By Larry Matola
Special to the Review
The OAA Red Division Swim finals took place Wednesday, Feb. 23 through Friday, Feb. 25 at Birmingham Groves High School.
The event consisted of a preliminary and finals round, with the swimmers and divers needing to finish in the top 16 to participate in the final round. The swimmers competed in their preliminary rounds on Feb. 23 and the divers competed Feb. 24, with a combined ‘swim and dive finals? round held on Feb. 25.
Overall LOHS placed third with a score of 308 points, finishing behind Birmingham Seaholm and Birmingham Groves. All of the swimmers were able to qualify for the finals round and of the 12 events LOHS swimmers and divers were able to earn medals in nine out of the 12 events. The swimmers broke a new Groves pool record and a Red division League record. Three LOHS swimmers placed first in their events.
Zach Diener was league champion for his performance in the 200 yard freestyle, coming in first with a time of 1:44.71, Charlie Mauer received his league championship for his third place performance in diving with 301.75 points narrowly missing second by just 2.75 points, but the best performance by the LOHS squad was Jake Lindquist in the 100 yard breast stroke.
Jake earned his first place and league championship with a time of 59.37 which is not only a Groves pool record but a Red Division record also. The old Groves pool record had stood for only 2 days, as Jake has set the record during Feb. 23’s event during the Preliminary round. Jake is also the current holder of the LOHS Varsity 100 yard Breaststroke record.
The last big event of the high school swim season is the State Meet being held this year at Oakland University on March 11 and 12. With very tough qualifying standards, only the top swimmers participate and the event is always the highlight of the swimming year.