The Saline Reporter
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Saline grabs cuts on way to 3rd in SEC
Hornets 'close the gap' on Ann Arbor powers with big meet
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 28, 2008
The Saline boys' swim team didn't just live up to head coach Todd Brunty's expectations at the Southeastern Conference meet last weekend.
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They exceeded them.
"We swam tremendously," Brunty said. "It was one of those meets where everyone was dropping time, the kids were cheering for each other, we were winning heats, and things just kept rolling. It all really came together for us."
The Hornets finished third at the meet behind No. 1-ranked Ann Arbor Pioneer and No. 2 Ann Arbor Huron, but their total of 404 points was only 56 behind Huron's 460 (a much closer margin than between Saline and fourth-place Dexter's 310).
"We closed the gap between us and them pretty substantially," Brunty said.
Arguably the biggest development of the meet for Saline, however, was the addition of seven new individual state cuts by five different swimmers. Sophomore Jake Engelmeier made three alone, swimming 1:46.58 for third in the 200-yard freestyle, 49.79 in the 100-yard opening leg of the 400 freestyle relay preliminaries, and 55.28 to take second in the 100 butterfly.
"Some of those I expected and some I didn't," Brunty admitted. "Whether or not they score at state, it's going to be great for them and for the team."
The other four cuts came from Alex Wu, swimming 22.54 to lead off the 200 freestyle relay preliminary; Daniel Kung, swimming a fourth-place 49.69 in the 100 freestyle; Matt DeFauw, swimming a third-place 1:02.78 in the 100 breaststroke; and Mike Fisher, swimming 1:03.99 to finish one spot behind DeFauw in the same event.
The Hornets brought home a single first-place finish, defending their league title in the 200 freestyle relay with a first-place time of 1:29.76 turned in by Kung, Engelmeier, Mike Hughes, and Wu. The Hornets also picked up big points in diving, where Joel Chambers and Hank Remenapp prepared for next week's Regionals by scoring 370.40 and 357.65 for second and third, respectively.
Two other top-three performances included Justin Duong taking third in the 100 backstroke by swimming 55.05 and Duong, Sam Wittig, Kung, and Engelmeier finishing third in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:19.66.
But Saline's success went far beyond the top of the results sheet. The Hornets fell just a handful of swims short of reaching Brunty's goal of 100 percent season-best times in the preliminaries and produced a number of surprises, like junior Jeff Moore dropping nearly three seconds off his personal best in the 100 backstroke to qualify for the second day of competition (where he posted another personal best of 1:03.12 to finish 21st).
"It was that kind of meet," Brunty said. "We honestly had too many to mention them all. It was swim after swim after swim. They just kept coming."
Saline's focus now turns towards the state meet, to be held March 7 and 8 at Oakland University.
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