Hornets Make A Splash in State Meet Preliminaries

If they can duplicate Friday’s success on Saturday, the Saline Hornets should be crowed state champs in boys’ swimming and diving.

The defending state champs were the class of the pool in the MHSAA Division 1 Finals preliminaries held Friday at Oakland University, winning first place in eight of 12 events. The finals begin at noon Saturday.

The Hornets won all three relay events and David Boland and Adam Whitener each won two events while Mike Fisher picked up a win.

Boland set a Division 1 state meet record in the 200-individual medley, finishing in 1:50.88. Josh Ehrman placed third while Mike Fisher finished fifth. Boland also won the 100-meter butterfly in 49.43. James Fisher was second in 51.26. Whitener captured the 200-meter freestyle event in 1:40.22. Also qualifying for the event were James Fisher (4^th, 1:42.62), Brad Frost (7^th, 1:43.2) and Matt Stevens (16^th, 1:46.06). Whitener's second victory was in the 100-meter freestyle, which he completed in 45.77. Andrew Krieber (7^th, 47.83), and Brad Frost (9^th, 47.91) also qualified for Saturday’s finals.

Mike Fisher won the 100-meter breaststroke, completing the race in 56.91. Andy Jensen (2^nd, 58.04) and Ehrman (4^th 58.11) also qualified for the final meet.

Saline’s 400-meter relay team of Boland, Brad Frost, James Fisher and Whitener set a Division 1 meet record to win the event. The Hornets completed the race in 3:06.33.

Whitener, James Fisher, Frost and Matt Stevens won the 200-meter freestyle relay race in 1:40.22. The Saline team of Ehrman, Mike Fisher, Boland and Krieber won the 200-meter medley relay race.

In the 500-meter freestyle race, Andy Jensen finished second in 4:38.70. Also qualifying for Saturday’s race was Stevens, who finished in 4:49.71.

Ethan Johnson placed 13^th in diving to move on to Saturday’s finals.