LakeShore v Lamphere Article 01 20 09

Macomb Daily staff photo by Ray J. Skowronek Lake Shore's Ryan Black finished second in the 200 IM in the Shorians' MAC Gold win over Lamphere.

Shorians sprint to victory

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 6:11 AM EST

By Chuck Klonke, Special to The Macomb Daily
Lake Shore's Achilles heel became a strength in the Shorians' Macomb Area Conference Gold Division swimming meet with Lamphere, Tuesday.

The Shorians' 1-2-3 finish in the 100-yard freestyle turned a close meet into an easy victory for the Gold Division co-leaders as they beat the Rams 102-68 to improve to 3-0 in the division and 5-1-1 overall.

"We haven't had too much sprinting this year, so we've been working on it in practice," said Lake Shore coach Tom Zalewski. "Our Achilles heel has been our sprinters."

Brett Hagle won the 100 freestyle in 57.31. He was followed by
teammates Ed Walton and Joe Radzwion.

Even though the Shorians took the first three places in Tuesday's meet, Zalewski plans to spend more time working with his sprinters.

"We're looking toward the division meet," he said. "I hope they'll make the top 12, but it will be close."

Lake Shore held a slim 32-30 lead after the 50 freestyle.

Lamphere, which won six of the 11 events, took first place in the next race -- the 100 butterfly. Kyle Lyon had a winning time of 1:07.68, but the next three swimmers to touch were from Lake Shore. Nick Michielutti was second, Mohamad Alhindi was third and Carlo Licata took third place.

"A couple of our rookies, Trent Hill and Mohamad Alhindi, swam well," Zalewski said. "This was Mohamad's first time swimming the butterfly and he swam pretty well."

Lake Shore stretched its lead to 41-37 after the butterfly and the strong showing in the 100 freestyle gave the Shorians a 54-40 advantage.

Lake Shore continued to pile up the points in the two freestyle relays. The Shorians team of Brian Damm, Hagle, Walton and Tony Szep took first in the 200 in 1:44.73, Lake Shore's B relay team took second in the 200

Lake Shore won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:53.31 as Damm held off Lamphere's Christian Calverley on the anchor leg. Szep, Radzwion and Hagle also swam on the 400 for the Shorians.

Radzwion won the 200 individual medley in 2;29.74 in a close race with teammate Ryan Black, who was second in 2:30.02. Lake Shore's other individual first came in the 100 breaststroke where Devin Garcia had a winning time of 1:18.32.

"I wasn't completely thrilled with the whole meet tonight," Zalewski said. "We put people in different events today to see how they would do and if we could move them around."

Lamphere's Calverley nipped Szep in the 200 freestyle, the closest race of the meet. Calverley's winning time was 1:59.99, and Szep touched in 2:00.05.

Calverley was an easy winner in the 500 freestyle, completing the race in 5:37.24. His winning margin was just over 23 seconds.

Lyon was also a double winner for the Rams adding a first in the 50 freestyle (24.51) to his butterfly victory.

Matt Mandarino won the 100 backstroke for Lamphere in 1:04.35, but Lake Shore's Damm also had a strong race as he took second with a county meet qualifying time of 1:05.10.

Lamphere opened the meet with a first in the 200 medley relay. The Rams' team of Mandarino, Calverley, Lyon and Sean Komrska had a winning time of 1:57.14.

The defeat dropped Lamphere to 0-3 in the division and 1-7 overall. The Rams have been battling a numbers game all season. Lamphere has only 13 swimmers and most of them are freshmen and sophomores.

"We were off on most of our times today," said Rams coach Steve Kirschke. "I hit them pretty hard in practice yesterday, so that's to be expected. We're trying to get ready for the league and state meets.

"I like to swim well in the dual meets, although we haven't this year, but I really swim for the league and state meets. That's where the glory comes from for the kids. I think if we had a larger squad we'd fare better in the duals than we have this year."

Two Lamphere swimmers who had strong performances were Ashton Lyon, who posted his best time in the 100 freestyle, and Eric Burr, who dropped 15 seconds in the 500 freestyle.