In dramatic fashion, Mercy claims another state swimming championship- Detroit Catholic

YPSILANTI — Farmington Hills Mercy has now won the swimming state championship meet 14 times, but it’s safe to say that none of those past titles produced as many thrills as the Marlins’ latest, which they earned last Saturday at Eastern Michigan University.

Mercy
entered the meet’s final event, the 400 freestyle relay, trailing top-ranked
Grosse Pointe South by four points. But the Marlins’ Campbell Shore, Lyla
Collins, Avery Tack and Ella Hafner won the race by one second over the Blue
Devils, resulting in a 337-335 overall victory.

“We’re
excited. We all worked really hard this year, and I’m so glad that we all came
together today and did what we needed to do,” said Tack, who put Mercy in the
lead on the third leg of the relay. “I think other teams this year really
pushed us and that worked out very, very well for us. I’m super proud of
everyone.”

While
some of Mercy’s past championships were also won by razor-thin margins (two
points over Brighton in 2018, a half-point over Ann Arbor Pioneer the following
season), those weren’t instances in which the Marlins absolutely had to come up
big in the final race.

“We
all knew that it would come down to this, so I think we all just remembered who
we were swimming for, and I think that really just motivated us and helped us
pull through,” Tack said. “The energy was crazy in here and it was super fun.”

Experience
benefitted the Marlins on Saturday. Although the 2024 meet (which produced another
state title) wasn’t as close, it helped that Shore, Tack and Hafner had swam
the event in last year’s finals.

“There
were nerves there, but it wasn’t the negative nervousness,” said Mike Venos, who has now guided Mercy to seven state titles since 2017. “We
made one switch because we had a freshman (Collins) in there, but the other
three girls were there before, so it was like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’”

“I
think it was really good, and I think that having some of the same girls on the
(relay) team was a strong way to finish, because we’d done it before, and we
knew that we could do it again,” said Hafner, who swam the anchor leg. “It was
not just physically; we were ready mentally. We had our adrenaline going and we
were ready to swim fast, because we knew who we are and we were able to finish
strong. We were in a good spot to succeed.”

When
it was all said and done, Mercy finished in 3 minutes, 26.05 seconds — a new
school record — while South was just behind at 3:27.68. Both times were fast
enough for automatic All-American honors.

“Win
or lose, they left it all in the pool, and as a coach, that’s all you could
ever ask for,” Venos said.

“Quite
honestly, I was hoping we’d tie,” he said. “I don’t think anybody deserved to
lose this meet today. I was really hoping for a tie. I thought that would have
been really cool, because those South girls swam lights-out all year, and you
don’t want to get to a meet like this and go home disappointed.”

Both
teams had traded the overall lead throughout the afternoon, buoyed by their
biggest events.

South
won the opening event, the 200 medley relay, as Mercy placed fourth. But the
Marlins came charging back in the next race, the 200 freestyle, with second-,
sixth- and 10th-place finishes from Ella Hafner, Violet Schwartz and
Tessa Glass.

Mercy
enjoyed its largest lead of the afternoon after Hafner and Collins placed
second and fourth in the 500 freestyle, yet South reclaimed the advantage by
winning the 200 freestyle relay and placing three swimmers in the championship
heat of the backstroke, setting the stage for the final showdown.

“It
was just really amazing to see everyone cheering us on from all sides, and just
knowing that we’re swimming for the ‘M’ on our caps. That’s who we are,” Hafner
said. “We had our adrenaline going and we were just cheering for each other as
much as we could, to get the best out of it and to make the memories — not just
the time.”

Venos
said the Marlins absolutely needed every performance they got throughout the
day.

“It
was one of those team efforts again; I don’t know if we could have done it
without the whole team,” he said. “I don’t know if there was one particular
standout. I just think the girls pulled each other up and kept scratching and
clawing.”

“I
think we finished really strong,” Hafner said. “When we came back, we were just
super excited and the way it ended was really amazing.”

Ann
Arbor Greenhills — a cooperative team also including swimmers from Wixom St.
Catherine and Whitmore Lake — finished 10th overall, scoring 77
points.

Dziobak
dominant in Division 3

At
the MHSAA Division 3 state finals held at Holland Aquatic Center, Dearborn
Divine Child’s Ella Dziobak achieved a rare feat by winning the 500 freestyle
for the fourth consecutive year.

The
Purdue-bound senior swam a personal-best 4:56.20 in the race — 14 seconds
ahead of the nearest challenger, Stella Glorio of Bloomfield Hills Marian.

Dziobak
also achieved a career first by winning the 200 freestyle (1:15.10), an event
in which she had finished among the top three in prior years.

In
the Division 3 field, Marian was the runner-up team to East Grand Rapids, which
won a state title for the fourth year in a row. East Grand Rapids scored 373
points to Marian’s 228. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood placed sixth
(134), Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard was 10th (89), Divine Child was
15th (54), Pontiac Notre Dame Prep placed 24th (16) and
Madison Heights Bishop Foley finished 30th (6).