The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Hornets rout top-10 Monroe by 31
Saline avenges earlier loss, with medley relay ranking with state's best
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 1, 2007
After successful back-to-back meets against Tecumseh and a four-team "quad" meet field the previous weekend, the Saline boys' swim team could have been forgiven for having a letdown the following Tuesday against 10th-ranked Monroe.
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The performance the Hornets actually turned in, however, was anything but.
Saline surprised the Trojans with a 108.5-77.5 victory Jan. 26, a 68-point turnaround from the teams' Dec. 21 meeting, a Hornet loss.
Coach Derek Samuelson believes this is Saline's first-ever dual meet win over a team ranked in the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association top 10.
"We caught them off-guard. They weren't ready for us," Samuelson said. "This time around, everybody was healthy, the guys were really fired up.
"We talked in the locker room after diving and told them we had a chance to win this. They came out and had a better back half of the meet than they've ever had."
The biggest factor in the meet was Saline's ability to finish its races strong.
"Of seven (point-deciding head-to-head) races that were decided by a half-second or less, we touched them out on six," Samuelson pointed out. "They just wanted it. They were finishing really well."
Among those close calls were the 200-yard medley relay team of Justin Duong, Connor Christie, Noah Whitener and Alex Wu edging out the Trojan team 1:43.31 to 1:43.50 for first place.
Whitener took first in the 100 butterfly by .16 after swimming 54.04. Wu won the 100 freestyle in thrilling fashion, beating Monroe's Jason Schultz 51.60 to 51.61. In a rare appearance in the 100 backstroke, Duong took first by .34, in 1:00.09.
Not all the close calls came at the top of the standings. For instance, Daniel Kung's time of 53.26 gave him third in the 100 freestyle by .03 over Monroe's fourth-place Adrian Nicholas.
And even when the classes weren't close, Saline flourished. Joel Chambers and Andrew DeVries took first and second in diving, with DeVries passing the 200-point barrier for the first time. Freshmen Michael Hughes and Sam Wittig (5:24.86, 5:25.12), and sophomore Travis Littlejohn (5:35.12) took third, fourth and fifth in the 500 freestyle.
After finishing second in the medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay, Monroe won the 400 freestyle, but Seth Waits, Kung, Nick Schneider and Wittig (3:37.97) combined to take second, while Littlejohn, Hughes, Daniel Hughes and Frasier Christie (3:53.64) took third in convincing fashion.
Added up, it equaled a decisive win for the Hornets. Saline's week wasn't finished, yet, though, as the Hornets swam a dual meet against No. 3 Ann Arbor Pioneer Friday and in the Dexter Freshmen and Sophomore Invitational Saturday.
Samuelson admitted that the freshmen and sophomores, in particular, were "exhausted" by the end of the week. But despite the 108-78 loss to the Pioneers and the unofficial third-place finish at Dexter (official scores were not kept), Samuelson considered the week as a whole more than successful.
"I was impressed and surprised," he said. "Different swimmers performed well at different meets. But in the end, everyone was successful. It's exciting."
Among the highlights from the Pioneer meet was the 200 medley relay team's winning time of 1:40.34, the fourth-best time in the state this season; Connor Christie finishing both the 200 individual medley (2:03.23) and 100 breaststroke in well under state cut time; Duong continuing his solid work in the 100 backstroke by swimming 59.18 and winning the event; and freshman Connor Corcoran dropping a whopping 19 seconds off his best time in the 500 freestyle to 5:40.47.
At Dexter, the team of Wu, Waits, Kung and Drew Dakin took first in a field of 11 schools in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.01; Wu and Waits each took top-five places in the 50 freestyle; freshman Hank Remenapp finished second in diving with a score of 176.30; and freshman Jacob Mauthe took fourth in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.27.
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