The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hornets sink Dreadnaughts by 6
Dual meet comes down to final race on Saline Senior Night
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 8, 2007
The Hornet boys' swim team almost hit a speed bump on their road to the postseason Friday night.
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The visiting Dexter Dreadnaughts nearly stole the meet on Saline's Senior Night, entering the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, trailing the favored Hornets only 88-84.
A win plus a third-place finish in the event would give Dexter the upset. But Saline's relay team of Daniel Kung, Alex Wu, Justin Duong and Noah Whitener won by nearly four seconds (3:30.68 to 3:34.53) over Dexter's "A" relay to clinch the 96-90 win.
Head coach Derek Samuelson said that with his team coming off of several sterling performances and a hard week of training, the closeness of the meet wasn't entirely unexpected.
"They did alright. They had a tough week of practice," Samuelson said. "We're focusing now on the conference meet. They swam pretty well considering. It was about what we expected."
The win boosted Saline's dual-meet record to 9-4 on the season after the previous Tuesday's 108-78 home win over Milan.
As the final home meet of the regular season, the Dexter contest was also the traditional celebration of Senior Night. The Hornets honored graduating members Connor Christie, Andrew DeVries, Nick Schneider and Noah Whitener.
All four made substantial contributions to the Saline win. They combined to swim the 200 medley relay in a first-place time of 1:46.23. Whitener (22.85) and Christie (23.70 took first and third, respectively, in the 50 freestyle. DeVries took second in the diving competition with a solid score of 212.15, behind only junior teammate Joel Chambers' dominant 263.80, his second-highest score of the season.
Schneider took a point for Saline in the 500 freestyle with a fifth-place time of 5:44.09 and came in runner-up in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.96. The 200 freestyle relay team of Christie, Drew Dakin, Seth Waits and Duong took first in 1:34.68.
Despite those performances, strong showings by the Dreadnaughts in the 200 and 500 freestyle events helped give them a 79-77 lead with only two events remaining. The first of those was the 100 breaststroke, which the Saline seniors dominated. Christie (1:02.38), Whitener (1:04.23), and DeVries (1:08.77) finished first, third and fourth, respectively, to give the Hornets the lead entering the 400 freestyle relay.
Dexter held a narrow lead after the first two legs of the race, but Duong and Whitener pulled away to ice the win.
Samuelson had plenty of praise for his seniors at the Senior Night ceremony, which was held before the diving competition, citing their leadership, talent and hard work. But he also had praise afterward for his less experienced swimmers, like sophomore Travis Littlejohn and senior newcomer Matt DeFauw, whose solid times in a breaststroke heat may qualify them for this Saturday's Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association meet.
"They each dropped two seconds off their best times," Samuelson said. "They've really made some significant strides."
The upcoming meet will be of some importance for the Hornets. Held at the Eastern Michigan University pool, the MISCA meet will give the Hornets a chance to swim against the state's best and possibly make state cut times in a handful of events.
"It's very important for our run-up to the state meet," Samuelson said.
Saline's next home event will be the Southeastern Conference meet, starting Feb. 23.
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