2007 Year in Review

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Conference Meet in Byron

Underclassmen Shine at Conference

By: Lindsey Smith

Without aquatics teams in any of Morrison’s TRAC-8 conference, the Mustangs travel to Byron for their Northwest Independent Conference meet. There they take on team like Sterling, Byron, U-High, Ottawa, IMSA, Eureka, and Rockford Christian.

The first race swum was the 200-yard medley relay. In the varsity division, Morrison pulled in at fourth place behind freshman Josh Vos (backstroke), sophomore Nick Wiebenga (breaststroke), sophomore Mitchell Story (butterfly), and junior Justin Smith (freestyle). The team touched in at 1:51.73, behind the winning time of 1:39.96 (Byron). In the junior varsity division, the Mustangs moved up a slot to take third. Sophomores Alex Osborn (back), and Luke Barry (breast), and juniors Steven Hess (fly) and Taylor Boyles (free) reached in at 2:03.44, two and a half seconds faster than fourth placed Byron.

Josh dove in for the 200-yard free and let it all out. He led straight from the get-go and pulled even farther ahead with each stroke. After being seeded further back than twelfth place, Josh jumped all the way up to fifth with his 1:58.74, smashing the previous fresh/soph record of teammate Mitchell Story. Justin Smith finished in tenth place in varsity in 2:08.14, giving him about two seconds clearance ahead and behind him.

The only Mustang to race in the 200-yard individual medley is the team’s co-op swimmer, Steven. Pushing to a time of 2:21.92, he fit in seventh place with three seconds breathing room on both sides of him.

Nick and senior Justin Vos raced in the same heat in the varsity 50-yard freestyle. Nick edged out Justin by a time of 24.76 to 25.00. They finished back-to-back in ninth and tenth. Winning the junior varsity division of the 50 was Alex, racing to a 26.19. Luke Barry reached the timing pads 29.73 seconds after he left the blocks.

The best finish by a pair of ‘Stangs all meet came from the 100-yard butterfly. There Mitchell touched in third place with a 56.91, the fastest underclassman by eight seconds. Justin Smith finished in 1:02.44 for sixth place, just half a second ahead of seventh.

The other Justin, Justin Vos, also took sixth place in his event, the 100-yard freestyle, with a clock of 55.46. Justin touched only three hundredths ahead of seventh place. Taylor’s 56.03 landed him two slots below Justin, in eighth.

Mitchell grabbed another bronze in the 500 free. He beat out Byron’s Paul Davis by just over three seconds. All top three spots were claimed by underclassmen. Winning the race was Matt Fletcher, a sophomore from Byron; second place was Cole Rosenbaum, a freshman from U-High. And then there was Mitchell, a sophomore.

From their fourth place in the medley, Morrison slid up one place to claim third in the 200-yard free relay. Justin Smith (25.30) led off the relay, followed by Justin Vos (24.98). Nick (24.21) handled the third leg, while Mitchell (24.16) anchored it to a 1:38.65. Ahead of the Mustangs was U-High, who touched in at 1:37.30.

The quickest of any underclassmen came from Morrison. Josh reached in for a 1:01.19 in the 100 back for fourth place. Steven’s 1:05.27 was enough for sixth place; he snuck in just .12 seconds ahead of seventh. As for the junior varsity division, Alex grabbed fourth in 1:08.33, wedged two seconds between third and fifth.

The 100-yard breaststroke found Nick in tenth place. His 1:10.92 was beaten out by Ottawa’s Austin Rappenport’s 1:10.34 for ninth. Taylor’s 1:18.28 gave him thirteenth, .99 of a second from twelfth. Luke Barry raced to fifth place in junior varsity. His time of 1:22.43 came just .07 seconds shy of fourth.

The final race of the day was the 400-yard free relay. With Justin Vos (56.49) at lead off, Taylor (1:00.76) at second, Steven (56.57) at third, and Josh anchoring with a 52.85, Morrison snatched fourth place with a clock of 3:46.67.

In varsity, Byron (311) won the battle with Sterling (287). U-High (215) held for third, while Morrison landed in fourth (165). Fifth went to IMSA (104), followed by Rockford Christian (95), Ottawa (90), and Eureka (50).

For the junior varsity, Sterling (254) took the top spot over U-High (253) by just one point. Byron (193) came in third, followed by IMSA (131), Morrison (64), Ottawa (54), Rockford Christian (46), and Eureka (3).

Tentatively, the last meet of the high school swimming season for the Morrison boys will be Sectionals at United Township High School on February 17th. Any swimmer that wins a race or swims the qualifying time will head to State the following weekend.

For pictures see Photo Album

by dzuidema
2007-02-08 13:40:29