Swimmers, divers have fun and learn basics at WISC championship meet
“I don’t let them take this too seriously,” said Brad Huttenga, the diving coach for Racquet Club, which won the diving competition with 265 points. Huron Valley Swim Club came in second with 240 points and first in the swimming portion to win its 35th straight WISC title.
“For us, we have kids who compete, but we’re here to have fun,” Huttenga added. “This is just good competition and good times. Maybe learn some mechanics along the way, but have a good time.”
For emphasis, he pointed over to Anna Demonte, a Huron High School sophomore, who was getting ready to dive - an event in which she rarely participates. “She’s one of the fastest swimmers in the state right now,” Huttenga said, “but she’s just diving for us to score some points for the club and have fun.”
Swimmers and divers also use WISC as a chance to prepare, or stay in shape, for high school swimming and diving. Molly Gelb, who will be a freshman this year at Huron, finished first in the girls 13-14 diving competition, which she hopes will set the tone for a strong start to her high school career.
“(WISC is) especially nice as a start-up before high school,” she said. “All summer, I have something to work for, and then I have high school coming up. I want to try to make it to the state meet this year.”
Since area middle schools don’t have swim teams, WISC serves as a primary feeder for local high schools, which annually perform well at the state championship meets. Francine Hume, who has coordinated the swimming results for decades, said 1,658 swimmers competed in a total of 4,488 events.
“It gives kids more of an opportunity to do this for high school,” said Mandy Eby, the diving coach for Ann Arbor Country Club, as well as a coach for Pioneer High School. “The truth is, our high school programs wouldn’t be nearly what they are without WISC.”
For many children, WISC is their introduction to organized swimming and diving.
“This is a good stepping stone for kids to choose swimming as a year-round sport,” said Maureen Isaac, the WISC swim meet director and swimming coach for Skyline High School. “A lot of them have never seen what’s out there. And it’s really a fun environment even if they’re not competitive.”
Update: More WISC results (11-12) can be found at the Huron Valley Swim Club site.
Comments
Spkcbclaire
Sat, Jul 25, 2009 : 2:53 p.m.
Could you please post the complete results. Thursday's swimming results is not listed. The entire eleven, twelve age group is missing.
swmprnt13
Sat, Jul 25, 2009 : 7:37 a.m.
Correction to your story. Outside of Ann Arbor most middle schools DO have competitive middle school swim programs that compete under MISCA guidelines. In fact Saline boys won every event at the Middle School State meet last year. There are also other leagues that compete through out the year. SMSL, MTSL, and the multiple USA swim programs that run through out the year. These are the true feeder programs to the high school swim programs. Swimmers in these programs most often swim year around putting in hundreds of thousands of yards and yet mostly go unrecognized. WISC is a great summer swim league that maybe 20-25% of the swimmers move onto swimming competitively and into high school. Congratulation WISC swimmers, the competitive swimmers are still in the pools trainiing this week awaiting the Michigan USA State swim meet to be held 7/13-8/2 at EMU.
jyoung
Sat, Jul 25, 2009 : 6:16 a.m.
This is our children's 6th year swimming at championships and Skyline was without a doubt the worst venue at which it has ever been held. The whole point of having it inside is to remove the rain issue; however, the teams were forbidden to set up inside regardless of the pouring rain and threat of thunderstorms. On Wednesday, at the 8 and under event which has the largest number of participants, many teams had to set up tents on the lawns across from the entrance. These teams were left scrambling to move midway through the event because the sprinklers came on, soaking all of their things. Then, some teams were told not to set up on the concrete because their drinks could stain it! As a team parent and meet volunteer, I felt completely unwelcome. I encourage WISC to write a formal letter of complaint to Skyline and never even consider holding the events there again.
Angela Smith
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 3:02 p.m.
Congratulations to all of those swimmers and divers. What a well organized and exciting event this was.
Paula Gardner
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 12:22 p.m.
I spent three days at the WISC championships - Skyline High School was a wonderful host for this event!
taraheartAA
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 11:30 a.m.
Great photos!