By Margaret Baker
It was a wild, raucous time at the Huron Ratatorium on Friday and Saturday, February 23 and 24th, as the River Rats hosted the SEC RED Swim/Dive Championships. Pioneer captured 1st place (550.5), just edging out 2nd place Saline 2nd (521.5). Skyline was 3rd (358), Dexter 4th (330), Huron 5th (233), Lincoln, 6th (140), Monroe 7th (95), and Temperance/Bedford, 8th (86).
Huron had plenty to be proud of as finals rolled around on Saturday. The opening 200 Medley relay (Senior Franek Orlowski, sophomore Camp Streeter, and senior/captains Kyle Smith and John Gao) touched in 1:41.09, landing 5th and pocketing the D1 state cut. Huron’s “B” (sophomore Evan Ngo, freshman Christian Grudzinski, sophomore Ethan Yung, and senior/basketball captain Graham Baker) picked up 11th place points with their 1.44.32 finish. Representing Huron in the “C” heat were the “C” squad (senior and National Anthem singer, Alex Harris, senior Dean Molnar, junior Nathan Barnett, and senior Jack Humphries), finishing 19th in exhibition (2:00.05), and “D” (senior Omar Abduhak, and freshmen Nicholas Harding , Filip Orlowski, and Toli Nesvizhskiy), who landed 22nd (2:20.31).
Senior/captain Kal Bunnell took home state cuts in both the 200 Free (1:48.67), finishing 6th, and the 500 Free (4:59.97), where he finished 7th. His sophomore brother, Luke, swam for Huron in the “C” final of the 200, landing 18th (1:54.53), dropping an additional four seconds from his terrific prelim swim on Friday, and 14th in the 500 (5:07.98), an event in which he dropped close to 20 seconds over the weekend. Barnett finished 25th on Friday in that distance event (5:50.95), just out of range for the finals.
Four Rats swam in the 200 IM, Gao touching in 6th (2:01.71), with his state cut, and Streeter (2:03.38), 9th, shedding three seconds from Prelims and earning his cut. Grudzinski was 14th (2:12.48), and Ngo, 15th (2:15.32). Baker, fresh from participation in Huron’s win over River Rouge in basketball Friday night, moved from 12th to 9th in the 50 free (22.96), and was joined in the “B” heat by Yung, 15th (23.63). Humphries swam for 22nd in the consolation heat (24.42).
On the diving board, junior James Hutmacher scored 245.15, ending in 14th. Molnar dove on Friday, finishing 18th (144.60), just out of range to advance.
Yung and Smith took 14th (55.68) and 16th (57.47) in the 100 Fly, and junior Barnett finished 26th on Friday (1:05:76), just shy of earning a spot for Saturday’s finals. In the 100 Free, Humphries finished 16th (52.29), with senior Jeffery Wang (53.87) and Baker (54.37), 20th and 22nd, respectively.
In the super splashy 200 Free relay, Huron finished a strong 5th (1:30.77), with Baker, Gao, Franek Orlowski and K. Bunnell taking home the cut. River Rats “B” (Wang, Humphries, Molnar, and L. Bunnell) was a respectable 13th (1:39.67).
Ngo was the sole Rat in finals for the 100 back, ending 12th (59.42), with Harris (1:07.30) and Abdulhak (1:08.96), rounding out the event at 23rd and 24th, and in the 100 Breast, standout Streeter earned his second cut of the weekend with a 6th place finish (1:02.73), with Grudzinski (1:05.29) in 9th and Smith (1:05.69), in 11th.
Finally, in the 400 free relay, Huron had their strongest relay showing with a 4th place finish featuring K. Bunnell, Franek Orlowski, Gao, and Streeter (3:20.96), rounding out their relay cuts and assuring a healthy State team for the March 8-9 contest at Oakland University. Huron’s “B” (Yung/ Ngo, Grudzinski, and Smith) were 13th (3:32.15). The “C” (L. Bunnell, Barnett, senior Victor Heskia and Wang) touched in exhibition in 20th (3:47.50).
Coaches Eric and Andrea Stanczyk would like to congratulate the Rats who selected for the State team: Baker, K. Bunnell, Gao, Grudzinski, Harris, Humphries, Franek Orlowski, Smith, Streeter, and Yung. Additionally, Hutmacher will go on to dive at Regionals on March 2nd at Novi High School. Congratulations Huron athletes on another great aquatic season!
