High School State Swimming Championships: Michigan Boys Division 1

HOLLAND, Michigan, March 11. SALINE High School had the No. 1 ranking just before the Michigan Division 1 Championships March 8-9 at Holland High School. They were going for their fourth consecutive title and boasted a talented senior squad who wanted to go out on top all four of their seasons.

The seniors met their goal–but barely. The Hornets collected 313 points, five points ahead of Birmingham Brother Rice (308). Livonia Stevenson claimed the third spot with 191 points. Rockford grabbed fourth (163). Detroit Catholic Central outpointed Zeeland for fifth by just half a point, 156-155.5.

Saline's 200 medley relay grabbed the headlines with their national high school record 1:30.01, set by seniors David Boland, Josh Ehrman, Michael Bundas and Adam Whitener. In prelims, Whitener swam ahead of Bundas to better Hershey's 2009 national mark by precisely 1-hundredth of a second, before the team swapped the last two legs to win in finals with a faster time. Bolles School still holds the national overall mark at 1:28.02. More on Saline's national record swims here: article and video.

Ehrman bettered two state individual marks. His 1:47.86 in the 200 IM bettered his 1:49.34 division mark from last year as well as Eric Solis' state mark of 1:48.55 from 2010. In the 100 breast, he posted a 55.31, clearing the state and division marks he set in 2012 of 55.36.

Boland bettered the division mark set by E. Kobes in 2004 (50.80) in the 100 back with his 49.75. He earned his third straight title in the 100 fly with his 48.59, a D1 record. He set the previous record of 48.95 in 2011.

Whitener nabbed titles in both the 100 (44.65) and 200 (1:38.31) free, giving him six titles (doubles in 2010 and 2011) among the two events. Bundas' 20.96 in the 50 free gave him the victory in that event.

Senior Stefan Koberl joined Ehrman, Bundas and Whitener for a D1 standard in the 200 free relay, bettering Rockford's 1:24.34 from last year with their 1:23.92.

Birmingham Brother Rice collected a state record 3:03.78 in the 400 free relay with the squad of sophomore Gust Kouvaris, senior Patrick Nodland, sophomore Mark Blinstrub and junior Joe Krause. Brother Rice took down marks set by Saline. They set the D1 mark last year at 3:04.26 and the state mark in 2011 with their 3:04.83.

Stevenson junior Nick Arakelian claimed a D1 mark in the 500 free with his 4:27.75. Nick Evans held the previous mark of 4:31.15 from the 2009 prelims.

Nick Nicolett, a senior at North Farmington, jumped from sixth last year in diving to the top of the podium stand this year with his 442.30 points.

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