Groves, Seaholm Swimmers Take 2nd, 3rd at State Meet

Birmingham swimmers placed second, with in third, at the Division 2 state swimming meet in Holland, MI, on Saturday.

Groves win the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay, and senior Scott Crosthwaite captured first place finishes in 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle. Crosthwaite also was on the winning freestyle relay team, so he walked away a three-time state champion.

Other highlights:

200 medley relay: Birmingham Groves' winning team consisted of  Noah Zamler, Lindsay Clark, Sam Cusimano and John Hamond. They won in 1:36.20, a half-second faster than second-place Holland. Seaholm's team of Connor Saeli, Matthew Walkkamer, Jack Russell and Mike Shaben  took fourth in 1:36.92

200-yard freestyle: Scott Crosthwaite of Groves won in 1:39.47, more than three seconds faster than Johnathan Zofchak of Dexter. Steven Curry of Groves took third in 1:42.55. Alex Girdler of Seaholm took eighth at 1:45.02. Enrique Hernandez of Seaholm took 15th with 1:47.07.

200 yard IM:  Groves' Noah Zamler took second with 1:54.28, behind Ben Martin of Midland Dow with 1:53.03. Seaholm's Matthew Wolkhamer and Jack Howard took seventh and eighth, respectively, and Evan Burke and Jack Russell took 13th and 14th. Lindsay Clark of Groves took 12th.

50-yard freestyle: Seaholm's Mike Shaben tied for sixth with Andover's Joe Abrash, at 21.95; the winning time was 21.14, by Jackson Goethe of Midland. Seaholm's Nathan Anderson (22.13) took eighth, and teammate Addison Williams  placed 12th. Groves' John Hammond took 11th place.

1-meter diving: Tommy Fink of Seaholm took 13th.

100-yard butterfly: John Hammond of Groves took sixth in 52.49; teammates Sam Cusimano placed 12th and Donald DeSantis placed 14th.

100-yard freestyle:  Steven Curry of Groves took fifth in 47.19,  and teammate Tom Power took 10th. The winner, Jeremiah Morren of Holland, finished in 46.45.  Seaholm's Mike Shaben and Nathan Anderson placed 14th and 16th respectively.

500-yard freestyle: Scott Crosthwaite of Groves won in 4:33.26, over John Zofchak of Dexter, by a margin of nearly 5 seconds. Seaholm's Alec Girdler took fourth in 4:40.41, and teammate and brother Danny Girdler placed 14th in 4:54.86.

200-yard freestyle relay: Groves' Scott Crosthwaite, Steven Curry, Tom Power and John Hammond finished second to Dexter by .34 seconds. Seaholm's team finished .67 back of Groves for third (Nathan Anderson, Addison Williams, Jack Howard and Mike Shaben)

100-yard backstroke: Groves swimmers took fourth, fifth and seventh places. Noah Zamler took fourth in 52.94, Tom Power took fifth in 53.66 and Donald DeSantis placed seventh with 54.42. Seaholm's Connor Saeli and Matt Perham placed 10th and 11th, respectively.

100-yard breaststroke: Seaholm's Matthew Walkhamer edged Lindsay Clark of Groves by 0.2 seconds to win the event in 58.19. Seaholm's Jack Russell and Jack Howard placed fifth and sixth. Seaholm's Evan Burke placed 13th. Austin Rovinski of Groves placed 16th.

400-yard freestyle relay: Groves won in 3:09.93 over Dexter (3:09.47). The Groves team consisted of Steven Curry, Noah Zamler, Tom Power and Scott Crosthwaite. Seaholm took fourth. (Nathan Anderson, Addison Williams, Connor Saeli and Jack Howard)

Division 1: Brother Rice places 3th

Brother Rice High School boys swim team placed third behind Saline and Rockford in the Division 1 swimming finals at Eastern Michigan University.

Brother Rice swimmers didn't take any first-place medals, but the 400-yard freestyle relay team of  Patrick Nodland, Gust Kouvaris, Josh Murrell and Joe Krause placed second to record-setting Saline (3:04.26) with a 3:08.66 time.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Kouvaris, Spencer Swies, Nikolaus Lehnertz and Nodland took fourth place, and the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Krause, Kouvaris, Joe Morgana and Nodland took third place with a time of  1:26.15.

In individual events, Krause placed third in the 100-yard freestyle (46.40) and  seventh in the 200-yard freestyle.  Kouvaris placed seventh in 100 freestyle, and Drake Michazuk took 12th in the 200 freestyle.

Nodland took fifth in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.80.

In the 500-yard freestyle, Michael Jennings took 11th, and teammates Michalzuk and Quin McFarlen took 12th and 14th, respectively.

In 100-yard backstroke, Mark Blinstrub took 13th place.