Girls Swim & Dive

The West Ottawa girls swimming & diving team always is prepared when postseason time comes around. The rigors of competing in a competitive Ottawa-Kent Conference Red have their benefits.

Claire Newman described her younger self as “a complete amphibian,” and not much has changed as she goes through her teenage years. “I’ve just always felt at home in the water,” the Midland Dow junior said. “It helps me work out my s...

At her first Upper Peninsula Finals on Saturday, Sault Ste. Marie freshman Aliah Robertson didn’t just break two records – she “obliterated” them.  Robertson swam the 100-yard butterfly in 59.27 seconds and the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.31, ...

It takes a team effort to win an Upper Peninsula swimming & diving title, and that was definitely true for the Gladstone girls team Saturday. The Braves were facing some stiff competition from Marquette and reigning champion Houghton. But Gladstone got a record-bre...

Junior Ashley Turak led the Farmington/Harrison co-op swimming & diving team to a third-place finish at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals on Saturday, winning two individual events and helping two championship relays to earn the Michigan Army National Guar...

A young team with a promising future became an MHSAA champion Saturday at the Michael H. Jones Natatorium at Eastern Michigan University. The Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood girls swimming & diving team, led by four freshmen, a sophomore and three juniors, sto...

During his career as head coach of the East Grand Rapids girls swimming & diving team, Butch Briggs has led the Pioneers to 21 MHSAA Finals championships.  Briggs and his Pioneers brought home number 21 from the Holland Aquatic Center on Saturday, and it happe...

Farmington Hills Mercy certainly perfected the notion during Saturday’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals that you don’t have to win events to become a swimming & diving champion. The Marlins didn’t have an individual finish first in any eve...

A change in division by one state power could change things up significantly at two of this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals. Regular favorites are expected to contend again in Division 1 after Rockford emerged to claim its first title...

Here’s a look at our first edition – first from Friday’s East Grand Rapids football win over Grand Rapids South Christian, followed by a swimming relay finish decided by a sliver of a second between Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern and Jeniso...

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 histo...

Few if any Michigan high school sports have seen the bar continue to rise and records continue to fall like swimming & diving since the turn of this century. But as winning times continue to rev faster and faster, the 2002 Ann Arbor Pioneer girls team continues to ...

Sometimes just one event can make the difference between a happy experience and a devastating one. And that’s what happened at the girls Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving Finals on Saturday.

Those who follow high schools swimming & diving closely can appreciate even more what Rockford accomplished this fall. The Rams won their first MHSAA team championship, a big deal on its own. But there's more to consider. 

Four events into the preliminaries Friday, Birmingham Seaholm girls swimming coach Karl Hodgson knew something special was brewing. On Saturday, his pot boiled over as the Maples won the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on th...

During the final climactic moments of Saturday’s drama-saturated MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Girls Swimming and Diving Championship Meet, possibly the coolest customer in the jam-packed Oakland University natatorium was the one bearing the most pressure &ndas...

East Grand Rapids swim coach Butch Briggs has won numerous MHSAA Finals championships over his 42 years of coaching the powerhouse program. But this year’s group has a special place in his gallery of champions. The Pioneers captured their 20th MHSAA title sin...

For many people, success breeds happiness. Dexter junior Annette Schultz sees it the other way. “I like to think being happy leads to success,” said Schultz, the reigning MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals champion in two events heading into this weeke...

A total of 17 past MHSAA individual champions will lead the charge into this weekend's Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals, which begin with preliminaries at noon today.  Among those reigning winners, 10 seniors are hoping to finish by climbing the ...

Maybe it was fate that brought Katie Minnich and Farmington Hills Mercy swim coach Mike Venos together this season. Unbeknownst to Minnich, Venos had known Minnich a decade before she became one of the state’s top swimmers.