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GIRLS SWIMMING: Adams wins first league meet in 20 years

Dan Stickradt | November 16, 2012 | Comments (0)

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans

BIRMINGHAM — Rochester Adams came up a length shy of its goal of winning a league championship in girls swimming this season. The Highlanders did the next best thing: Win the league meet title.

Adams emerged the victor at the recent five-school OAA Red Division championships at Birmingham Seaholm,

“This is the first time we won the league meet since I’ve been here,” noted veteran Adams coach Tim Hickey, who took over the program in 1994. “A few years ago, we won the dual meet portion but didn’t win the league meet.”

TICKET TO GLIDE: Rochester Adams’ Krystal Karas and the Highlanders captured the OAA Red Division league meet title with 448 points. File Photo

Adams scored 448 points to edge Seaholm’s 431.5 points. Clarkston was a distant third with 356 points, while Birmingham Groves (344.5) and Farmington Harrison (305) rounding out the league meet scores.

Seaholm, thanks to a 4-0 dual meet record in the league and a runner-up finish at the league meet, won the overall title. Seaholm’s nine total points gave them the overall league title, with Adams (8), Clarkston (6), Groves (5) and Harrison (2) following suit.

“Seaholm won the overall title, but I am not complaining because we’ve had a great season leading up to the state finals,” said Hickey. “I know having four divisions and only five teams (in our division) helped, but winning the league meet is a big deal. It’s always one of the best leagues in the state. We tied for second with Groves and Clarkston in the dual standings. Had we won one more dual meet, we would have finished second there (outright) and shared the overall title.”

Adams won one open event and one relay but had ample depth throughout the 11 events to pull away.

Theresa Riviera took the 500 free (5:13.65), while Bianca Tiberio, Hanna Hunstad, Alexa Graf and Krystal Karas teamed up for a win in the 200 free relay (1:39.69).

Clarkston’s 200 medley relay unit of Amber Hallman, Sami Stelpflug, Natalie Vela and Kathryn Culver opened the meet with a winning time of 1:48.80. Stelpflug came back to win the 200 IM (2:06.57) and 100 breaststroke (1:06.63), while Culver took the 50 free (24.20) and 100 free (52.02) crowns for Clarkston.

Culver, Hallman and Stelpflug joined forces with Taylor Tiekele to win the 400 free relay (3:36.31) for the Wolves.

Harrison’s sole win came from Miranda Shelly in the 100 butterfly (58.20), while Seaholm’s Mykala Arnold won the 100 backstroke (58.09) to round out the winners.

HIGHLANDERS QUALIFY 13

Rochester Adams won’t have to travel very far for this weekend’s Lower Peninsula division 2 state championships. The two-day event will be held just down the road at Oakland University.

Adams, which finished 10^th at last year’s finals, will bring a record 13 athletes to the state meet, 12 swimmers and one diver.

“Last year we brought 12, which was the biggest group we’ve had and now we’re going to have 13 girls at this year’s meet,” noted Hickey, who will count four seniors amongst that group. “We’re excited about that because that will (Potentially) help us score a lot of points.

“We hope to be back in the top 10,” added Hickey, who has coached several top-10 or top-20 teams over the past two decades at Adams. “It’s going to be very tough. There are a lot of good teams that are bringing back a lot of swimmers, plus three teams that are new to Division 2 that could very easily be in the top five (Birmingham) Marian and Ann Arbor Skyline have moved down from Division 1 and East Grand Rapids is moving up from Division 3 to Division 2. That will make that much tougher to finish in the top 10.but it’s definitely a possibility. We are ranked 10^th and we have been swimming very well lately.”

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