Pioneer Rebounds from Runner-Up Finish to Regain Division 1 Championship
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
March 14, 2026
ROCHESTER — What a difference a year made for the Ann Arbor Pioneer boys swimming & diving team.
Last year, the Pioneers saw their string of Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals titles snapped at four, finishing second to Southeastern Conference Red foe Saline.
This year, the Pioneers made it back to the summit, scoring 283 points to best second-place Northville (254). Saline, with 226 points, finished third.
“From the first day of the season, this was our goal, to get back on top," Pioneer coach Stefanie Kerska said. “Northville gave us the biggest run in a long time. It was a great weekend of competition. I’m so proud of these boys. I’m so proud of these seniors."
Among the seniors was Edward Zhang, who won the individual medley and was on all three Pioneer relays.
“We were all looking to leave with a bang,”’ he said. “It feels so good. Last year, after that loss, we were all so disappointed, and we were all looking forward to this year.”
"The key was just being consistent and trying to be predictably excellent,” Kerska said, "We wanted to maintain a steady level of emotional discipline throughout the whole meet, and the guys just showed up like professionals.”
They weren’t the only seniors who did so.
Jenison’s Caleb Storey won the 100 freestyle and 50 free titles, while Northville's Brady Stenson defended his title in the 200 free. Junior Isaac Adanin of Saline repeated in the breaststroke.
Another junior, Pioneer's Charles Knoepp, won the 500 free and was on the winning Pioneer 400 free relay with seniors Zhang, Henry Baumhover and Cameron Kline.
“We were just hungry for this,” Baumhover said. “We got second last year, and it feels amazing to complete our goal.”
As for reaching the goal, Baumhover said there were no shortcuts.
"The key is just every single day in practice," he said. “It’s not one singular meet day. It’s just every single stroke, every single 50 in practice, We all work so hard, every single day.”
Northville posted its best finish since a second-place result in 2022.
“We just have a great group of seniors that came together," coach Rich Bennett said. ”They’ve been training for this since they were freshmen, and it was awesome to have them finish this way. We fell a little short. But we did really well. I’m proud of the boys.”
The Mustangs got off to a strong start, winning the first two events, before a deeper Pioneer squad began collecting the points it needed to win its fifth title in six years.
“They’re always the measuring stick,” Bennett said of Pioneer. “They’ve got a fantastic coaching staff. They have super-talented kids. They’ve been the measuring stick for a long time, and we threw everything we had at them. They have a great team, but I'm really proud of my guys as well.”
And in the end, it was Kerska who made the happy celebratory dive into the pool after the championship trophy had been awarded.
“I couldn't have wished for a better outcome," Kline said. “We swam our hearts out, and we did what we needed to do.”
While the Pioneer swimmers were fixated on Saturday's meet, Kerska admitted to looking ahead to next year before the 2026 meet was over.
“My assistant was talking to me about it during the breaststroke,” she said, smiling.
Holland West Ottawa senior Isaac Kamara-Hagemeyer won the diving competition. Grandville senior Oliver Ottenwess won the butterfly, and Milford senior Samuel Campbell finished first in the backstroke after placing second a year ago. Bloomfield Hills won the 200 freestyle relay.
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer celebrates its Finals championship during the traditional post-victory dip in the pool at Oakland University. (Middle) Northville’s Benjamin Hu swims to a fourth-place finish in the individual medley. (Below) Swimmers launch during the start of the 200 freestyle relay. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
Skyline Star Power Leads Championship Run with 6 Event Wins
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 12, 2022
ROCHESTER – Sometimes swim & dive teams ride depth and lots of top-5 finishes to state titles, while other times they rely on star power and plenty of first-place finishes.
The Ann Arbor Skyline boys team abided by the latter at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals at Oakland University.
Of the 12 events held, Skyline finished first in six of them, riding all those first-place points to its first Finals title since it won the Division 1 crown in 2018.
Skyline finished with 291 points, ahead of runner-up Detroit U-D Jesuit’s total of 266.
Grosse Pointe South was third with 238 points.
Leading the way for Skyline was senior Even McKelvey, who had a hand in four of those first-place finishes.
“Winning with the boys is so much more fun than individually,” McKelvey said. “As Bo Schembechler said, ‘The team, the team, the team.’ That’s how we ran all season.”
McKelvey finished first in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:39.21, and then won the 100 freestyle ahead of senior teammate Matthew Lee in a time of 44.89.
The team of McKelvey, junior Jack Stanton, senior Ben Kurniawan and Lee then set an LPD2 Finals record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:23.72.
To finish the meet off, in the 400 freestyle relay, the team of McKelvey, sophomore Lucas Caswell, Kurniawan and Lee won in a time of 3:05.63.
The individual wins were quite a jump from last year for McKelvey, who was seventh in the 100 freestyle and fifth in the 200 freestyle as a junior.
“Just sprinting it all out and doing the best I could do,” McKelvey said. “I race (good swimmers) every day in practice, so that’s the vision I had in my mind. Just race them like I do in practice.”
Kurniawan and Lee also got in the act individually, with Lee winning the 50 freestyle in a time of 20.63 and Kurniawan capturing the 100 butterfly in a time of 49.31.
“Our star power brought along the rest of the team,” Skyline coach Maureen Murett said. “The reason we were so good this year is because we had tremendous leadership from those guys. It wasn’t good enough for them that they were really good or that they were succeeding. All season long, they were the ones who brought the young guys along. That made the difference. Everybody had a role.”
While Skyline was jubilant over winning another championship trophy, there was a sense of pride for U-D Jesuit claiming the runner-up trophy because it was the best finish in program history.
Senior Drew Collins won the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:50.21, while senior Christian Bouchillon won the 100 backstroke in a time of 49.50 to lead the Cubs.
“Obviously it’s hard for the kids not to focus on the big No. 1. But they did phenomenal and swam their hearts out,” U-D Jesuit coach Drew Edson said. “It’s the best our school has ever done, and they’re happy. We’re going to stay up top for a long time, I’ll tell you that.”
Grosse Pointe South’s 200 medley relay team of junior Keiran Rahmaan, senior Drew Vandeputte, senior Jake Vallan and senior Tucker Briggs set meet record with a winning time of 1:31.85.
Other individual winners were Grosse Pointe South junior Logan Hepner in diving with 509.70 points, Walled Lake Northern junior Sean Diffenderfer in the 500 freestyle in a time of 4:35.67 and Byron Center senior Michael Grovers in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 54.54.
PHOTOS (Top) An Ann Arbor Skyline swimmer begins his leg of the 200 freestyle relay. (Middle) Detroit U-D Jesuit's Drew Collins swims the winning 200 IM. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)