Zach Hoffman finishing in 46.94 seconds.
Rentz of Waverly-Lansing Catholic finished third in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:37.79.
Midland Dow was sixth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with the foursome of Mork, Hoffman, Nick Pixton, and Nick Smith.
The Dow 400-yard freestyle relay team of Mork, Hoffman, Ricky Knoff, Smith finished eighth in 3:14.80.
“We broke 11 school records and placed a program-best 11th,” said Grand Ledge coach Ian Townsend. “We took 11 swimmers and divers to states from a team with 16 guys and won the program’s first ever CAAC Blue Conference championship.
“Definitely Xinghao’s state title swim had to be the most impressive swim of the weekend. His time is sixth fastest in MHSAA history and currently 12th nationally this season.
“Our relays performed remarkably well this year, and that culminated with our 200 medley relay and 400 free relay becoming the first two relays in school history to place top 16 at the state meet. Senior diver Rob Wilson placed 12th in that event and made remarkable strides this season. It was a great season overall with lots of program-first performances.”
Okemos “finished the season very well with a share in our seventh CAAC Blue title as well as a high finish at the state meet. We scored two relays and had six individual scoring swims in the top 16,” said Okemos coach Patrick Saucedo. “Our two relays, 200 medley and 400 free, were our fastest of the season by a lot. It was great to see those four guys bring it together one last time.
“We pretty much knew our standings going in and thought our performances and placings were pretty close to where we expected to end up. It was a very successful season. This season I had most individual state swims between all of my other years coaching.”
DIVISION 3 AT HOLLAND AQUATIC CENTER
Cranbrook Kingswood won the Division 3 meet with 297 points over Chelsea with 273.33. Ionia was 11th at 69, John Glenn 17th at 29, St. Johns and Mason tied for 20th at 24. Alma finished 23rd with 22 points, Haslett 27th with eight, Ovid-Elsie 28th with six, and DeWitt 33rd with one.
Logan Carson of John Glenn was fifth in the 50-yard freestyle.
Jared Gregory of St. Johns was fourth in the one-meter dive with 400.9 points. Brevan Bender of Alma was fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and Corbin Shuler of Mason eighth. Skyler Fish of Ionia was fifth in the 100-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard backstroke for Ionia.
“We were very pleased with the final outcome of our season,” said St. Johns coach Kim Brewbaker. “The local paper had picked us to finish in fourth place and we were third in the final standings. This season we beat a couple of teams that had beaten us last season, and one of our losses was a one-point loss. Our guys swam faster than last season, and we had a fantastic conference meet.
“We finished about where we thought we would. We hoped to place in the top 20 at the Division 3 state meet, and that’s where we ended up. Our guys turned in our fastest times of the season in the events we qualified in, but they weren’t fast enough to make the top 16 in most of our entries.”
Marshall Gallt was Ovid-Elsie’s only qualifier, and he placed 15th in the 200 IM and 14th in the 100 fly.
“He had been at states the last two years and was an alternate for finals both years,” said Ovid-Elsie coach Karl Dahlke. “This year he qualified for finals in both his events by dropping 6.28 seconds in the IM and 2.39 seconds in the fly. Both set our school records. We hit his taper perfectly.”