Peel, VanMeter Put On Show at Last Meet
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 9, 2019
ROCHESTER – Going into the 2019 Division 3 Boys Swimming & Diving Finals at Oakland University, both Spring Lake senior Cam Peel and Holland Christian senior Riley VanMeter had other numbers driving their respective quests to be No. 1.
For Peel, it was a third-place finish at last year’s Finals meet in the 50-yard freestyle that weighed on his mind as he readied to start this year’s ultimate sprint race.
But Peel avenged that memory by capturing his first 50 freestyle championship, in his last chance, in a time of 19.91 seconds. In Friday's prelim, he set the all-Finals record in the race at 19.86, becoming the first in Michigan to break 20 seconds in high school competition.
“I’ve always wanted to win the 50,” Peel said. “That’s one where the more mature guys win, so it’s super hard to win as a younger guy in the event. This was my year.”
Peel – who will go on to swim at University of Michigan – then completed the sweep of the sprint events by repeating as champion in the 100 yards in a time of 43.94, finishing as one of two individual standouts of the meet.
The other was VanMeter, who first won the 100 butterfly in a time of 48.07 – which wasn’t a surprise since he was the top seed going in.
But VanMeter also eyed a title in the 100 backstroke, an event he entered seeded second.
VanMeter surpassed that seeding with a terrific swim, winning the backstroke in a time of 48.95 to edge his club teammate, Joey Wachter of Spring Lake.
VanMeter, who will swim at Alabama, was second in both events at last year’s Division 3 meet.
“It’s just satisfying to be able to cap that on the end my high school swimming career,” VanMeter said. “It’s great to see where it’s been and where I’m going. I look back on all the amazing people I’ve swam against, and it’s a great way to end my high school swimming career.”
VanMeter was the main standout for Holland Christian, but he certainly wasn’t the only one, as the Maroons repeated as team champions with a meet-best 323.5 points.
East Grand Rapids finished with 267 points to place runner-up for the fourth straight year, while Marshall was third with 198 points.
Spring Lake (197) and Hamilton (139) rounded out the top five.
“We just had a really good Friday,” Holland Christian head coach Todd Smeenge said. “Prelims on Friday set you up for finals on Saturday. You can’t win a meet on Friday, but you certainly can lose it. I can’t say there was any magic trick, but we had some swims that were surprising even to me. I didn’t think they were going to swim that fast.”
Holland Christian and East Grand Rapids were tied atop the state rankings going into the meet, but the depth for the Maroons turned out to be the difference.
Holland Christian’s team of Colin Kalkman, Brant Assink, VanMeter and Brad Windemuller won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:35.81, while the Maroons had second-place finishes in the 200 freestyle (Levi VanAst) and 100 freestyle (Jacob Heeres). Diving and the breaststroke were the only events where Holland Christian didn’t have a top-five finisher.
“Last year, we had a team made up of top-end studs … that took a lot of first places,” Smeenge said. “We took several state records. This year, we were more about depth and having the guys in all the places.”
Other individual winners besides Peel and VanMeter were Spring Lake junior Kevin Losee in the 200 freestyle (1:39.76), Trenton sophomore Spencer Boling-Hamer in the 200 individual medley (1:55.73), St. Johns senior Cayden Petrak in the diving event (520.20), Mason sophomore Jonas Cantrell in the 500 freestyle (4:34.45) and Milan freshman Andrew Dobrzanski in the 100 breaststroke (58.53).
Spring Lake’s team of Wachter, Sam Sella, Losee and Peel won the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:22.88, while Spring Lake’s team of Losee, Charles Brown, Wachter and Peel won the 400 freestyle relay in a time of 3:03.66.
PHOTOS: (Top) Holland Christian athletes dive into the Oakland University pool Saturday to celebrate their Division 3 championship. (Middle) Spring Lake's Cam Peel, left, and Holland Christian's Jacob Heeres congratulate each other after their 400 relays finished first and second, respectively. (Click for more from 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.)