The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Big Reds see big drops vs. Dundee
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 7, 2008
One of the Milan boys' swim team's two dual meets last week was a 45-point loss. The other was a 21-point win.
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But head coach Dan Heikka said that the Big Reds' 114-69 defeat to Saline Jan. 29 and the 103-82 victory over Dundee last Friday, nonetheless, had something big in common. Both saw Milan put together some of their fastest swims of the season.
"We swam really well," Heikka said. "Probably better against Dundee, not just because we won the meet, but time-wise. These are the two schools who are closest to us, so they were big meets for us."
Both meets came at home for the Big Reds, who welcomed the Vikings with a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard freestyle, the night's second event, and were in control from there. Zach Olson swam a lifetime best 1:57.72 for first, followed by Justin Beaudrie in second and Mark Hokenson in third.
Milan posted a number of lifetime bests on the night. Kray Cornelison earned one in his leg of the second-place 200 medley "A" relay alongside Beaudrie, Tim Hochradel and Tyler Fisher, while Tyler DiGesare and Dylan Shearer each did the same in their legs for the fourth-place "B" relay.
Shearer, a freshman, posted a lifetime best in all four races he swam, including the 500 freestyle, where his 5:46.29 was second only to Olson's 5:17.80 and one spot ahead of Hokenson's personal-best 6:09.02. Matt Smith's absence through illness landed senior John Nuckels on the 200 freestyle "A" relay with Cornelison, Ian Pendleton and Hochradel, who responded with his personal-best leg to help the team finish first in 1:35.83.
Nuckels also took fourth in the 200 individual medley won by Hochradel in a season-best 2:11.72.
The Big Reds would win five other events as well, with Pendleton taking the 50 freestyle and Cornelison in third; Beaudrie winning the 100 freestyle in 53.25 and Cornelison less than a second behind in a season-best 53.91 despite a lingering illness; Pendleton winning a tense 100 butterfly in 58.83, with freshman Fisher swimming a lifetime-best 1:00.69 for third; and Nuckels 1:06.04 for fourth; Olson, Fisher, Beaudrie and Pendleton taking the 400 freestyle relay in 3:40.19; and sophomore Cody Baran winning diving by 23 points with a score of 200 even.
Other notable swims included Fisher and DiGesare finishing third and fourth and within .01 of each other in the 100 backstroke; Hochradel finishing second, Shearer fourth and Jeremy Robison with a lifetime-best 1:22.66 in the 100 breaststroke; Shearer going under a minute for the first time in his leg for the fourth-place "B" relay in the 400 freestyle; and personal-best times for Trevor Pratt (33.42), Myles Martin (33.81) and Steven Howell (35.64) in the 50 freestyle; Westen Schroeder (1:09.00) and Howell (1:18.00) in the 100 freestyle; and Joe Martin (28.66) in his leg of the 200 freestyle relay.
As strong top-to-bottom as Milan's performance against Dundee was, it didn't feature any new state cuts. But that wasn't the case against Saline as Hochradel, a junior, pushed past the Division 3 qualifying mark in both the 200 IM with a second-place time of 2:12.69 and the 500 freestyle with a first-place time of 5:14.65.
"This allows him to focus on these two events for the next few weeks," a happy Heikka said of Hochradel's cuts. "Tim's traditionally swam pretty well during the season but then had big drops at the end of the year. Now he'll be able to train the next couple of weeks and really focus on the end of the season."
Heikka said that with the annual Michigan Inter-scholastic Swim Coaches Association meet on Saturday at Eastern Michigan, it may be time for other members of the Big Reds to begin seeing similar drops and cuts as well.
"It's the part of the year where we have to start thinking about state, about dropping times and making our cuts," Heikka said. "The MISCA meet is always a key for us. It's traditionally where we've gotten our seed times.
"Right now, though, we like where we're at. We're excited about what's going to happen."
Milan's other victory against the Hornets came in the 100 freestyle, where Pendleton prevailed with a time of 50.51.
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be reached at 429-7380 or jhinnen@heritage.com.
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