The Milan High School boys swimming team entered the season determined to improve on its 17th place finish at the 2009 Division 3 state finals.

The Big Reds accomplished that and more Saturday, falling just short of bringing home some hardware from Eastern Michigan University.

Though East Grand Rapids and Hamilton had a commanding lead heading into Saturday’s competition, Milan still had a realistic shot at placing in the top four and bringing home a team trophy.

The Big Reds were in third place through 10 events, but fell just shy of their goal with 154 points and a sixth place finish. East Grand Rapids edged out Hamilton 237-217 for the title.

More Coverage on MLive.com: This Story & Photo GalleryTeam Results | Individual Results | More Division 3 Stories “Coming in we wanted to be top 10,” said Milan coach Dan Heikka. “We had a great meet, we basically had a six guy team and by that 400 free relay race,” the final race of the day in which Milan finished 12th, “we were just exhausted.”

Milan’s 200-yard medley relay team swam its fastest time of the year in preliminary rounds, finishing in one minute 38.23 seconds.

Tyler DiGesare, Aaron Marken, Tyler Fisher and Dylan Shearer outdid themselves once again in Saturday’s championship round, bringing home a state title in the first event of the day with a time of 1:38.15.

“The first event is so key anyway, to start off the meet like that is really

key,” Heikka said. “We kind of expected that one, but to start off like that is huge.”

It was the first of three all-state performances by Shearer, who was first in the 100 breaststroke and part of the eighth place 200 freestyle relay team along with DiGesare, Tyler Fisher and Mark McRae.

“It’s awesome, everything’s been so good. This season has been great,” said Shearer, a junior. “At the beginning of the year I had no clue, it’s unreal.”

DiGesare, also a junior, picked up three all-state medals, finishing runner-up in the 100 backstroke. Marken was fifth in the 100 breaststroke and Fisher finished fifth in the 100-yard butterfly.

“Everything they did this season, today I couldn’t be prouder. I know those guys gave everything they had,” Heikka said. “We got a couple state championships and a runner up, and a lot of them coming back. I’m not going to complain.

“There are a lot of coaches on this deck walking away a lot more disappointed than me. I’m pretty proud of what we did.”

Though Chelsea brought home no all-state medals, the weekend was very much a success for junior diver Colby Wrathall.

Wrathall entered the weekend seeded 16th based on his regional score. He outscored his seed in the preliminary round, and fell just six points short of all-state distinction with a ninth place finish.

“It would have been better to finish all-state, eighth, but I’m pretty happy,” said Wrathall, who was 27th as a sophomore. “(Next year) I’m going to work a lot harder increase my d-d,” degree of difficulty, “just get better and get on that podium.”

“He had a fantastic day yesterday to put himself in that position,” said Chelsea diving coach Eric Burris. “I’m really looking forward to working with him get to that all-state level…improving on basic dives and adding some degree of difficulty because that’s what you need at this level.”

None of Chelsea’s three relay teams or five individual state qualifiers qualified for Saturday’s scoring rounds, nor did Skyline’s three relay teams or six individual qualifiers.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArborcom. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.