Rising Harper Creek Reaping Rewards
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
October 17, 2017
BATTLE CREEK — With a reward dangling in front of them, the Harper Creek swimmers had extra motivation at the All-City Girls Swimming & Diving Meet two weeks ago.
They turned in one of their best performances of the season and captured the title for the first time in school history, earning an opportunity to toss coach Corrin Buck into the pool to kick off the celebration.
“We had a team discussion and planned it ahead of time,” senior captain Jena Wager said. “It’s like when a team wins a league or state meet pouring Gatorade over the coach.”
Harper Creek finished ahead of perennial power Battle Creek Lakeview, 476-452. Lakeview had won the previous 14 All-City championships.
Buck was prepared for the dip.
“In 22 years (as Harper Creek’s coach), it’s only the second time I was dunked,” she said. “I told them going in, this is a very big deal. If we actually do win, I will let you throw me in. My assistants and I brought extra clothes just in case.
“One of the things for us is that we’d never beat (Lakeview).”
The Beavers now have their sights set on another first: Winning the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference in two weeks.
“We’ve never won a league championship yet,” Buck said.
Meanwhile, her athletes continue to qualify for the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Swimming & Diving Finals to be held Nov. 17-18 at Eastern Michigan University.
To date, seven girls have qualified individually or as part of relays.
Sophomore Alysa Wager has qualified in three individual events (100-yard butterfly, 100 breaststroke, 50 freestyle) and three relays (200 medley, 200 free, 400 free).
As a freshman, she swam a school record 58.75 in the 100 fly, already reaching one of her goals.
“It was one of the oldest records on the board,” she said. “That was one of my big goals last year, to get on the board.
“We (junior Elizabeth Wolfe, the Wagers and senior Taylor Root) also set the 200 free relay record (1:42.51) last year.”
Jena will compete in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke as well as on the three relays.
The other Finals qualifiers are Wolfe (100 free, three relays), junior Madeleine Brown (400 free relay), freshman Sarah Thompson (500 free, 200 free relay), senior Kelsea Popps (200 medley, 200 free relay) and senior Megan Kusler (diving).
Family ties
Both Wagers have MHSAA Finals experience, Alysa getting hers as a freshman and Jena all three years to date.
“I learned don’t be scared,” Alysa Wager said. “Just race your race and a good outcome will happen. I was top 16 (12th in fly, 16th in 50 free).
“It wasn’t one of my best swims, but I think it was because I let some of the other guys get in my head. This year it’s gonna be different.”
Jena said she learned it takes more discipline than she thought.
“I had a couple years hit or miss with my goals, and it made me realize you have to have discipline: eating, sleeping and training to keep your body in shape.”
The Wagers are among four pairs of sisters on the team. The others are Madeleine and freshman Megan Brown, seniors Taylor and Sabriya Root, and Elisabeth and freshman Hanna Wolfe.
“I had to talk to all these girls that once you walk in the door, you are no longer sisters, you are teammates,” Buck said. “No bickering.
“You can’t take this stuff home, either. You have to make sure you are good teammates, and I think they all do that well.”
Buck has experience dealing with siblings. Her daughters Kelsea and Kara Popps also were on the team together. Kara is now a junior on Saginaw Valley State’s team.
“It was very exciting to be able to share that part of mom and coach, as much as it was very difficult,” Buck said. “Kelsea is doing a great job of handling that pressure.
“They’ve both had to deal with some tough things. Kara always said ‘I’m going to make sure everyone knows I earned this spot.’ She worked her tail off and so does Kelsea.”
Kelsea Popps, who started swimming at age 4, said she likes having her mother as her coach.
“I’ve never known anything different. It’s my favorite thing. I get to know what’s for dinner in the middle of practice. I never have to come home to a surprise,” Popps said.
“There are times when it kind of combines. If I’m having a bad day she’s like, ‘Which role do I play right now?’ For the most part it’s coach in the pool, mom at home.”
Popps also said one of her goals was to beat her sister’s records.
“Kara was always faster than me, so we never swam in the same lanes,” she said. “It was fun having a sister as a leader on the team. It helped me a lot.
“She has some (school) records and I wanted to take them down, but it’s not looking like that will happen.”
Learning from a Master
Buck, who also is a physical education teacher at the school, provides a wealth of experience to the Harper Creek program.
She was a 12-time All-American at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, swimming the breaststroke and individual medley.
She said she was surprised when she came to Battle Creek that so many people had already heard of Slippery Rock, then discovered the school’s football scores were often announced at University of Michigan home football games.
She still swims both races in United States Masters Swimming events and has competed in numerous national meets.
“I don’t have much time to swim right now,” she said. “I joke that these are my four months of being a putz.
“As soon as we wind down here, I get in the water and start training. I’m definitely very involved in my swimming.”
She also does aquatic bicycling and lake open water swimming.
“When I talk to the kids about a drill or a stroke or a set, I can say a lot of times, I did that this summer so zip it, you can handle it. Let’s go,” she said.
When Buck was hired at Harper Creek in 1995, she had some work to do.
“We had very few kids, and the work ethic wasn’t there,” she said. “All the kids were like, ‘What? We’re gonna like swim all the time?’ It was definitely an adjustment, and some kids were like they didn’t want to do it, they just wanted to have fun.
“In those 22 years, we really went from having nothing and being in the bottom of the league to being in the top one or two.”
She said one of the biggest boosts is having a middle school program.
“The group I have right now has a lot of good experience. They’re coming out of our middle school if they’re freshmen,” she said. “Back in the day, I used to have to teach kids how to swim, how to dive, how to breathe to the side, how to blow bubbles.
“Lately, I think because of our middle school program and our club program, most of the kids come in with the ability to swim. I very rarely have a brand new person.”
Jena Wager said one of Buck’s best traits is “she’s really good at being able to determine what’s best for each person. She finds each person’s strengths and works with that.”
Others on the team are seniors Kennedy Lewis, Shereelyn Reed and Inga Sprengel, juniors Marie Luedtke and Haley VanScoder, sophomore Kennedy Kreger and freshman Maddie Piper.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Battle Creek Harper Creek celebrates its first All-City championship Sept. 30. (Middle top) Sisters Jena, left, and Alysa Wager. (Middle below) Jena Wager swims the backstroke at the All-City meet, winning the event in 1:04.13. (Below) Harper Creek coach Corrin Buck, top, and Kelsea Popps. (Celebration and action photos courtesy of the Battle Creek Enquirer; Wagers head shots courtesy of Harper Creek's athletic department, and Buck and Popps by Pam Shebest.)
Mercy Adds to Championship Streak with Must-Win Victory in Final Relay
By
Brad Emons
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
YPSILANTI – It takes a really good angler to reel in those Farmington Hills Mercy Marlins.
Grosse Pointe South had them on the hook for most of Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 girls swimming & diving championship meet at Eastern Michigan University’s Jones Natatorium. South led 301-297 entering the final event – the 400-yard freestyle relay – and needed to win it to clinch the program’s first Finals championship.
But the Marlins were able to hit the wall first as Avery Tack, Campbell Shore, Lyla Collins and Ella Hafner clocked a 3:26.05 to earn Mercy its third-straight Division 2 title and 14th championship overall, by a slim margin of 337-335.
South’s 400 relay quartet of Whitney Handwork, Quinn Ryan, Mischa Eng and Caroline Bryan made a valiant effort, settling for second place in 3:27.68.
“I not only think we were physically ready, but also mentally, we had our momentum going and we were ready to swim fast because we knew who we are and we were able to finish strong because we were in a good spot,” said Hafner, who swam Mercy’s anchor leg. “We had done it before, and we knew we could do it again”
Rounding out the top five team finishers were Birmingham Seaholm (260.5), Birmingham Groves (155.5) and Ann Arbor Skyline (155).
“It was fun,” said Mercy coach Michael Venos, who notched his sixth Finals title. “This is my 42nd year coaching, and these are still my favorite meets. Win or lose they left it all in the pool, and as a coach that’s all you could ever ask for.”
With a two-point differential in the final standings between the top two teams, every point scored was pivotal.
“Quite honestly, I hoped we’d tie,” Venos said. “I don’t think anybody deserved to lose this meet today. I was really hoping for a tie, and I thought that would be really cool because those South girls swam lights out all year. And you don’t want to get to a meet like this and go home disappointed.
“It was one of those team efforts again. I don’t know if we could have done it without the whole team. I just felt the girls pulled each other up and kept scratching and clawing.”
Meanwhile, for the Blue Devils it was their fourth runner-up finish over the last seven years.
“It was as close as it could possibly get, the whole way,” Grosse Pointe South coach John Fodell said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. We were down on psych sheet at one time by 20 points and we just kept battling back, battling back the whole meet. We pulled off some upsets. It goes back and forth. Just battle the whole time, and that’s all you can ask of the girls. It was the whole team. Everyone was trying to move up one spot.”
The teams battled back and forth throughout the day, with South taking a 294-285 lead after piling up a 49-4 advantage in the 100 backstroke thanks to a first from Ryan (56.08), a third by Eng and a sixth from Corinne Stencel.
In the final individual event of the day, Birmingham Groves’ Vivian Chase and Birmingham Seaholm’s Payton Garn tied for first in the 100 breaststroke with times of 1:02.76. Mercy got a seventh (12 points) from Clare Hafner while Nicole McEnroe earned a second in the consolation heat (seven points).
Coming out of Friday’s prelims slightly faster, South’s foursome of Eng, Nicole McEnroe, Stencel and sophomore Ryan Quinn opened Saturday with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay (1:45.22) with Seaholm placing second (1:46.96).
Skyline junior Adrienne Schadler then defended her title in the 200 freestyle and broke her own Division 2 Finals record in the process with a time of 1:46.85.
In one of the premier matchups of the meet, Mercy junior Avery Tack defended her title in the 200 individual medley (2:04.64) by holding off Bryan (2:05.59).
The 50 freestyle final proved to be a thriller as well as South senior Whitney Handiwork (23.24) defended her title by a razor thin margin over South Lyon’s Emma Klotz (23.26).
The 1-meter diving final saw Rochester Adams junior Morgan Rea score 431.75 points to defeat out Grand Rapids Northview’s Katelyn Allen (400.65), Skyline’s Teagan McCallion (383.05) and defending champion Aubrey Yarger of Hastings (379.75).
“My freshman year I actually failed to dive, and I got last,” Rea said. “And then last year I had a back injury, so this is my first year back. I had trust in my training, definitely, through all my good coaches.”
Rea came through with three clutch three dives.
“Probably after my back one-and-a-half half I had a pretty good feeling, definitely,” Rea said. “I had pretty good confidence in my abilities to dive.”
Reigning champion Bryan and Stencel went 1-2 in the 100 butterfly for the Blue Devils with times of 54.59 and 56.44, respectively, to close the gap on Mercy, 179-170.
After finishing runner-up in the 50 freestyle, Klotz then came through with a victory in the 100 freestyle (50.70) to edge Handwork (50.92) and Tack (52.01). Klotz, headed to Bowling Green State University, brought home her first individual Finals title after finishing runner-up three times.
“I swam a best time (in the 50), which was great, and Whitney (Handwork) had a great swim again, so it was a really fun race,” Klotz said. “It fueled me for the 100 more. The past few years it’s been hard to come back being second in the 50, but I thought my mindset was a lot better.”
The tide then turned back in favor of the Marlins as they outscored South, 37-1, in the 500 freestyle as Skyline’s Schadler completed her individual repeat double with a D2 Finals record time of 4:48.50. Mercy’s Hafner was runner-up (4:49.90), but the Marlins also got a big fourth place from Collins (5:06.69).
In the 200 freestyle relay, South (1:34.61) edged Mercy (1:34.92) for first. The Blue Devils’ foursome included Handwork, Stencel, McEnroe and Bryan.
All of it built toward the dramatic finish in the final race.
“She was amazing,” said Mercy senior Clare Hafner, referring to her sister’s anchor leg on the 400 freestyle relay. I think she had a lot of challenges to overcome today. It was insane how she pushed through it. I’m so proud of her.
“We slipped up a little bit on the second relay (200 freestyle), but everybody knew we needed to win that last one to win the meet and pulled it together. All of those girls did amazing. I’m so proud of them. Even Gabriell (Mannino) in her 100 back (13th with four points), she moved up a spot, which really helped.”
For Mercy’s Violet Schwartz, who swam the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays, along with the 100 butterfly (sixth), it was quite a send-off.
“As a senior in high school, what a better way to go out in a high school career with winning,” she said. “It’s really an honor. Just being with these girls is just the most amazing experience ever. They are so empowering. They all have the drive – that last relay was just amazing.”
Mercy senior 1-meter diver Sophia D’Orazio scored 11 points with an eighth-place.
“It was a little stressful, but having the whole team behind me really, really helped out, and I came out and finished my last dive to stick it and it was one of the best I’ve done,” she said. “It was really exhilarating today. This was my last diving meet today, and it was a great way to go out.”
And on the other side, it was bittersweet moment afterward for Handwork. Last year, Mercy scored 375.5 points, while South had 255, but this time the Blue Devils were right there.
“I think it’s just hard because of how hard we worked and how much we wanted it, but we are really still proud of ourselves,” Handwork said. “I mean, we closed a 120-point gap from last year, so there’s a lot to be proud of. I’m a senior, so I’ll come back and cheer them on. But yeah, I’m hoping they come back and swim even better.”
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy’s Avery Tack swims to a championship in the 200 individual medley Saturday. (Middle) Caroline Bryan swims to first place in the 100 butterfly for Grosse Pointe South. (Below) Ann Arbor Skyline’s Adrienne Schadler races to a repeat and meet record in the 500 freestyle. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)