Dexter Swims to 16th-Place Finish at Division 2 State Meet

The girls’ swimming and diving team placed 16^th with 36 points at the Division 2 state meet at the Holland Aquatic Center on Nov. 19.

Capturing the Division 2 state championship was Holland with 419 points. Earning a spot as state runner-up was Birmingham Seaholm with 288 points, while Birmingham Groves was third with 216 points, Grosse Pointe South fourth with 215 points and Farmington Hills Harrison fifth with 161 points.

Dreadnaught coach Cory Bergen said he was pleased with his young squad’s performance at the state meet.

“We graduated most of our state scorers over the past two years, so I knew we would have a largely different group this year,” he said. “The only girls who had ever scored individual points at state before (Bridget Morgan and Katie Callaghan) did even better by setting lifetime bests.

"All the newcomers either swam their lifetime bests here or to get here and gained valuable experience. Hopefully, they have a better understanding now of what it takes to compete at this level and will dedicate themselves to the task.”

In the 200 medley relay, the Dreadnaught group of junior Callie Swan, freshman Sarah Daugherty, senior Melissa Vesey and senior Murphy Hansen finished 16^th in the state with a time of 1:56.37.

In the 200 freestyle, junior Bridget Morgan placed ninth in a lifetime best 1:56.86, while freshman Allison Franz was 25^th in 1:59.78 for Dexter. Dreadnaught freshman Reagan Maisch touched 26^th in 2:18.17 in the 200 individual medley, while sophomore Abby Mesaros was 33^rd in 2:19.78 for Dexter.

In the 1-meter diving competition, Dreadnaught Katie Callaghan finished 13^th with a lifetime best 313.25 points.

In the 100 butterfly, Vesey ended up 23^rd with a clocking of 1:02.22.

Franz placed 24^th in the state in the 100 freestyle with a time of 55.57.

Morgan was ninth in the 500 freestyle in a lifetime best 5:08.56, while sophomore Morgan Cole was 31^st in 5:28.33 for Dexter.

With her two top 10 state finishes in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, Bergen said he was impressed with Morgan’s effort against the state’s best Division 2 swimmers.

“I'm so happy for Bridget and all she accomplished this weekend,” Bergen said. “She is a committed athlete who is used to racing at big meets. She swam very well to come back in both her individual events on Saturday and then really went after it in both the 200 and 500 freestyles in the consolation finals.

"We talked about taking control of the races early and then just really racing. The finals are about moving up as much as possible and beating people. Nobody did that better on Saturday than Bridget. She won both her races, including moving up from 16^th to ninth in the 200 freestyle. You don't see that very often in championship meets, but I knew she had that race in her"

"She dug deep and knocked three seconds off of her previous personal best heading into the meet. She also provided great relay legs on both of our freestyle relays each day. She was pretty tired by the end of the meet on Saturday, but her smile said it all," he said.

In the 200 freestyle relay, the Dreadnaught foursome of Daugherty, Franz, Hansen and Morgan finished 14^th in 1:42.85.

Swan ended up 28^th in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.45, while Daugherty was 21^st in the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.21 and Mesaros 29^th in 1:12.31 for Dexter.

Morgan, Maisch, Daugherty and Franz combined to place 14^th in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:45.34.

Bergen said the 2011 season was a success for the Dreadnaughts.

“I told the girls that we want to get all that we can each season and each big meet,” he said. “We won a few more meets than I expected coming into the year, swam great in winning our 14^th Southeastern Conference championship in a row, got more people to the state meet than predicted coming into the year and swam great at state, scoring more points than expected. I'm pretty happy with all that we got this year. I'm very proud of the efforts of my team right now."