Handed first loss by Birmingham Groves

By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Lake Orion High School’s varsity girls swim and dive team hosted Groves High School for their first home meet of the season falling to the Falcons 119 to 67.

Paige Potter was the leading scorer for the Dragons, finishing first in the 100-yard backstroke and second in the 200-yard individual medley. Lauren Valentine contributed two second place finishes in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events.

Prior to this loss, the ladies were 1-0 after defeating the Oxford Wildcats 131-55 which was a promising start to the season for the Dragons.

“We kicked off the season with a win against Oxford and we had a lot of great swims. I think we had three or four county cut times, kind of our fastest relays so far that we’ve done even in previous years,” said head coach Haley Kornburger.”We have a lot of senior leadership as well that are really looking to make an impact this year so I would say in terms of kind of where we fall right now for the OAA White, I think we’re going to have a great season.”

With much of the season still ahead of them, the ladies are looking forward to facing some of the tougher competitors in their division, listing Royal Oak, Troy and North Farmington High Schools as the ones to beat.

Coming out of the 2020-21 season, the Dragons had eight state qualifiers in division one, despite the less than traditional high school swim schedule.

“We set the mark last year in what we wanted to accomplish in those relays and in our individuals so it would be very very nice to have some more state qualifiers join our veterans, our seniors along with some of our new swimmers that are coming in to make their impact as well,” Kornburger said. “That and our county meet (goal) is to try and get as many girls qualified as we can.”

After dropping down a division from the OAA Red to the OAA White, Kornburger is hoping to see the ladies finish in the top three at their division meet.

“I know our team is small in numbers, but I would definitely like to see us at least top three in our OAA White meet.,” Kornburger said. “Our divers have kind of had some more experience. We had one diver who was joining us last year who was new and she’s now our top diver so that would be nice to see diving up there.”

The Dragon’s main goal for the season is to improve on last season.

“Always we’re trying to see continuous improvement, continuous growth throughout the year so; always try to finish better and do better than what we did the year before,” Kornbuger said.

The ladies are back in the pool at Berkley High School on Sept. 9.