Andover, Stoney Creek, Royal Oak finish 1-2-3 in OAA meet

Royal Oak swimmers "scratched and clawed" their way to finish third, behind Bloomfield Hills Andover and Rochester Stoney Creek, as nine Oakland County schools competed Friday in the Oakland Activities Association 2011 boys swimming championships at .

"The boys scratched and clawed their way up to third place while picking up 76 extra points along the way," Royal Oak swim coach Darrin Millar said. "It was nice to see the surprise on other coaches' faces, because most of them didn’t think we would be in the mix."

After two days of preliminaries, Andover scored 461 points to win the championship Friday, decisively beating Stoney Creek with 415 points. Royal Oak came in third with 296 points, while neighboring Ferndale finished seventh with 91 points. The Royal Oak team was in sixth place going into the championship finals on Friday.

Millar said the boys swam great on Wednesday and Friday. He said they had 98 percent of the best swims on Wednesday and 78 percentof the best times on Friday.

"I really could not of been prouder of them," Millar said. "All the other coaches came up to us and commented on their swims. I told the boys that we did not have a single first-, second- or third-place seed this meet. We do not have that one great kid. We have many hard-working good kids.”

Royal Oak's 200-yard free relay team took first place, sending Lucas Bogan, James Love, V-Tech Fuchs and Jacob Masen to states. Millar was also named Coach of the Year along with the Bloomfield Hills Andover coach Dave Zulkiewski.

The Ravens also had a 200-yard freestyle sixth-place finish by Masen; seventh-place finish by Bogan and fourth-place finish by Fuchs in the 50-yard freestyle; and second-place finish by James Love in the 100-yard butterfly. Masen also took fourth-place in the 500-yard freestyle. And Mitchell Stankiewicz took fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke followed by Fuchs in fifth-place.

The team was cheered on by a strong student section led by the Royal Oak girls swim team.

“We always cheer each other on and support each other,” student Elise Schicker said.

Royal Oak swimmer Kelly Petersen said she understands how the boys feel. “When you’re swimming you get so nervous before you go,” she said.

Ferndale High School student Rachel Dery was happy to see her school's team do its best. “It’s really great to see them at the end of their season,” she said, adding the team had a new coach this year. “They’re all doing really well together.”

Ferndale highlights included swimmer Brandon Hill with a strong showing in the 500-yard freestyle third heat. Other highlights included a seventh-place finish by Thaddeus Closson, Julian Goudy, Brandon Hill and Ryan Campbell in the 200-yard medley relay and another seventh-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Robert Mack, Brian Green, Brandon Hill and Julian Goudy.

In addition to a second-place finish, Stoney Creek won four all-league team awards.

Stoney Creek swimmer Blake Adams said he knew the competition would be close. But, he said, more than just competing is the camaraderie of the night. “It’s a good, competitive friendly atmosphere,” he said.

Highlights of the evening included first-place finisher Eric Heinrich in the 50-yard freestyle and Alex Yu with a third-place in the 100-yard backstroke. Stoney Creek took the last heat of the night in the 400-yard freestyle relay with swimmers Jon Vreede, Alex Yu, Eric Heinrich and Kyle Walsh. Yu, Heinrich, Walsh and Chris Marten also took a first place in the 200-yard medley relay.

Individual results:

Rochester Stoney Creek