'Next Group' Delivers for Seaholm

March 14, 2015

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half 

HOLLAND – One key to a successful MHSAA Finals is a team’s ability to thrive in the relay events.

Birmingham Seaholm’s boys swimming and diving team used that formula to win the program’s second straight Lower Peninsula Division 2 title Saturday at the Holland Community Aquatic Center. 

Seaholm swept all three relay races, the 200-yard medley, 200 freestyle and 400 free, en route to tallying 393 points.

“To win a state meet, it’s all about the relays,” Seaholm coach Tom Wyllie said. “You have to have fast relays because they are worth so many points. You try to put together the best combinations and that really set us up nicely. We had three very strong relays, and we had a great meet.” 

Seaholm, which has won the MHSAA Finals three of the past five years, outgained runner-up Ann Arbor Skyline, which finished with 271.5 points. Dexter placed third with 239 points, while Birmingham Groves was fourth at 189.

“There’s pressure when you have the target on your back and you are favored to win,” Wyllie said. “We’ve been in that situation before, and it hasn’t always worked out. We were really focusing on trying to take care of business doing what we could do. 

“Though you can’t win the meet on Friday, you can lose the meet on Friday. You have to put yourself in position to win on Saturday. You set the table, and if the table is set then we can eat. That was really our focus, and we had so many guys just step up after graduating so many swimmers from last season. The next group came in and delivered.”

Seaholm junior Sebastian Fay won the diving portion with 435.35 points. He edged Grosse Pointe South’s Erik Romer, who had 425.45 points. 

Fay placed runner-up a year ago.

“I knew it was going to be close from the beginning of the season, and I knew five guys who were doing the same scores every meet,” Fay said. “It was tough, but I was excited to win. 

“As a team, I think how close we are really helped. We are all super good friends, and that makes swimming and diving together a great experience.”

Skyline coach Sean Hickman was hoping to put more pressure on Seaholm, but he was satisfied with the runner-up finish. 

Skyline’s Ryan VanderMeulen, a junior, clocked a time of 1 minute, 39.56 seconds to win the 200 free, while teammate Matt Orringer, a senior, took top honors in the 500 free with a time of 4:33.72.

“We’re pleased by that,” Hickman said. “We were shooting for a top-four finish, and we had a great day Friday to put us in position and the guys swam solid today. That was our team goal, and everybody delivered. 

“We were hoping to give Seaholm more of a run, but they really are the best team this year. We tried our best, and it was a great team effort.”

Grosse Pointe South junior Jacob Montague shined and emerged as the top swimmer after capturing a pair of wins that also were LP Division 2 Finals records. 

Montague was victorious in the 200 individual medley with a record-breaking time of 1:48.11 and followed that with an impressive mark of 54.66 in the 100 breaststroke.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” Montague said. “I was just trying to go out and swim as fast as I can and try to touch the wall first each time. It’s a huge honor, and I never would’ve expected that I could have done it. 

“I just try to work hard every single day, and I’m shocked that I even got (the records) because I didn’t have records on my mind.”

Montague didn’t begin swimming competitively until his freshmen year upon the urging of his older brother. He produced school records in both events during his sophomore campaign. 

“I just wanted him to have fun and have some good swims,” Grosse Pointe South coach Eric Gunderson said. “We expected him to go fast, and he did just that. We didn’t necessarily come in expecting any state records or anything, but we knew it wasn’t out of the question if he had a good day, and he did.

“He works incredibly hard, and I’ve never seen a kid who puts in so much effort and it comes out in his swims. It was great to see a day come together for him.” 

Dexter junior Robbie Zofchak also established a new LP Division 2 Finals record in the 100 backstroke. He clocked a 49.72.

Zofchak also finished runner-up to Montague in the 200 IM. 

“I was really gunning for the record, and it was definitely something special,” Zofchak said. “I’m really proud of myself for that, and I knew I just had to go out and try my best. I was a little disappointed in the IM, but he went really fast. That was impressive.”

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: (Top) Birmingham Seaholm raises its championship trophy Saturday. (Middle) Grosse Pointe South’s Jacob Montague races to a meet record finish. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)

Groves' MacDonald Caps Career with Individual Swim Sweep, Team Repeat

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

March 12, 2024

It can be amazing sometimes how winning can completely change an athlete’s mind.

Greater DetroitSuch was the case for Birmingham Groves senior swimmer Gus MacDonald when he was 13 years old. 

While swimming at an event for his club team, his coach decided “for fun” — according to MacDonald — to put him in a breaststroke event.

Never mind that MacDonald up to that point had mainly swum in the backstroke and wasn’t particularly good in the breaststroke. 

Then, something unforeseen happened.

“I ended up winning by a few seconds and dropping multiple seconds off of my time,” MacDonald said. 

And so MacDonald’s racing transformation began. 

Opponents probably wish they could go back in a time machine and prevent that coach from inserting MacDonald into that breaststroke race, because ever since MacDonald has established himself as one of the state’s best in the event regardless of division.

MacDonald successfully repeated as champion in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals on Saturday, claiming first place in a time of 54.88. 

“I find breaststroke more fun because it works on specific muscles and doesn’t wear me out as much in total,” MacDonald said. “My mom was also a breaststroker, so I think I’ve picked up some of the breaststroke genes from her.”

Oh, but MacDonald did even more. 

He also tried his hand this year in the 200 individual medley and won that event Saturday in a time of 1:46.51. 

Then, saving his best for last, MacDonald swam the anchor leg for Groves’ winning team in the 400 freestyle relay, which provided the most dramatic ending possible.

Thanks to a first-place finish in that event, Groves ended up repeating as team champion by one point ahead of rival Birmingham Seaholm.

If there was a more storybook ending to a high school career, it’s hard to imagine. 

Despite his victory in the IM, MacDonald likely will continue to swim breaststroke in college. He chose to swim for Notre Dame over Michigan and Wisconsin, and he said Notre Dame coaches already are envisioning him being a breaststroke specialist once he arrives in South Bend. 

In addition to being a leader in the pool for races, MacDonald and the rest of the Groves seniors took on the task of guiding the rest of the team through a coaching transition this winter. 

Nick Valice took over the program, and the transition was smooth from both the perspective of the new coach and the swimmers. 

“It’s been easy sailing,” Valice said. 

Valice said the hardest adjustment initially with MacDonald in particular was learning what training methods he prefers.

“I spent the first couple of weeks trying to figure out what he’s capable of running versus the caliber level of kids I’ve coached beforehand,” Valice said. “He is definitely able to do a little more. He responds to stuff a little differently, so it’s just been tweaking workouts that benefit him specifically as opposed to the whole team or your generic run-of-the-mill swimmer. I will say he will eat up any workout you throw at him.”

MacDonald certainly proved that with a terrific high school career, especially with the two breaststroke Finals titles. 

That’s pretty good for someone who didn’t know he liked the event until he was 13. 

“I was terrible at it,” MacDonald said. 

Not anymore. Not at all.

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties

PHOTOS Birmingham Groves’ Angus MacDonald stands for a photo after receiving his medal for winning the 100 breaststroke Saturday at Eastern Michigan University. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)