YPSILANTI — Farmington Hills Mercy has now won the swimming state championship meet 14 times, but it’s safe to say that none of those past titles produced as many thrills as the Marlins’ latest, which they earned last Saturday at Eastern Michigan University.
Mercy entered the meet’s final event, the 400 freestyle relay, trailing top-ranked Grosse Pointe South by four points. But the Marlins’ Campbell Shore, Lyla Collins, Avery Tack and Ella Hafner won the race by one second over the Blue Devils, resulting in a 337-335 overall victory.
“We’re excited. We all worked really hard this year, and I’m so glad that we all came together today and did what we needed to do,” said Tack, who put Mercy in the lead on the third leg of the relay. “I think other teams this year really pushed us and that worked out very, very well for us. I’m super proud of everyone.”
While some of Mercy’s past championships were also won by razor-thin margins (two points over Brighton in 2018, a half-point over Ann Arbor Pioneer the following season), those weren’t instances in which the Marlins absolutely had to come up big in the final race.
"We all knew that it would come down to this, so I think we all just remembered who we were swimming for, and I think that really just motivated us and helped us pull through,” Tack said. “The energy was crazy in here and it was super fun.”
Experience benefitted the Marlins on Saturday. Although the 2024 meet (which produced another state title) wasn’t as close, it helped that Shore, Tack and Hafner had swam the event in last year’s finals.
“There were nerves there, but it wasn’t the negative nervousness,” said Mike Venos, who has now guided Mercy to seven state titles since 2017. “We made one switch because we had a freshman (Collins) in there, but the other three girls were there before, so it was like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’”
“I think it was really good, and I think that having some of the same girls on the (relay) team was a strong way to finish, because we’d done it before, and we knew that we could do it again,” said Hafner, who swam the anchor leg. “It was not just physically; we were ready mentally. We had our adrenaline going and we were ready to swim fast, because we knew who we are and we were able to finish strong. We were in a good spot to succeed.”
When it was all said and done, Mercy finished in 3 minutes, 26.05 seconds — a new school record — while South was just behind at 3:27.68. Both times were fast enough for automatic All-American honors.
“Win or lose, they left it all in the pool, and as a coach, that’s all you could ever ask for,” Venos said.
“Quite honestly, I was hoping we’d tie,” he said. “I don’t think anybody deserved to lose this meet today. I was really hoping for a tie. I thought that would have been really cool, because those South girls swam lights-out all year, and you don’t want to get to a meet like this and go home disappointed.”
Both teams had traded the overall lead throughout the afternoon, buoyed by their biggest events.
South won the opening event, the 200 medley relay, as Mercy placed fourth. But the Marlins came charging back in the next race, the 200 freestyle, with second-, sixth- and 10th-place finishes from Ella Hafner, Violet Schwartz and Tessa Glass.
Mercy enjoyed its largest lead of the afternoon after Hafner and Collins placed second and fourth in the 500 freestyle, yet South reclaimed the advantage by winning the 200 freestyle relay and placing three swimmers in the championship heat of the backstroke, setting the stage for the final showdown.
“It was just really amazing to see everyone cheering us on from all sides, and just knowing that we’re swimming for the ‘M’ on our caps. That’s who we are,” Hafner said. “We had our adrenaline going and we were just cheering for each other as much as we could, to get the best out of it and to make the memories — not just the time.”
Venos said the Marlins absolutely needed every performance they got throughout the day.
“It was one of those team efforts again; I don’t know if we could have done it without the whole team,” he said. “I don’t know if there was one particular standout. I just think the girls pulled each other up and kept scratching and clawing.”
“I think we finished really strong,” Hafner said. “When we came back, we were just super excited and the way it ended was really amazing.”
Ann Arbor Greenhills — a cooperative team also including swimmers from Wixom St. Catherine and Whitmore Lake — finished 10th overall, scoring 77 points.
Dziobak dominant in Division 3
At the MHSAA Division 3 state finals held at Holland Aquatic Center, Dearborn Divine Child’s Ella Dziobak achieved a rare feat by winning the 500 freestyle for the fourth consecutive year.
The Purdue-bound senior swam a personal-best 4:56.20 in the race — 14 seconds ahead of the nearest challenger, Stella Glorio of Bloomfield Hills Marian.
Dziobak also achieved a career first by winning the 200 freestyle (1:15.10), an event in which she had finished among the top three in prior years.
In the Division 3 field, Marian was the runner-up team to East Grand Rapids, which won a state title for the fourth year in a row. East Grand Rapids scored 373 points to Marian’s 228. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood placed sixth (134), Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard was 10th (89), Divine Child was 15th (54), Pontiac Notre Dame Prep placed 24th (16) and Madison Heights Bishop Foley finished 30th (6).
