Marquette High School was all over the Michigan Upper Peninsula championships, winning 17 of 24 total events and sweeping all swimming races in the boys meet.
Coach Nate McFerrin‘s girls won their 12th title in the last 13 years, while his boys program took its first team title since 2010.
The Marquette girls picked up early energy from a tough double by junior Logan Vear. She swam butterfly on the winning 200 medley relay before coming right back in the next race to win the 200 free with a 2:08.52.
Joining Vear on that medley were Lyndsey Welch, Lauren Rotundo and Lani Belton. Welch, a freshman who swam backstroke on that relay, came back to win the open 100 back later on in 1:06.06.
Welch and Vear joined forces once again at the end of the meet, swimming the 400 free relay with Janelle Carroll and Lauren Clement to go 4:05.41 for a runaway win that punctuated a great Marquette day.
F0r Carroll, that was her third win in five events. the junior took home the 500 free by over 12 seconds, putting up a 5:53.00, then completed a back-to-back by joining Belton, Chelsea Morin and Rotundo on the 200 free relay. With Carroll anchoring, the team went 1:53.48 for another UP title.
Rudyard dominated the sprint races, picking up three wins in a third-place team effort. Freshman Trista MacDowell got things started by pacing the 50 free in 26.12. Her senior teammate Amy Knapp took over from there, winning the 100 free (56.87) and 100 breast (1:14.54) easily.
The other double-individual winner was Hanover’s Olivia Rouleau. The senior went 2:20.78 to win the 200 IM, then 1:03.70 to run away with the 100 fly. Team runners-up were the 2013 UP champs Houghton, who won diving with junior Lauren Jackson‘s 166.95.
On the boys side, Marquette pressed it’s dominance from the beginning. Although defending champs Sault Ste. Marie went 1-2-3 in the diving competition the night before swimming finals (led by junior Levi Furr and his 186.65 points), Marquette dominated in the racing pool, sweeping the other 11 events to win the meet in a landslide.
Tony Lackey, Nathan Rotundo and Sam Williams were all four-event winners for Marquette. Lackey, a senior, was the meet’s dominant sprinter, going 23.65 to win the 50 free and 53.66 for the 100 title. The junior Rotundo dominated the 200 IM in 2:07.82 (winning by nearly 13 seconds) and 100 breast with a 1:03.08 (a 7-second margin of victory). Williams pulled off a tough combo, going 56.03 to win the 100 fly, taking one event to rest and coming back to win the meet’s longest race, the 500 free, with a 5:10.67.
The three boys joined forces for the 200 medley relay, with Rotundo manning the breaststroke, Williams on butterfly and Lackey swimming freestyle. Freshman Andrew Kilpela led off with the field’s fastest backstroke time as the relay won easily in 1:44.74. Kilpela also came back to win the 100 backstroke, going 1:00.24 for his second of three titles on the day.
Lackey led off the 200 free relay in 23.65, the same time as his 50 free state championship, giving Marquette a big early lead. Ben Luke, Russ LaBeau and Colin McCommons only expanded the advantage from there, with the relay winning in 1:39.44.
The closing 400 free relay went to Williams, McCommons, Kilpela and Rotundo in 3:38.42. McCommons was also the final individual winner for Marquette, going 1:56.98 to power away with the 200 freestyle.
Team Scores
Girls:
1. Marquette High School 335
2. Houghton High School 277
3. Rudyard Bulldogs 195
4. Sault Area High School 138
5. Hancock/Calumet/Jeffers Co-op 105
Boys:
1. Marquette High School 331
2. Sault Area High School 306
3. Kingsford High School 181
4. Houghton High School 166
5. Ishpeming-Negaunee 124
