(Chelsea Update would like to thank Dave Brinklow for the information in this story.)
The Beach Middle School Swimming and Diving Team came home with three new school records last Saturday as they competed in the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (MISCA) Middle School State Invitational.
The meet was held at Holt High School where 55 teams competed for the top 16 places in each event. No team scores are kept.
The girls started their portion of the meet off in great fashion by taking first place in the 200 medley relay and setting the first school record. The relay team of Alexis Nelson, Abby Robbins, Olivia Olk and Fayth Frazier had a time of 1:56.86, which eclipsed the previous record of 1:58.52 set in 2000 by Katrina Moffett, Alise Augustine, Kara Stiles and Kayla Hack.
In the 200 freestyle, Olivia Prodin swam a personal best time of 2:23.98 finishing in 30th place.
Robbins swam the 100 IM with her best time of 1:10.84 for 17th place.
Then in the 50 freestyle, Nelson set the pace with the team’s 2nd school record with her 2nd place time of 25.41. The previous record of 25.62 was set by Kara Stiles in 2001. Frazier finished in 8th place with her personal best time of 26.85.
Melina Almhiemid received her medal for 15th place in the diving event with a score of 140.70.
Next was the 50 butterfly where Olk swam a time of 29.62 for 12th place.
Prodin swam a personal best in the 100 freestyle where her time of 1:03.20 was 22nd place.
In the 200 freestyle relay, the team of Nelson, Frazier, Robbins and Olk were celebrating what was thought to be their 1st place finish and next school record only to find out the heartbreaking news that they had been disqualified for an early take off.
So then it was back to business for the Bulldogs when Abby Robbins dropped an amazing 5 seconds in the 100 breaststroke for a personal best of 1:14.72 and 8th place.
In the last event, the 400 freestyle relay team of Nelson, Frazier, Prodin and Olk battled it out in a back and forth race with host team Holt and ended up in 2nd place with a school record time of 3:55.31. The previous record of 4:01.43 was set in 2000 by Stiles, Liz Rohrkemper, Hack and Moffett.
In the boys portion of the meet, the only top 16 finish came from the 200 freestyle relay team of Niko Fannin, Jaron Iannelli, Deaglan Krause and Zander Hartsuff. Their time of 1:53.54 was a 6 second drop from their seeded time and good enough for 13th place.
The same foursome again had all personal best times in the 400 freestyle relay, dropping 7 seconds from their seeded time with 4:18.49 finishing in 19th place.
Individual events for the boys included Hartsuff in the 100 IM, with a personal best of 1:09.66 in 18th place. Fannin was 26th in the event with a best time of 1:11.83.
Iannelli competed in the 100 freestyle with his personal best of 1:01.68 finishing 28th.
Fannin and Hartsuff both swam the 100 breaststroke where Fannin’s 1:20.20 was 25th and Hartsuff was 27th with a best time of 1:21.32.
