The LOHS Boys Swim and Dive team had a very busy week.
Wednesday and Thursday they swam at the Oakland Activities Association (OAA) Red Division finals, hosted at Birmingham Seaholm High School. Lake Orion reached its goal of a third-place finish, solidifying that position behind powerhouses Birmingham Groves and Seaholm.
In Wednesday night’s diving Lake Orion divers placed as follows: Chris Fraga – second, Justin Davis – sixth, Charlie Mauer – seventh and Brad Horvath – 11th. All four divers went on to Friday’s preliminary diving for the OAA Super Meet.
In Thursday’s swimming, all three relay teams swam to fourth place finishes in each of their respective events. Members of the relay teams are: 200 medley relay Zack Nowicki, Jake Lindquist, Drew Fristch and Kyle McDonnell in the 200 medley relay; Petar Simic, Marc Vetter, Zach Deiner and McDonnell in the 200 freestyle relay; and Simic, Vetter, Deiner and Lindquist in the 400 freestyle relay.
In addition to the relays, swimmers in the individual events tallied up a lot of team points.
In the 200 free, Deiner placed fourth and then eighth in the 100 free. In the 200 IM, Fristch finished sixth. In the 50 free, Simic swam to third. And Will Cavender powered his way to seventh place in the 100 fly and seventh place in the 500 free.
In the 100 backstroke, Nowicki took sixth place. And in another strong event, the 100 breaststroke, Lindquist sprinted to a first first place finish, with Frisch taking seventh.
Lindquist’s swim Thursday broke the boys varsity record which he had set earlier in the season.
Two days later, the boys then got a second chance to show how big their flippers really are.
Last Friday and Saturday, Lake Orion hosted the OAA Super meet. The meet brings together all 20 OAA teams from all three divisions. Cut times are tough, with only the top 40 swimmers from all three OAA divisions moving on (top eight swimmers from each division, plus the next 16 fastest swimmers from any division).
The competition was fierce, the stands filled to near capacity, and with 20 teams on deck, the excitement was electric.
Even with the tough admission standards, Lake Orion was able to get 20 swimmers and divers into the meet and we again placed third overall out of 20 teams.
From the dive team Fraga placed fourth and Davis, seventh.
The Relay teams also faired well, placing seventh in the 200 medley, eightin in the 200 free and sixth in the 400 free. They racked up much sought after team points.
In the 100 free, Deiner placed 10th and in the 200 IM, Fritsch placed 10th. In what was arguably the strongest showing, Simic placed sixth in the 50 free, with Vetter coming in ninth and McDonnell in 12th.
The 100 fly found Cavender in 14th, and in the 100 free the team scored well with Lindquist in seventh, Deiner in ninth and Vetter 14th.
Nowicki took eighth in the 100 back, and in the 100 breast, Lindquist cruised to another first place win, with Brad Matola in sixth and Fritsch in 11th.
These meets bring the regular swim season to an end. After moving up to the OAA Red Division, the team had an exciting season and are already planning for next year.
The final event of the high school swim season is the State Finals and Lake Orion will be well represented with all three relay teams and several individual swimmers. That meet will be held in Holland, MI on March 12 and 13.
~ Larry Matola