The fans were practically hanging over the balcony seating in raucous cheers as Pioneer High School's Seiji Osawa and Saline's Andy Jensen were in a dead heat during the final 50 yards of the 500-yard freestyle at day two of Saturday's Southeastern Conference Red Division Championships.

When the waves and cheers settled, Osawa's final kick was a hair faster, as he touched the wall at 4 minutes, 44.49 seconds, barely edging out Jensen (4:44.67) in what proved to be the showstopping swim of the SEC Red finals at Skyline High School.

"I knew that he was gonna have a push at the end, and I was gonna have a push at the end, so I had to just get a little bit ahead to make sure he couldn't catch me on the last one," said Osawa, who went on to describe his mindframe during the race. "You kind of zone everything out. It's just you and him. And you just hear a lot of 'Ohhh' (from the fans). It's fun for the last 50 (yards)."

Osawa added a win in the 200 freestyle (1:44.25), again edging out second-place finisher Jensen (1:45.79).

But it was Jensen's Saline squad that finished ahead of Pioneer in the final team standings, racking up 647 points to runner-up Pioneer's 493.

Though Saline was able to win the Class A state championship last year, and earn a share of the SEC Red championship with an undefeated dual meet record, Pioneer edged the Hornets at last year's league championships and has won the championship meet every year since joining the SEC in 2000.

Saline was finally able to get past that final hurdle on Saturday.

Lon Horwedel is a photographer for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at lonhorwedel@annarbor.com. Follow AnnArbor.com photography on Facebook at AnnArbor.com Photo and on Twitter at @AnnArborPhoto.