(Chelsea Update would like to thank Dave Brinklow for the information and some of the photos in this story.)
Mitchell Brown, a 7th grader at Beach Middle School brought home the gold medal in the diving event at the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coach’s Association (MISCA) Middle School State Championships Invitational held at Holt High School this past weekend.
His score of 219.85 out-paced the competition by more than over 40 points.
In the swimming events, Brown swam the breaststroke leg of the 200 medley relay, joined by Joel Burke, Stephen Levine and Beck Elandt, where they dropped an incredible 6 seconds to place 10th with their time of 2:04.85.
Brown swam the 50 butterfly with a personal best time of 28.67 placing 12th.
In the 200 freestyle relay, the same foursome combined for 6th place, dropping another 6 seconds for a time of 1:49.58.
Levine was 26th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:12.61.
In the 400 freestyle relay, Elandt, Bram Hartsuff, Levine and Burke dropped 17 seconds for a time of 4:14.49 which was 11th place.
Coach Dave Brinklow was amazed by the boy’s performances. “In a sport where hundredths of a second can decide races, it was incredible that these guys had such huge time drops,” he said, adding, “Six seconds for the 200 yard races and then 17 for the 400 yard race was truly amazing!”
For the girls, 8th grade Co-Captain Riley Monahan competed in the 200 and 100 freestyle events. Her personal best time of 2:06.45 in the 200 was 7th place and another personal best of 59.48 in the 100 was 16th place.
Monahan swam the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay with Trilian Krug, Co-Captain Amelia Christie, and Caroline Knight where their time of 2:14.64 was 19th.
In the 200 freestyle relay it was Krug, Knight, Jenna Ouellette and Christie droping 3 seconds to finish at 1:58.89 and in 14th place.
Monahan anchored the 400 freestyle relay with Krug, Ouellette, and Christie dropping 5 seconds to finish 10th place with a time of 4:20.52.
