Chippewas in good scoring position after Coastal Swim Conference preliminaries


Manistee hits four more D3 state marks

MANISTEE — There wasn’t a point to be scored in the preliminary round of the Coastal Swim Conference championships, but Manistee accomplished plenty Friday night at the Paine Aquatic Center.

The Chippewas put themselves in promising scoring position for today’s final heats, and set four more Division 3 state qualifying marks in the process.

Syriah Dobis (200-yard free style), Jessica Gustad (50-yard freestyle), Kiara Bromley (100-yard butterfly) and Allie Zimmerman (500-yard freestyle) each joined Manistee’s growling list of state times this season.

“It was a season-long goal, so I was so happy to finally reach it. It means a lot,” Gustad said of her second-place finish in the 50 in the time of 25.54. “It just felt right, and it’s a great meet to get it in. The competition plays a big part of it.”

Manistee, which is hosting its first girls conference championships, won seven of the 11 swimming events Friday for No. 1 seeds in today’s final round. A top-eight individual finish in each event make up today’s scheduled championship heats for points while the next eight (ninth through 16th) will swim in a consolation heat, also for points.

The Chippewas, who will swim in the scored heats for all three relay events today, had 21 swimmers in the top eight Friday, individually, and 12 more in the top 16. Spring Lake had 23 qualify for the championship heats for the largest representation in the five-team field.

“Our kids swam well,” said Manistee coach Corey Van Fleet, whose team already clinched a share of the conference title with an undefeated dual meet schedule. “The question will be whether or not we have enough qualifiers to win the meet.
 

Manistee’s Allie Zimmerman swims to a state finals qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle during the Coastal Swim Conference preliminaries on Friday. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)

Manistee’s Allie Zimmerman swims to a state finals qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle during the Coastal Swim Conference preliminaries on Friday. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)

“I won’t know that until I sit and look at it awhile,” he added. “I’ll look at it late tonight, and figure out what we’ll have to do to win the meet (today).

“I think there’s some events we can still move up a little bit in.”

Manistee came into the weekend as returning conference champions, after winning the meet for the first time in program history last season.

“We’re off to a really good start,” Gustad said, “so we’re just hoping to improve on it (today).”

Manistee won the 200-yard medley (Valerie Urban, Maddy Applegarth, Kiara Bromley and Gustad) and 200-yard freestyle (Dobis, Gustad, Sara Wehrmeister and Anna Kutschke) relays while Dobis won the 200 free and 100-yard butterfly, Kutschke the 50 and 100 free, and Zimmerman the 500.

Dobis’s 2:04.27 in the 200 was the junior’s second state mark of the season after qualifying in the butterfly earlier, while Zimmerman met the mark in the 500 in 5:43.74. Bromley, an Onekama freshman swimming for Manistee, placed third in the butterfly, but qualified for the state finals in the time of 1:05.46.

 

   
     

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