WATERFORD – Calvin Meeker was approaching the final stretch of the longest and most grueling swim race of the day, the 500 freestyle, when suddenly something clicked.
“I was starting out pretty good but then I got real tired around the 11th or the 13th length,” the junior from Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood said. “But then I looked over and I saw my friend Sean Lu ─ who was seeded first ─ and he was third. And I’m saying to myself, there’s no way I can let the team down; this is the moment. So I took everything I had for the last 75 (yards) and just killed it; I got my hand on the wall first.”
Meeker was the surprise winner in 4:53.64, out-touching Detroit Catholic Central’s Paddy Gerzema and his teammate, Lu, as all three competitors were separated by less than a second in what Meeker called “a race for the ages.”
And as Meeker staged a late comeback, it spurred his teammates to do the same, overtaking Catholic Central by winning the final relay. Cranbrook’s 513-point total topped Catholic Central’s 508 and brought the Cranes their first Catholic League title in boys’ swimming and diving.
“We were down a little bit when we were starting the 50, and we just had to bring it back, but we knew we could do it,” Meeker said. “I’ve seen this team go through thick and thin all season long. These guys are so close and I knew we could do it.”
Following the 500, Cranbrook placed second in the 200 freestyle relay; A.J. Farner and Ryan VanDyke took the top two spots in the backstroke; and Ethan Xu, Michael Sawula and Ethan Vander-Haute added a 3-4-5 finish in the breaststroke to set the stage for the final event, the 400 freestyle relay.
Cranbrook led that race from start to finish. Andrew Delzer, Xu, Farner and Colin Zexter finished in 3:08.37, finishing first comfortably to account for the winning point margin.
“It was a good event for us, we were ready to roll there,” Delzer said. “Our 400 free relay has been our favorite event this season, and we’re proud to own that event, and we’re going to continue on that legacy at states next week.”
Cranbrook ─ the top-ranked team going into the MHSAA Division 3 championship final this Friday and Saturday at the Holland Aquatic Center – hadn’t led last weekend’s competition except for a brief moment early on.
“In the first half of the meet, Catholic Central came out guns blazing, and they were picking up points here and there, and they did a phenomenal job,” Cranbrook coach Paul Ellis said. “Then we had the (diving) break, and we’re a real strong stroke team, and we came out in the 100 fly and did great; we had a huge swim by Calvin Meeker who had a come-from-behind win in the 500. Our backstroke and breaststrokers swam phenomenal.
“It really was just everyone doing their part and chipping in,” Ellis continued, “and they earned it with the work they put in and what they did.”
Delzer agreed with his coach’s assessment.
“Our backs were against the wall and our guys really needed to step up,” he said. “It just shows the depth that this team has – it’s not about the power up top, but it’s also the guys that are making it in those ‘B’ heats. Those guys are the one carrying the team.”
Armed with that depth, about three-quarters of the Cranbrook team – 20 swimmers – have qualified for this weekend’s state finals, where the Cranes hope to defend their team championship.
“Last year we had 13 (compete at states), but then we probably had half a dozen kids train hard in the off-season to get ready,” Ellis said. “They are the kids who made those huge steps and raised our level of depth. They’re the ones that in a meet like this affect the outcome more than the kids who win events.”
Some of the other Catholic League schools who competed last weekend could make their mark at the state level as well.
Catholic Central – ranked third in Division 1 – set two Catholic League records in the Waterford Kettering pool. Cameron Turowski, Luke Mychalowych, Adyn Stoddard and Jack Szuba in won the 200 freestyle relay in an all-time best 1:24.67, and Mychalowych established a new breaststroke mark (55.47) during Friday’s preliminary heats.
“We have a different animal with D-1, the state cuts are pretty crazy, so my focus was on that,” Shamrocks coach Jessica Stoddard said. “I said the whole entire meet, ‘God’s will, not mine, and I actually didn’t look at the score at all until the last relay. What was important to me was the swims, and the efforts and the times that we had. Yeah, I’m proud of my kids. We still have some work to do, but we’re right on schedule with where we need to be for the state meet right now.”
Third-place University of Detroit Jesuit – ranked fifth among Division 2 teams statewide ─ got a strong performance from Evan Tack, who set a Catholic League record in the individual medley (1:50.88) and later won the butterfly (50.00).
Cubs coach Drew Edson said the team doubled the amount of its state qualifiers during the Catholic League championship swims.
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