By Gabriel Ouzounian
Review Staff Writer
Lake Orion’s boys swim/dive team traveled to Clarkston on Feb. 9, to do battle with the Seawolves, as their rivals call themselves. The Dragons emerged from the water with a solid 105-80 victory.
Head Coach Paul Fairman called the competition a “good meet” and was happy to succeed after the team’s “subpar” county meet performance earlier this month.
“Clarkston didn’t stack the relays the way they could have and that was a 12-point swing that could have happened,” he said. “Some races had better times than others, but we beat them in a relay or two and it worked out.”
Fairman gave credit to a number of his swimmers, including freshman Devon Nowicki who had “his best swim of the year” by dropping 14 seconds from his 500 yard freestyle. Zach Biener, meanwhile, swam a 54-second time in the butterfly and senior Jacob Lindquist won the breaststroke, with the coach noting he “has held his own all year.” Senior diver Charlie Maurer beat the same opponent who beat him in the county meet.
Up next for the swim team is an OAA Red league meet at Lake Orion followed by the State Meet, also hosted at the home natatorium. Fairman believes he has eight swimmers that will go to states, as well as three divers (Maurer, senior Brad Horvath and sophomore Jacob Maurer) who will qualify.
“Most of my team is focusing on the championship,” said Fairman. “State meet guys are working out through this week and we’re on target to have some good performances.”
The team is 3-3 in the OAA Red and 5-3 overall.