By Larry Matola, Special to The Review
The Dragon swimmers team faced stiff competition at the boys? division one swimming and diving finals, in Holland Michigan, March 12 and 13, but ended their season in grand fashion with 10 of the 28-member squad participating.
The team placed 14 out of 54 and set two school varsity records in the process.
For the swimmers, coached by Paul Fairman and Tom Arusoo, a ticket to this meet is earned during the regular swim season by swimming faster than a specified cut time. These times are established to allow only the top 40 swimmers in the state to compete.
Then, at the meet, swimmers aimed to reach a top-16 finals qualifying time, which allows them to swim the second day and score points for the team. Three individuals managed to snare finals cuts along with all three of the LOHS relay teams.
The dive team, coached by Beckie Ghazal, takes a different path to the two-day Holland event.
After first qualifying for and participating in a regional diving event held earlier in the week, they then move on to the finals at Holland. All four members of this years dive team qualified for the regional event with Chris Fraga placing second, Justin Davis, fourth, Charlie Mauer, seventh and Brad Horvath, 15th. These performances allowed Fraga, Davis and Mauer to clinch a spot at Holland.
Friday, the first day of the meet, the Holland Aquatic Center was packed to capacity with well wishers. At one point in the day, additional spectators were not admitted because the facility had reached its seating capacity.
It was in front of such a large crowd that the LOHS boys were all smiles and scorched the water with solid performances.
The Dragons? bread and butter this season has been in the relays. During Friday’s preliminary 200-medley relay, Zach Nowicki, Jake Lindquist, Petar Simic and Marc Vetter placed 14th.
In the 200-free relay, Simic, Lindquist, Vetter and Kyle McDonnell placed 12th. And in the 400-free relay, Simic, Vetter, Zack Diener and Lindquist placed 13th.
To add a little sugar on top of that butter, the 200-medley relay’s time of 1:40.03 set a new boys varsity record smashing the old record of 1:41.64, set back in 2006.
Also at the preliminary round in the individual events, Deiner placed 23rd in the 200-free and 34th in the 100-free, Simic swam to a 12th place finish in the 50-free, with Vetter taking 52nd in the same event. In round one of the diving Fraga placed seventh, Davis placed 17th and Mauer placed 32nd.
A few events later in the 100-back stroke, Nowicki placed 28th. And finally in the 100-breast stroke, Lindquist powered his way to sixth place finish with Brad Matola placing 30th.
During his swim Lindquist broke the varsity record for the fourth time this year, with a time of 59.38. This is first time for a Lake Orion breast stroker to swim it in under a minute. Linquist has owned the varsity record since January and doesn’t look to give it up soon.
For the finals on Saturday, the aquatic center was again packed to capacity, and based on their preliminary standings the three LOHS relay teams, along with Fraga, Lindquist and Simic moved into the finals round.
The relay teams lived up to their potential by improving their position to 10th for the 200-medley, 11th for the 400-free and holding their 12th place for the 200-free. The Medley relay squad also smashed the Varsity record they set only the day before by over a second setting the new varsity record at 1:38.88.
In the individual events, Lindquist placed sixth overall in the 100-breast stroke, Fraga placed ninth in diving, and Simic placed 11th in the 50-freestyle event.
Doing well at a large championship event is always a big boost to team morale and helps the boys carry the excitement during off season training. Like most High school sports, year round training is required to perform at this level and the boys will be working hard in the off season so they can return to action next year.