Performance of the Week: Grand Blanc's Baylor Perkins
January 22, 2026
Baylor Perkins ♦ Grand Blanc
Senior ♦ Swimming
The Bobcats’ standout set Genesee County Meet records Saturday at Fenton in the 50-yard freestyle (21.56 seconds) and 100 breaststroke (56.20) and swam on multiple winning relays including the meet record-setting 200 freestyle (1:30.98) to lead Grand Blanc to a team victory, its 34th at the annual meet. The breaststroke time also set school, pool and Saginaw Valley League records.
Perkins’ 50 time at Fenton ranks 11th among all divisions and ninth among Lower Peninsula Division 1 swimmers on the top times list this winter for that race, and his breaststroke time is the fastest statewide regardless of division. He finished 10th in the 50, sixth in the breaststroke and swam on eighth and 11-place relays at last season’s LPD1 Finals, as Grand Blanc finished 13th as a team. He is unsure what college he will attend after graduation, but is considering the possibility of swimming at the next level and intends to study to become a sports psychologist.
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Previous 2025-26 honorees
Jan. 15: Delaney Vanier, Flint Kearsley bowling - Report
Jan. 8: Stevie Hall, Detroit Cass Tech basketball - Report
Dec. 18: Ethan Martha, Ishpeming Westwood basketball - Report
Dec. 11: Louis Smith, Three Rivers wrestling - Report
Dec. 4: Traverse Smith, DeWitt football - Report
Nov. 28: Elizabeth Eichbrecht, West Bloomfield swimming - Report
Nov. 20: Brady Kieff, Blanchard Montabella football - Report
Nov. 13: Ella Laupp, Battle Creek Harper Creek swimming - Report
Nov. 7: Hunter Eaton, Charlevoix cross country - Report
Oct. 31: Stephen Gollapalli, Lansing Christian tennis - Report
Oct. 23: Talya Schreiber, Pickford cross country - Report
Oct. 16: Avery Manning, Dexter golf - Report
Oct. 9: Brady Van Laecke, Hudsonville football - Report
Oct. 2: Sarah Giroux, Flat Rock volleyball - Report
Sept. 25: Sam Schumacher, Portage Central tennis - Report
Sept. 18: Kaylee Mitzel, Saline field hockey - Report
Sept. 11: Natasza Dudek, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country - Report
Sept. 4: Kate Posey, Big Rapids golf - Report
(Photos courtesy of the Grand Blanc boys swimming & diving program.)
Marquette Adds to Championship List As Newest Standouts Take Their Turns
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
February 17, 2024
MARQUETTE – Marquette has won so many Upper Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving Finals team championships, it’s running out of wall space to celebrate them as the boys list already runs from the high ceiling to just about pool level.
They added one more Saturday, their fifth straight title and 31st in school history, and did so in dominating fashion finishing ahead of runner-up Houghton 319-214. The day saw a Marquette sweep as the girls team also breezed to a U.P. championship with its list of championships running just about as far down the same wall.
“Last year, we graduated some real studs,” Marquette coach Nathan McFarren said. “If you would have told me that both teams would be here winning it today last year at this time, I would have said you’re crazy. But our boys that were B and C swimmers were ready to shine. They wanted their moment, and they got it today.”
Marquette junior Trevor Crandell won the 50-yard freestyle, finished runner-up in the 100 butterfly and helped Marquette to wins in the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay.
“It’s so rewarding,” Crandell said. “When you’re first starting the year, it’s so demotivating, you’re not swimming any meets, you’re not doing any good times. But when you get to the U.P. Finals, you’re on that taper, you’re on that block, you’re just ready to go, it’s something special.”
“Super-quiet kid, but this year found the eye of the tiger and really went after it,” McFarren said of Crandell. “So exciting to watch. He wanted it so bad this year, proud of him.”
Junior Isaiah Youngren picked up Marquette’s other individual race win, in the 100 breaststroke. Junior Chase Thomsen was the top diver with a score of 198.15.
Manistique’s Nathan Schoenow won the 100 and 200 freestyle races.
The senior had been sick in his other U.P. Finals appearances.
“It feels good; a lot of hard work in the pool and out of the pool came into this,” he said.
He looked to sprint through both races, including the 200.
“Earlier this season, I didn’t have a whole lot of endurance,” Schoenow said. “I tried to pace myself, maybe hold back a little. But for this meet, since it’s my last time ever doing the 200, I just decided to sprint the whole thing and see how that would work. It hurt a lot, I was really tired after, but it worked – I got my best time by 3.5 seconds.
“The other one (100), same thing, I tried to sprint as hard as I could and the second I felt tired, I would just try to will myself to go faster.”
Other individual winners included Kingsford’s Joey Lundholm in the 200 individual medley and 100 fly, Rudyard’s Keith McDowell in the 500 free and Houghton’s Beau Haataja in the 100 backstroke.
Gladstone was third in the team standings with Kingsford fourth, Ishpeming/Negaunee fifth, Sault Ste. Marie sixth, Rudyard seventh, Manistique eighth and Ishpeming Westwood ninth.
McFarren made it a combined 17 Finals championships as coach for boys and girls for Marquette, tying Marquette’s Matt Williams for the meet record.
PHOTOS (Top) Marquette’s Trevor Crandell celebrates his victory in the 50-yard freestyle Saturday. (Middle) Swimmers launch at the start of the 50 championship race. (Below) Kingsford’s Joey Lundholm swims to a win in the 200 individual medley. (Click for more from Jarvinen Photos.)