West Bloomfield’s Eichbrecht wins individual titles at D1 finals
Farmington Hills Mercy finishes tied for 4th
The MHSAA Division 1 swim and dive finals took place at Oakland University Saturday afternoon and Oakland County was once again well represented.
West Bloomfield freshman Elizabeth Eichbrecht won two individual state titles. Eichbrecht won the 200-yard freestyle in a time 1:48.82, good enough for automatic AllAmerican status. She later followed that up with a win in the 500 yard freestyle. Her time of 4:52.71 was less than two tenths off the automatic All-America qualifying time.
Farmington Hills Mercy was the top Oakland County finisher in the team event. The Marlins improved on last year’s seventh place finish, moving up to a tie for fourth.
“It was a great feeling because
on paper we were supposed to finish eighth. So these girls stepped it up this weekend. It was really exciting to watch,” Marlins head coach Michael Venos said. “We’ve got a lot of new swimmers. It’s really hard to come back the second day and
do it all over. We had a great day yesterday, and they fought like crazy today.”
The top swimmers for the Marlins were junior Amylia Higgins, senior Sydney Derkevorkian, and sophomore Kathleen Schwab. Higgins recorded a fifth-place finish in the 200 yard freestyle and fourth in the 500yard freestyle individually while swimming legs on both the 200yard medley and the 400-yard freestyle relays. Derkevorkian was sixth in the 200-yard freestyle and fifth in 100-yard backstroke. Schwab was fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and also swam on the 400-yard free relay.
“Katie (Schwab), she didn’t even make a state cut last year, and she’s in four events this year. So we’re really excited for her and again an underclassman. Sydney has been a fantastic leader in and out of the pool. Amylia is on her way up. She’s going to be a name that a lot of college coaches are going to be calling about,” Venos said.
Elsewhere, Novi’s Lorelai Maisano finished second in the 1-meter diving event. Maisano’s 10th round dive netted 48 points, the single biggest dive
of the finals. But it was not enough to catch Saline’s Alice English who won the event with a score of 419.90 to Maisano’s 406.00
Lake Orion’s Paige Potter (eighth in the 200yard individual medley), Bloomfield Hills’s Brooke Thomspon (sixth in the 50-yard freestyle), Clarkston’s Jordyn Coin (eight in the 1-meter diving), and Rochester’s Sydney Vanhowe (seventh in the 100 yard butterfly) also placed in the top eight in their events.