By Collette Goestenkors
Special to the Review
Lake Orion High School’s boys? swim and dive team has had a busy start to the new year.
The team has swam in four meets in two weeks – two individual meets and two relays.
On Jan. 5, the Dragons competed at home and lost to Groves High School 103 – 83.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Lake Orion earned second and third places. The A Relay team had a time of 1:45:61 (seniors Will Cavender, Jacob Lindquist, Daniel Pecheniuk and freshman Devon Nowicki), while the B Relay team came in at 1:51:57 (senior Alex Palmer, sophomores Craig Matola, Daniel Callahan and junior Brandon Nowicki).
In the 200-yard freestyle race, sophomore D.J. Seeds grabbed second place. Cavender glided into first place in the 100-yard butterfly, while in the 500-yard freestyle race Devon Nowicki blew away the comptition with a 19 second victory.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, sophomore Brendan Foxlee, Seeds, senior Steven Ambraczyk and Brandon Nowicki swam to a second-place finish. Lindquist finished first in the 100-yard breaststroke.
In the 400-freestyle relay competition, Relay Team-D1, A took home second (Cavender, Abramczyk, Pecheniuk and Lindquist) with Relay Team-D1, B finishing third (Foxlee, Devon Nowicki, Seeds and senior Josh Greib). The dive team earned first, second and third places (seniors Brad Horvath, Nick Ludwig and freshman Mitch Stencel) with Groves following behind.
On Jan. 7, the boys traveled to Saginaw to grab first place in the Heritage Relays.
Most events had a Lake Orion team receiving the gold medal.
They took the the 800 free relay first place (Pecheniuk, Seeds and Devon Nowicki). The 200 medley saw first place go to senior Alex Palmer, Matola, Greib and Foxlee. Devon Nowick, Brandon Nowicki and Matola took first place in the 300 Medley. Cavender, Callahan, Palmer and Greib captured a first place in the open 300 fly relay. Orion alsograbbed first in the open 300 back (Seeds, Abramczyk, Palmer and Greib), open 300 breast (Lindquist, sophomore Jared Goestenkors, Horvath and Matola) as well as the 400 medley (Seeds, Devon Nowicki, Cavender and Pecheniuk).
The open free relay team took first place (Foxlee, Brandon Nowicki, Abramczyk and Lindquist). The dive team’s seniors Charlie Maurer and Horvath also had notable perforamnces.
On Jan. 12, an away meet at Troy High School yielded the team’s second loss with Lake Orion falling to Troy, 103- 83.
In the 200-yard medley telay, the boys took second and fourth places. In the a 200-yard freestyle race, Devon Nowicki placed third, Ambramczyk took fifth with Palmer not far behind in sixth place.
The 200-yard IM saw Lake Orion’s boys in second (Cavender), fourth (Matola) and sixth (Callahan) out of twelve. Foxlee, Greib and freshman Shane Ciora earned second, fifth and sixth respectivly in the 50-yard freestyle. The 100- yard butterfly yielded Lake Orion second (Cavender), third (Greib) and fourth place (junior Jon Bukowsky.)
Lindquist took first place in the 100-yard freestyle while the grueling 500-yard freestyle race saw D.J. Seeds finish in second place.
Lake Orion produced a second place in the 200 -yard freestyle medley, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke and the 400-yard freestyle.
The dive team again proved unflappable with Lake Orion coming away with first (Charlie Maurer), second (Horvath) and third (sophomore Jacob Maurer) place finishes.
The most recent meet on Jan. 14, the fifth annual Dragon Relays, saw Lake Orion take first among eight teams. Lake Orion has taken the top spot every year.
The first four teams? scores were Lake Orion 440, Clarkston 402, DeWitt 282? D3 and Pinckney 272. Lake Orion began by taking first place in the 400-yard medley relay. In the 850- yard freestyle relay, Clarkston took first leaving the Dragons to grab the second place spot.
The 800-yard medley gave Lake Orion another first place. In the 8 x 50 freestyle, Lake Orion earned third place. The 400 -yard butterfly saw the Dragons take second place with North Farmington taking first. In the 800-yard freestyle, Clarkston took first, North Farmington second and Lake Orion third.
The Dragons took it up a notch in the 200-yard medley, grabbing first place with North Farmington not far behind. North Farmington grabbed first place in the 200-yard freestyle divers + 2 relay, giving Lake Orion the opportunity to glide back into second place.
The next two events, the 400-yard backstroke and 400-yard breaststroke, gave Lake Orion first place finishes, then it took second in the 400-yard freestyle. The divers took home first place (Horvath and Charlie Maurer) in synchronized diving.
The next Lake Orion boys swim and dive meet is on the road at Birmingham Seaholm, on Jan. 19. Those curious are encouraged to come show Orion support.
The team’s record stands at 3-2, with two additional wins in its relay meets.