Clawson Swim Team Takes Positive Step to End Season

Improvement is what the swim team was looking for this season and that’s what the Trojans accomplished.

They earned a sixth-place finish in a tough seven-team Macomb Area Conference Silver Division meet to end the season.

Coach Joe Turner knew the odds were stacked against his team, but his squad's effort capped the improvement it had shown all season.

"We had four kids score all those points," Turner said. "Elliot (Maksout) and Emily (Hirt) both medaled in both of their individual events."

Nikita Ortwein and Talia Parker did not advance beyond Friday night's preliminary events.

"They (Ortwein and Parker) were impressive the night before and went in there and swam their hearts out," Turner said.

Maksout, the senior captain, finished fourth in the mixed 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2 minutes, 02.55 seconds.

The six-member Clawson swim team competed with the other Silver Division schools at the championship meet Friday and Saturday at Warren Mott High School.

Center Line High won the overall title with 351 points, and the second-place finisher, Warren Mott High, scored 215.50. Lakeview High was third with 207.50 points, East Detroit was fourth, Warren Fitzgerald placed fifth, Clawson sixth (118) and Sterling Heights was seventh with 39 points.

“This Silver Division championship meet is the final opportunity for swimmers to qualify for the Michigan high school state swim meet in Divisions 1, 2 and 3,” Turner said.

In the mixed 200-yard medley relay, Clawson placed fourth with a time of 2:02.84. The combo of Jacob Pyscora, Hirt, Maksout and David Zobol finished behind Center Line (1:54:08), Warren Mott (2:00.08) and Lakeview (1:55.24).

The Clawson team and individual efforts won praise from competing coaches.

“Their breaststroker did really well,” Warren Mott swim coach Stephanie Stanley said.

Center Line swim coach Charlie Roddis noted Maksout’s performances.

“Elliot had a good meet,” Roddis said. “He dropped a lot of time the first day, compared to his seed time, and finished really high in both of his events.”

Maksout’s best race was the mixed 100-yard butterfly, in which he finished second, with a time of 1:02:48, behind East Detroit’s Brett Schultz’s 59:08. Zobol also competed in the event and placed eighth with a time of 1:15:21. Ortwein placed 17th in the preliminary of the event with a 1:46.87 time.

In the mixed 500-yard freestyle, Clawson came in seventh with a time of 5:52.22 from Pyscora. He also finished fifth in the mixed 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:12.31, while teammate Zobol was two seconds behind and in seventh with a time of 1:14.62.

“Zobol did a nice job in his two events,” Roddis said.

Hirt, a junior, placed fifth in the mixed 100-yard breaststroke at 1:17.12. In the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Clawson team of Maksout, Pyscora, Zobol and Hirt finished fifth with a time of 4:10.43.

“Hirt, if she’s swimming during the girls season, should be making it to state,” Roddis said. “Even to swim with all the boys and make top sixes is a good accomplishment.”

Stanley chimed in on Hirt’s impressive performances against the opposite gender. “Their girls are beating a bunch of the boys,” she said. “I told my boys to make sure and not let her beat them, but guess what, she beat my freshman.”

Turner deemed the season a success with its "high points and down points of competing with only six kids."

"We were in a lot of meets this year that we had a chance of pulling them out if we could have had more rest for the kids," Turner said. "But at the end of the season, it all came together."

The team's success "is awesome for the team and awesome for the school," he added. "To have them do so well at the end of the season and bring home some medals, they all placed higher than they thought they would."

The team is losing only Maksout next year, and Turner hopes that four to six middle school swim team members will move up to varsity.

"Hopefully, our success this season will push more students to come in and enjoy the team and enjoy the ride the team goes through and reap the reward at the end of the season," Turner said.