We hosted the SMISL Swimming and Diving Championships this week. Diving was Monday, and the Swimming Championships were held Saturday. Milan came away in 4th of the 6 teams and we were on fire!! Adrian 442 Bedford 357.5 Tecumseh 317.5 Milan 281 Detroit Country Day 268 Notre Dame Prep 154 The meet started with the Dive event, and we were fantastic on the boards. Caleb Furlong took 4th, Jonathan Ringbloom was 8th and Luke Keel took 9th. The boys improved tremendously over the course of the year. Ringbloom was a first year diver, and contributed immensely all year. Keel developed all year and learned some new dives in the final week, to compete in Championships. Furlong had a great year, and almost made the State meet, as he finished 12th at Dive Regionals on Thursday this week. It was his best performance of the year, and the future looks bright for him!! On Saturday, we swam fantastic!! The meet started with the Medley relay. The C medley of Owen Stripp, Joe Bilyk, Reed Neuvirth and Landon Brice all had great swims. The B relay of Ryan Johnson, Hank Bobicz, Caleb Furlong and Koleton Tolfree took 8th, while the A relay of Tadas Zukovskis, Cam Garcia, Jameson McShane and Dylan Nichols rolled to a 3rd place finish and STATE CUT!! In the 200 Free, Alec Markham exploded from the blocks and cruised to the win in a STATE CUT time. Ian Satterley was 14th, Owen Stripp was 15th and Dylan Penzien was 17th. Hank Bobicz had a great meet for us, and dropped 15 seconds in the 200 IM to take 9th in the event. In the 50 Free, Stephen Garcia was 27th, Andrew Hornicak was 26th, Reed Neuvirth was 21st, Landon Brice took 20th. Ryan Johnson scored points with his 15th place finish, and Jameson McShane 10th, Dylan Nichols 9th, and Cam Garcia 7th did the same. McShane swam a lifetime best to take 6th in the 100 Fly. The 100 free saw lots of great swims. Stephen Garcia was 28th, Brice 25th, Neuvirth 23rd, Satterley 20th and Tolfree 19th. Alec Markham was 7th, and Zukovskis one place ahead in 6th. The 500 saw Joe Bilyk drop 27 seconds to take 7th and Dylan Penzien swam great to finish in 10th. The 200 Free Relay was another State Cut for Milan, as Markham, Zukovskis, Cam Garcia and Nichols rolled to a 2nd place finish. The B relay of Tolfree, Furlong, Bobicz and Satterley took 8th with great splits by all. The C relay of Brice, Neuvirth, Penzien and Bilyk also swam great and finished in 10th. In the 100 Back, Ryan Johnson had a great swim to finish in 12th, and Stripp had a lifetime best to finish in 14th. The 100 Breast saw best times all around for Milan. Bilyk was 13th, Bobicz was 12th, and Furlong was 11th. The meet finished with the 400 Free Relay. The C relay of Stripp, Hornicak, Penzien and Stephen Garcia was 11th. The B relay of Cam Garcia, Johnson, Satterley and Tolfree took 7th. The A relay of Markham, McShane, Zukovskis and Nichols crushed the State Cut and finished in 2nd. The boy’s hard work this season paid off with lots of great swims, and lifetime bests. We made 4 new state cuts on the day, and had 38 best times and splits. The passion the boys brought was phenomenal. It was a great day to be a Big Red. Thank you for all the support and coverage of the team this year. The future looks very bright, as we will miss our seniors, but most of these young men will return next season!! We will be traveling to Holland for the MHSAA State Meet this week, and will be represented by 8 of our student athletes. Coach Heikka Photo Credit: Stephen Cook