'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.”
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.)
Saline Tops Podium for 1st Time Since 2013 as Multiple Past Runners-Up Take Next Step
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 15, 2025
HOLLAND – Saline boys swimming & diving coach Todd Brunty said the quest for his team’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals championship Saturday began exactly 365 days ago after losing out to rival Ann Arbor Pioneer by 30 points.
"First, everyone has to believe in the opportunity or the possibility of it," he explained. "You have to be a team that expects to compete. It's the old cliché: You've got to believe you can do it.
“Three hundred and sixty five days ago, we believed we had the talent to do it. We didn't quite perform like we wanted a year ago, but coming into today we thought we had a chance."
Saline cast aside the disappointment of finishing runner-up last year by winning the team meet at Holland Aquatics Center with 291.5 points, outdistancing the 263 scored by the four-time reigning champ Pioneers. Northville was third with 224 points, Zeeland fourth at 176 and Detroit Catholic Central fifth with 175 points.
Sophomore Issac Adanin captured the 200-yard individual medley (1:48.24) and 100 breaststroke (56.23) titles to lead Saline’s scoring. Diego Valdes won the 100 butterfly (49.15) for the Hornets.
The championship was their first since winning four straight Division 1 titles from 2010-13. Saline also finished runner-up in 2016.
Last year, Adanin was runner-up in the IM and fourth in the breaststroke.
"I had a slow start (this season). It was smooth, then I gradually got faster," he said. "I really hoped I (could win both races). I was kind of young last year, so I didn't have large expectations. But I've been to a lot of big meets in club, so I learned how to get better. It was harder this year, different, because (the meet) was so stacked."
Joining Adanin as a double individual winner was Detroit Catholic Central sophomore Camren Turowski, who finished off an unbeaten season in the 50-yard freestyle by winning that event in 20.41 seconds and won the 100 free with a Division 1 meet record time of 45 seconds.
Turowski had elected to give up lacrosse and football at the middle school level a few years ago because it seemed he was always fighting injuries. "I kept getting injured, and I wanted to save my body for swimming," he said.
Now he’s putting the hurt on swim opponents. Both performances Saturday were All-America qualifying times and came on the heels of earlier this season breaking the Oakland County and Detroit Catholic Central record of 45.25 in the 100 free while setting a conference and school record of 20.69 in the 50.
A year ago Turowski, an avid wake surfer, finished runner-up at the Finals in the 50 while helping three relays place among the top two. It was that second-place finish, in fact, that Turowski credits for driving his transformation from a good swimmer into an outstanding one.
"Last year I didn't win (the 50 free), and I didn't like that," he said. "In swimming you need to improve in small increments, which means a lot. That means progress, which is what you need.
"I think it was a stronger field this year, very competitive in the 100. But I planned to win. I don't like to lose."
Detroit Catholic Central coach Jessica Stoddard said Turowski is the kind of swimmer who pays attention to coaching details, strives for perfection and is always seeking the next challenge.
"He comes in and asks what he needs to work on. He's very coachable," she said. "He's always first in and last out."
Zeeland's Owen Stevens achieved his goal Saturday by breaking the 11-year-old Division 1 Finals record in winning the 500 free (4:23.65).
Stevens, a Zeeland West senior and Finals qualifier since his freshman year who will swim at Louisville next season, last lost in the 500 free during his freshman season.
"It was my last high school race in the 500, and I wanted to go out by breaking the record and I did," he said. "It felt good. The record was in the back of my mind, and I thought if I swam my race, I could break it."
Grandville's Jack Merkel won the 100 backstroke (48.69), ending a career of rollercoaster showings at the Finals. He qualified in the backstroke as a freshman, but was slowed by the flu. He then took third in the 100 butterfly and second in the backstroke as both a sophomore and junior.
Merkel said finishing so close to a Finals championship can provide motivation, but the pressure also can raise the expectation meter.
"It can go both ways," he said. "But then I realized that if you finish second, there's only one person in the state better than you. If you're good enough to finish second, you can also win. You have to change your mindset a little bit."
Other champions were East Kentwood's Fidele Byiringiro, who became the first from his school to win diving since Kyle Gahan in 1997. He scored a 448.80.
Northville had a pair of winners with Brady Stenson in the 200 free (1:38.06) and the 400 free relay team (3:06.60). Ann Arbor Pioneer won the 200 free relay (1:24.65).
PHOTOS (Top) Saline poses with its championship trophy Saturday at Holland Aquatics Center. (Middle) Camren Turowski stands atop the podium after receiving one of his two championship medals. (Below) Saline’s Issac Adanin swims to the breaststroke championship. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)