Pioneer Seniors Cap Careers By Leading Team to 3rd-Straight Finals Title
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
November 19, 2022
ROCHESTER — Ann Arbor Pioneer girls swimming coach Stefanie Kerska got her way in Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship meet.
The Pioneers won eight events in getting out to a big lead early, and on the way to winning their third-consecutive Finals championship.
Pioneer finished with 322 points, 104 more than second-place Northville.
"I like that a lot,” she said with a grin. "People think close ones are great, but not for the coaches. We worked really hard to establish a lead, and these girls earned it.”
It was the 19th overall title for Pioneer, one of Division 1’s premier programs, but it wasn’t a given going into the season, not after the Pioneers graduated an outstanding senior class after last season.
"I’m just so proud of this team in general,” Pioneer senior captain Sophia Guo said. "We had some big shoes to fill coming into this meet, and I think we really stepped up to the plate. I know me along with the other seniors were so happy this was the way we got to end our high school careers. I’m just so proud of us.
“We had to swim with our hearts today,” Guo continued. "We swam for each other, and I really think that made the difference.”
Among the difference-makers was Stella Chapman, who set a meet record in the backstroke and won the individual medley; Lucy Mehraban, who was on two winning relays, won the 50 freestyle and finished second to Guo in the 100 freestyle, and Kate Van Ryn, a freshman who was on three winning relays.
“To put a ninth-grader in with that kind of pressure was ... I would like to say a gamble. But it wasn’t,” Kerska said. "I knew her preparation was thorough, she was up to the challenge and she really came through for her team.”
Another freshman who made a big splash was West Bloomfield’s Elizabeth Eichbrecht, who won both the 200 and 500 freestyles.
Northville finished second for the second consecutive year. Among the team leaders was Emily Roden, who ended her career the same way she started it, winning the 100 butterfly.
"I really dialed in on my training, and I knew what I had to do,” Roden said. "I focused a lot more, focused out of the water, and enjoyed it more. We have a great team and I had a lot of fun, and it helped me this year.”
Saline senior Alice English won the diving competition after finishing second last year.
"My goal was constant improvement since my freshman year, so to get first was really nice,” she said, noting a slow start in Friday’s preliminaries. "Yesterday wasn’t my day, but I pulled it out today and I’m really happy with it.”
After accepting the championship trophy, the Pioneers joined hands and leaped into the diving pool together, followed closely by their coaches.
For Kerska, winning a third title in a row was anything but old hat.
"The pressure mounts a little bit each year to try and outdo the year before, but no, it never gets old,” she said. "These girls, from day 1, stepped up, took the reins and really took responsibility of the tradition that we have going here and never looked back.”
And, as a result, Guo and her fellow seniors finished their careers with three team state titles.
“It’s a great feeling,” she said. ‘We all worked so hard, and it really showed today."
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Sophia Guo, right, embraces teammate Lucy Mehraban after their 100-yard freestyle race Saturday. (Middle) Saline’s Alice English dives on the way to winning that event after finishing second a year ago. (Below) Livonia Stevenson’s McKenzie Siroky swims to a repeat in the breaststroke. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
4-Sport Standout Salenbien Stacking Varsity Letters, Leading Adrian's Hoops Rise
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 8, 2026
ADRIAN – Ella Salenbien is very competitive.
And maybe a little stubborn.
Salenbien didn’t want to have to choose which sports to concentrate on at Adrian High School – so she picked them all. Salenbien is on track to graduate this spring with 16 varsity letters for the Maples – four each in volleyball, swimming, basketball and soccer.
“Sometimes a coach, even college coaches, would ask me if I was going to concentrate on swimming and I would say no,” Salenbien said. “I didn’t want to choose. I wanted to play them all.”
Salenbien hasn’t just played sports at Adrian; she’s set records and excelled. This winter, she’s leading something of a re-birth of basketball for the Maples, who are off to a 6-1 start, the best for the school in more than a decade, maybe two.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “We are definitely playing as a team. This is the third or fourth year that a lot of us have played together. We are all very close.”
Salenbien is closing in on 1,000 career points in basketball and is likely to set the Maples career rebounding record.
In volleyball, she finished with more than 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. She holds five school records in swimming. Last spring she set the Adrian assists record in soccer with 17.
Playing four sports requires a lot of time management, communication and cooperation between coaches, which Salenbien says has been great.
“I send out a weekly schedule to my coaches and parents just so everyone knows what’s going on,” she said. “There are days where I might have swimming practice and volleyball practice, so I split my time. It’s never been a problem. I feel like it was a lot my freshman year, but after that I got the hang of it.”
Swimming evolved into her top sport and something she did year-round for years between varsity swimming with Adrian and club swimming, both outdoor and indoor.
“I’d swim for the (Lenawee County) Gators after my high school season,” she said. “I’d train and compete for the state meet, zone meet and national meet, which is in Greensboro, North Carolina. Then I would come back, take a short break, and go into soccer. There’s not a lot of breaks in between seasons. I don’t have a lot of down time.”
Salenbien isn’t one to ask for down time.
“I’m pretty competitive and like to stay busy,” she said.
She started swimming with the Maple Pride program at the age of 7.
“I picked it up fast and enjoyed it,” she said.
She’s developed into a sprinter in the pool. Salenbien finished third in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyles at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals in November.
“I love the pace and jumping in the water and going as fast as I can,” she said. “I’m not a distance swimmer. There is a rush you get. I love anchoring a relay. I love it when I am one or two lengths behind when I dive in and I catch up and pass someone. I am swimming and I can look over and think, ‘I got this.’”
She committed to Hope College for swimming.
“My (college) coach even asked me if I was interested in talking to the volleyball coach,” she said. “I told him that I didn’t think so. I am kind of excited to have the chance to focus on swimming in college and see how I do.”
The daughter of Eric and Sarah Salenbien of Adrian has two younger siblings, both of whom are already deep into athletics. Ella likes to spend the summer at her grandmother’s lake house in the Irish Hills, especially in the water.
“I love tubing,” she said. “I sometimes will take a swim across the lake and back. It’s about two miles.”
Salenbien also works at a nursing home in Adrian and recently received her Certified Nurse Assistant certification.
The 17-year-old is happy to be focusing on basketball right now, especially with the Maples off to such a great start under second-year coach Caylie Boehmer, an Adrian graduate.
“She’s been great,” Salenbien said. “She played college basketball, so she has us practicing like they do in college. She leads us well.”
Boehmer called Salenbien an outstanding athlete and even better human being.
“She has been a huge asset to all the programs at Adrian that she has been a part of, and we are lucky to have her,” she said. “She is an extremely hard worker, fierce competitor and as tough as they come.”
Friday the Maples take on their biggest rival, Tecumseh, the reigning Division 2 champion and heavy favorite in the Southeastern Conference White.
“It’s going to be tough,” Salenbien said. “They are very good. I know a lot of the girls on the team. They are tough, but we have nothing to lose. We are just going to go out and do our best. We’re not going to back down.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Ella Salenbien swims a race this past season. (Middle) Salenbien (21) elevates for the opening tip at the start of a game against Dundee. (Photos provided by Salenbien family.)