Wolves churn past Dragons, send more to states

The Clarkston Girls Swim Team is now 2-0 on the season after defeating rival Lake Orion 109-80 on Sept. 1.
The Wolves continued the strong swimming witnessed in the team’s first meet of the season against Grand Blanc on Aug. 29, a 108-77 victory which featured Clarkston’s first ever qualification for the state finals. Several more swimmers achieved state times and shattered Clarkston High School records against the Dragons.
‘By the time states come around, we won’t just be making the cut, we’ll be competing,? said Clarkston Coach Kenwyn Chock, prior to the match against Lake Orion.
In the 200 freestyle, junior Kandice Keen broke the varsity record by swimming a time of 2:02:00, hundredths of seconds off the state qualifying time. Keen also touched the wall just 3/100ths of a second in front of the second place finisher, Emily Roesch of Lake Orion.
In the 50 freestyle, sophomore Alyssa Vela shattered the CHS varsity record and qualified for states with a time of 25:73.
A few events later, Vela set another varsity record in the 100 freestyle, swimming a time of :56:73, narrowly missing the state cut off time of :56.19.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Clarkston’s team of Keen, Vela, freshman Molli Simpson, and freshman Christine Seiple broke a varsity record with a time of 1:45:87. The same foursome qualified for states against Grand Blanc in the 200 medley relay. They won the 200 medley relay against Lake Orion with a time of 1:57.80.
In the 100 yard breaststroke, Simpson broke her own varsity record set against Grand Blanc, swimming a state qualifying time of 1:10:56.
Other first place times for the Wolves against Lake Orion included: sophomore Kaitlyn Hassett’s 2:28.26 in the 200 individual medley, Keen’s 1:04.94 in the 100 butterfly and Seiple’s 1:06.54 in the 100 backstroke.
At the urging of her swimmers, Chock dove into the pool at the end of the meet.