Skyline Soars to 1st Finals Championship
March 10, 2018
By Jason Schmitt
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – The groundwork was laid Friday.
But the celebration was years in the making.
At the conclusion of the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Swimming & Diving Finals at Eastern Michigan University, Ann Arbor Skyline coach Mo-Jo Isaac performed a near-perfect back flip off the 3-meter diving board – something she’s been doing for years when her teams accomplish something special.
The occasion certainly called for the coach to take a dip in Jones Natatorium Saturday afternoon. The Hawks cruised past the competition, scoring 274 team points to top the field and bring home the first MHSAA championship in program history.
“Whenever my girls teams (at Skyline) would accomplish a milestone, or something big would happen, that’s kind of what we do,” said Isaac, who’s in her second year coaching the boys program. “Today, I had kind of forgotten about it, but a bunch of our girls were here to cheer on the guys and they were like, ‘No, Coach Mo-Jo, you’ve got to jump.’ ”
Skyline picked up wins in five of the meet’s 12 events, with senior David Cleason leading the way with a pair of individual titles. He was tops in the 200-yard individual medley, winning in a time of 1:49.81. He also bested the field in the 500 freestyle, where he edged out Livonia Stevenson’s Ben Rojewski with a time of 4:30.50.
Cleason’s teammate, Michael MacGillivray, was second in the 200 IM, while winning a title of his own in the 100 breaststroke (55.01). Both Cleason and MacGillivray were members of the team’s winning 400 freestyle relay, with senior Samuel Jyawook and junior Kyle Tschannen. Their winning time was 3:04.99, beating out runner-up Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and third-place Harrison-Farmington Unified.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Cleason, who accounted for 40 points by himself and helped his team earn 50 more in the two relay events he swam. “Me and Michael (MacGillivray) have been dreaming about winning that 4x100 free relay and winning the team title for so long and now that we’re seniors, doing it and winning it in our last swim meet, it’s perfect.”
Skyline’s final individual event championship came in the 1-meter diving event. Junior Henry Schirmer repeated as champion, scoring 503.85 points to outdistance runner-up Cade Hammond of Brighton, who scored 448.45.
“I feel like we won the meet yesterday, even though no one scored a point,” Isaac said. “We talked about doing it as a team, and we couldn’t do it if everyone wasn’t there for each other. We were on fire yesterday and we qualified really well.”
Holland West Ottawa, which entered the Finals ranked No. 2 in the state behind Skyline, lived up to its ranking by finishing second with 207 points. The Panthers won two of the three relays and saw junior Derek Maas capture the 100 backstroke title. Maas, who finished runner-up in the event a year ago, left nothing to chance Saturday, winning in a time of 50.23, better than a second ahead of runner-up Parker Wasielewski of Livonia Stevenson.
Maas joined teammates Julian Barrios, Ryan Langdon and Khadin Soto on the Panthers’ winning 200 medley relay team (1:31.91). Langdon, Barrios, Jacob Boersema and Sam Smith took top honors in the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:24.54.
Forest Hills Central junior Henry Schutte repeated as champion in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events. His time of 20.01 in the preliminary Friday set an all-Division MHSAA Finals record in the 50. He nearly duplicated the feat Saturday, finishing with a winning time of 20.04. Zeeland’s Austin Mills was second in the 50, while Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Adam Orringer-Hau was runner-up to Schutte in the 100.
“I am beyond happy with everything I did today,” said Schutte, who helped his team to a fourth-place finish. “I have to thank my coaches, my family, my teammates, shoot, even the people in my races. We’re all pushing each other to do our best, and every race is so fun. I love it.”
Orringer-Hau, the top seed in the 200 freestyle, won the event in a time of 1:38.66. He was third at last year’s Finals.
Four-time reigning team champion Birmingham Brother Rice had its streak end, but not without a fight. The Warriors finished third, behind Skyline and West Ottawa, with 154 points. Senior Alex Margherio captured the lone individual title for Rice, winning the 100 butterfly in a time of 48.43. Howell’s Henry Bauer was second in a time of 50.09.
Northville finished fifth overall with 141 team points, with Ann Arbor Pioneer (131), Detroit Catholic Central (127), Saline (116), Zeeland (100) and Harrison-Farmington (81) rounding out the top 10.
PHOTOS: (Top) Skyline's Henry Schirmer rotates through one of his dives on the way to repeating as LP Division 1 champion Saturday. (Middle) Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central's Henry Schutte looks to the scoreboard as the other competitors in the 50 finish their sprints. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Cranbrook Extends Finals Win Streak to 3; Farner, Otsego's Smith Claim Multiple Titles
By
Brad Emons
Special for MHSAA.com
March 15, 2025
YPSILANTI – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood is no stranger to MHSAA boys swimming & diving championships.
And the Cranes, led by junior standout A.J. Farner, made it three straight Saturday and seven overall scoring a team-high 357 points to reach the podium. They finished ahead of runner-up Holland Christian (282.5) and third-place East Grand Rapids (264) at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Eastern Michigan University’s Jones Natatorium.
Farner figured in four firsts to lead the way, winning the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.15) and 100 backstroke (49.54) while also being part of victorious relay teams in the 200 medley (1:33.78) and 400 freestyle (3:07.95).
Senior teammate Joseph Wiater also brought home a first in the 100 breaststroke (56.57).
“I didn’t know what to expect coming in, but because of great coaching things went my way, so no complaints,” Farner said. “I have (had) mononucleosis for the past three months. My coaches have done a really good job kind of limiting me and limiting what I’m doing. I didn’t know what to expect, but the team and the coaches did a really good job preparing me. It went my way and better than I expected.”
Cranbrook coach Paul Ellis said Farner has a special quality that can’t often be duplicated.
“A.J. is an incredibly talented kid,” Ellis said. “The reason he is able to come out and do this is he’s a great example of a kid that puts in all work in the offseason. Yes, he’s got a lot of genetic gifts, but that doesn’t set him up without training his tail off and working his butt off. ... He puts in the work out of season, so when he gets here, he can rely on that training even though he runs into a hiccup like mono. He couldn’t do any more than 3,000 yards the past three months and yet he came out here, relied on his training and was incredibly successful in all his races.”
In his final hurrah as a prep swimmer, Wiater earned his first individual Finals title.
“It was exciting. I swam with so much pride,” Wiater said. “It was just a great time. I’m officially done with swimming. I’m not going anywhere to (swim) college or anything, so I’m super excited that I pulled it off.
“First, I was telling myself, ‘This is it. It’s my last race ever.’ We are competing with Holland Christian for first place and we needed the first. I told myself, ‘I just got to get this. This is my last four lengths, and I’m done the rest of my life.’”
Coming out of Friday’s prelims, Cranbrook boasted a total of 20 individual qualifiers – the most of any school – heading into consolation and finals heats.
Cranbrook’s second-seeded 200 medley relay got the team off to a roaring start by winning going away as freestyle anchor leg Calvin Meeker brought it home in 1:33.78, teaming up with Farner, Wiater and Ethan Xu for a repeat championship in the event.
Another of the meet’s individual stars was Otsego junior Liam Smith, who repeated as champion in the 200 individual medley (1:49.07) and 100 butterfly (48.68). His performance in the 200 IM was an All-American automatic time, while his butterfly clocking earned All-America consideration.
“Obviously last year was exciting, this year was exciting, the state meet is always exciting,” Smith said. “You always want to perform your best. I didn’t go my best time, but you can’t complain about winning. I’m good with that.”
Smith, who brought the team’s wooden hammer to the victory podium after winning the 100 butterfly, boasts five individual Finals titles for his career, including three straight in the butterfly.
“Anyone who gets on the podium gets the hammer,” Smith said. “I was a little disappointed in my times, but you can’t do your best every time. I can be happy about winning. It never gets old. It’s awesome.”
In one of the most competitive races of the day, junior Jack Higgins of Detroit Country Day clocked a first-place time of 21.01 in the 50 freestyle to hold off Holland Christian’s Basil Ledesma and Adrian’s Kade Opsal, who tied for second with identical times of 21.26.
Higgins was runner-up a year ago in 20.79 to Grand Rapids Christian senior Ben Sytsma, who went 19.98. Last school year the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Higgins also played football, but decided to concentrate solely on swimming for 2024-25.
“This year was more open for me,” said Higgins, who does plan to play golf this spring for the Yellowjackets. “I’ve been thinking about winning ever since then. I just feel really good to do it. I’ll really reflect on everything after the meet is over, but I just feel really good right now.”
Higgins was also the top seed in the 100 freestyle and became the meet’s second double individual winner with a first-place clocking of 45.95 to better his 46.17 prelim time from Friday.
Meanwhile, Plainwell junior Sam Harper was seeded second in the 500 freestyle but overcame Flint Powers Catholic senior Liam Seifert, the top seed, and touched the wall first in 4:34.62, almost five seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Harper was fourth a year ago in 4:39.90, while Seifert was third in 4:38.03. The two have had a spirited and friendly rivalry.
“Me and Seifert go back-and-forth, race-to-race, it has been for a while now,” Harper said. “He’s a good guy, but it’s all good to take this one home. The prelims I was going strong and steady, just making sure I had enough gas in the tank the next day.”
Grand Rapids Christian took a highly-competitive 200 freestyle relay race as seniors Tyler Stinton and Evan Nelson along with juniors Sawyer O’Grady and Emmett Vance posted a time of 1:27.26 to hold off runner-up Spring Lake (1:28.10), Cranbrook (1:28.14), East Grand Rapids (1:28.16) and Hamilton (1:28.62).
In the 1-meter diving, Holland Christian senior Parker Schut held off a strong challenge from Rowen Bishop of East Grand Rapids to earn his first Finals title.
Schut, a year-round diver, finished sixth last year, fifth as a sophomore and ninth as a freshman. He tallied 511.95 points, while Bishop, who posted the best Regional dive score in D3 with a 524.65, wound up with 471.05 on Saturday.
“Wow, I’m very, very excited right now,” said Schut, who plans to continue his diving career at Davenport University where he’ll study business. “Dreamed about it last night, dreamed about it the day before. I’m so excited. I don’t know what else to say. It was my second-to-last dive, my 205, a back 2½ tuck, and it was just perfect top, good kick-out, good entry and I think that’s what finished it off.”
Cranbrook-Kingswood added an exclamation point in the meet’s final event, winning the 400 freestyle relay ahead of Holland Christian (3:08.74) with Sean Lu, Ryan Van Dyke, Xu and Farner comprising the victorious quartet.
“We’ve got great coaches in Paul Ellis, Greg Palmer, Marissa Blumenthal and John Hovy – great leadership,” Farner said. “We’ve had a really great group of seniors the past three or four years on the team. Great guys leading the group. They’ve done a really good job of rallying the team together, making great ideas and goals for our team.”
Meanwhile, Ellis had nothing but praise for his team.
“They are a group that really cares about each other and to me a group of kids – they want to be special, they will do anything asked of them no matter how hard or grueling practices are,” he said. “They always step up. They rally behind each other and they do all the little things – they show up, they show on time, they’re prepared and they bust their butt. And to me, having a group of kids that are coachable, that are willing to work hard, sets the tone for success season-in and season-out.”
PHOTOS (Top) Cranbrook’s Joseph Wiater swims to the championship in the 100 breaststroke during Saturday’s LPD3 Finals at Eastern Michigan University. (Middle) Otsego’s Liam Smith swims to the title in the 200 IM. (Below) Plainwell’s Sam Harper pushes through on the way to the win in the 500 freestyle. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)