Pair Powers Cranbrook Team Title Hopes
November 10, 2020
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
BLOOMFIELD HILLS – The Oakland County girls swim & dive meet in October perfectly highlighted the luxury Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood enjoys this season.
Depth is always great for any team – but it’s also nice to have two swimmers capable of winning one-third of a meet’s events by themselves.
Cranbrook has that possibility each meet thanks to the presence of seniors Gwen Woodbury and Justine Murdock, who might be the best tandem on any team in the state this year, regardless of school size.
They also are future Big Ten college swimmers, with Woodbury heading to Ohio State and Murdock to Northwestern.
Needless to say, having a duo like that has made it a seamless transition for first-year Cranbrook coach Paul Ellis.
“It’s a great example for the rest of our team on what hard work and dedication to your craft can do,” Ellis said. “They go above and beyond day in and day out. It really sets the tone for our practices. It helps with the culture you want to establish.”
Woodbury is a freestyle whiz who captured the 100-yard (51.29) and 200-yard freestyles (1:37.96) at an Oakland County event that also featured Division 1 power Farmington Hills Mercy and Division 2 power Birmingham Seaholm.
Woodbury, also the reigning Division 3 Finals champion in the 100 freestyle, said she started swimming when she was 4 years old, although it wasn’t exactly love at first sight with the sport.
“I actually hated it,” she said. “I only went because my siblings swam.”
But as she grew older, Woodbury started to enjoy the sport more and discovered she was starting to get good at it.
By the time her freshman year at Cranbrook was over, which concluded with her winning the Finals titles in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle and Cranbrook winning the team title in Division 3, she realized swimming was something she wanted to do beyond high school.
“I started to realize that it’s not just the sport of swimming, it’s everything that comes with it and the little things people don’t notice that much that made me fall in love with it so much more,” Woodbury said. “The team camaraderie when we won states my freshman year was a feeling of total happiness knowing that all these people had worked so hard.”
Murdock is different than Woodbury in that she swims the backstroke and individual medley, but the same in that she took up the sport at an early age, and already has numerous county and state championship titles on her resume.
Murdock won the 200 IM (2:08.19) and the 100 backstroke (56.76) at this year’s county meet, the 100 backstroke at the Finals as a sophomore and both the 200 IM and 100 backstroke at last year’s Division 3 championship finale.
“I’ve always been swimming backstroke ever since I was little,” Murdock said. “I loved backstroke, so it was an easy choice for me to continue. In high school, while finding my other strengths through my freshman and sophomore years to see where I was clicking with secondary events, the 200 IM ended up being that event. It gives me time to have good focus throughout the meet lineup.”
Woodbury and Murdock, who are also important members of Cranbrook’s relay teams, have swam together since middle school and have been able to bond through their similar career paths in swimming.
Not only have they been able to push each other during practices and meets, but they’ve had each other as sounding boards on topics such as college visits and their future ambitions.
Both assuredly will follow how the other is doing in college once their high school days are over.
“It will be weird, but the great thing about being in the same conference is that we will be able to compete and be friends at the same time,” Murdock said.
Before worrying about college, there’s some unfinished business to take care of at Cranbrook.
After winning the Division 3 championship their freshman year, Cranbrook has been Finals runner-up to East Grand Rapids each of the past two.
Last year, Cranbrook finished just 11 points behind East Grand Rapids, and Woodbury and Murdock are focused on ending their careers celebrating another team title.
“That 11 points, all you could think about was, ‘What did I do wrong?” Woodbury said. ‘“If only I could have gone a second faster.’ Everyone was thinking that. We don’t want to feel that again.”
PHOTOS: Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood’s Gwen Woodbury launches into one of her races during the 2019 Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Oakland University. (Middle) Teammate Justine Murdock sets the pace on the way to winning the 200 IM at last year’s Finals. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
EGR Adds to Team Title Tradition, Divine Child's Dziobak Finishes Career Finals Sweep
By
Scott Hassinger
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
HOLLAND – East Grand Rapids won six events, including a sweep of the relays, on its way to earning a third consecutive Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship in girls swimming & diving Saturday at the Holland Aquatic Center.
Butch Briggs' Pioneers totaled 373 points to outdistance runner-up Bloomfield Hills Marian (228). St. Joseph (171) placed third, followed by Holland Christian (162) in fourth and Hudsonville Unity Christian (151) in fifth.
Led by University of Arkansas commit Ellery Chandler, East Grand Rapids was able to pull away from its closest competitors early during the final day of the two-day competition.
Chandler was extremely pleased with her performances Saturday after the star senior earned individual victories in the 100-yard butterfly (54.11) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.78) along with completing a leg on the Pioneers' winning 200-yard medley relay (1:44.65) and 200-yard freestyle relay (1:36.74).
"I dropped all my times today from Friday's preliminaries. It was exciting to win my individual events, and it was great being a part of our two victorious relay teams,” Chandler said. “Coming into the state meet this weekend, I was looking to see if some records were attainable in my events. Getting a couple of those were among my goals.”
Chandler, along with juniors Meredith Sperling and Addie Hein and freshman Catherine Sowerby, combined to break the Division 3 Finals record in the 200 medley. Chandler also eclipsed meet records in both of her individual events, the breaststroke during Friday's prelims with a time of 1:01.60.
Joining Chandler and Ivy Chu on the Pioneers' winning 200-yard freestyle relay were senior Nora Camfferman and freshman Della Avendt. Hein also collected a first for the Pioneers in the 200-yard individual medley (2:06.74). Sperling and Sowerby teamed up with sophomore Nalah Mamatela and Chu, a junior, as the Pioneers took first in the meet's final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:32.82).
Briggs had plenty of praise to dish out regarding his team afterwards.
"Ellery gets her share of the first places, but our freshmen class really stepped up and were huge in our success this season," said Briggs, who on Saturday completed his 52nd season coaching at East Grand Rapids.
"We have a very deep team and a squad that got along with one another very well without any drama. There were a few events in which we had three state placers in. That piles up a ton of points for you. It was such a fun season, and I can't say enough good things about these kids. My assistant coach runs the little kids' program for me at East Grand Rapids. Coaching continuity has had a great deal to do with our success as well."
Holland Christian junior Camryn Siegers was named Most Outstanding Swimmer in the meet by the coaches association following her individual wins in the 50-yard freestyle (22.79) and 100-yard backstroke (53.37), the latter a meet record.
Hamilton junior Josi Popma scored 399.40 points to earn first in diving, edging Chelsea junior Anna McCallister (397.90).
Popma admitted she battled nerves coming into Saturday's final round.
"I came in today feeling really stressed and didn't think I could do this. I just had to remind myself to just go out there and approach it like I do every other day and be confident,” Popma said. “Just being with my friends and teammates and keeping a positive attitude are what carried me through.”
"It's been a long road for Josi,” Hamilton head coach Liz Vandewege said. “As a freshmen she qualified for state and was overwhelmed by the moment, and last year as a sophomore she proved she could move up the ranks. During the offseason she worked hard to get a bigger list of dives to compete with Anna (McCallister), who is a great diver. She really improved her technique this year, is really strong and has lot of God-given abilities to spin."
Dearborn Divine Child senior Ella Dziobak won her fourth consecutive Finals title in the 500-yard freestyle (4:56.20) while also claiming a first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.10).
"This was a real fun way to wrap up high school swimming by winning the 500 a fourth time,” said Dziobak, who will continue her swimming career at Purdue University next fall. “I could see all of my teammates cheering for me before the race started, and that got me fired up. I definitely excel in the distance events more than the sprints. I swam my fastest time of the year in the 200 as well, so that was nice too.”
Dearborn Divine Child head coach Kevin Hafner was pleased to see Dziobak come away with her fourth title.
"Ella puts in a great deal of time in this sport. … She is a tremendous young lady and has a real good head on her shoulders while coming up with her own game plan and executing it very well," Hafner said.
Wayland senior Laney Wolf captured first in the 100-yard freestyle (50.60).
(Photos by High School Sports Scene.)