On Senior Night at the Okemos pool, it was only fitting that the seniors led the way.  In all likelihood this year's group of seniors will go down as the single best class ever to pass through the tradition rich program.  After the honorary ceremonies the girls went to work on trying to erase a couple long standing pool relay records.  The 200 medley team of Lauren Dudley, Madison Batchelor, Kylie Holden and Amelia Marsh beat their winning league time from last season but fell just a bit short in their bid for the pool record.  Similarly, Lydia Roth along with Amelia, Madison and Lauren all swam solid legs but were a mere .7 off the 200 free relay record.  After the meet, Coach Saucedo stated:  "While I would have loved to see the girls break these 2 records, I was pleased with their effort and since they have not yet started their taper I would actually have been worried if they swam much faster than they did tonight at this point in their training cycle."

 

A quick antecdote--3 years ago when this group were freshmen, former coach Ron Marsh showcased that year's fine senior class in their final home meet.  As an afterthought he threw the then 4 freshmen--Mariya Smith, Amelia, Lydia and Lauren together in a different lane.  Unfortunately for the then seniors, the freshmen group won the event and the crowd just sort of stood around with their mouths open not quite knowing how to react.  The same 4 girls tonight as senior captains ended their home careers as they started with a big victory in their last competitive swim at their home pool!  Not to be outdone, senior captain and All-American Carolyn Wallace beat her East Lansing competion in the diving by over 90 points with her score of 254.95.  Way to go Seniors!

 

In the final prep before Leagues Okemos recorded a number of other victories including:

 

200 Free--Andrea Dantus

200 IM--Laura Kruger

50 Free--Mariya Smith

100 Fly--Amelia Marsh

100 Free--Laura Kruger

500 Free--Sally Yan

100 Back--Madison Batchelor

100 Breast--Lauren Dudley

 

Besides winning every event, the team showed it depth by going 1,2,3 in the 200, IM, Diving, fly, and 400 FR and going 1,2 in the 50, 100, and backstroke.  Mariya Smith and Carly Schaefer win swimmer and diver of the meet.  Mariya for her victory in the 50 and strong lead-off on the winning 400 Free Relay and Carly for finally putting 6 solid dives together to achieve her highest score of the year by far with a 212.30.  Coach Wagner is working his usual magic with the divers at just the right time of year.  Carolyn, Jenna and Carly have all now qualified to compete in Diving regionals.  We have not been able to score every entry at the League Meet in years past.  I know the Okemos coaches would love to do so at this year's meet.  It will be very difficult to do with some very tough competition expected from the other CAAC Blue schools but it would be exciting if it were to happen.   The next few weeks should be a lot of fun.