Brandon’s varsity boys swimming team wrapped up its second season with a strong sign of significant progress by the program.
At the Flint Metro League meet Feb. 24-25 at Oxford, the Blackhawks finished third with 428 points, 45 points behind second-place Fenton (473). Holly won the meet with a team score of 666, while Clio finished well behind Brandon in fourth place with 134 points. The combined Lapeer East-West teams finished fifth with 131 points.
The Bronchos also clinched the overall league championship, having gone 4-0 in league dual meet this action. Brandon and Fenton wound up tied for second place in the league, even though the Blackhawks had a 3-1 league dual meet record and the Tigers a 2-2 league mark.
The Blackhawks captured three first-place finishes at the league meet, one in relay action and two in individual events. Brandon’s 200 yard medley relay team of Tyler Walls, Tyson DeLandsheer, Brad MacIntyre and Josh Collier won that event with a time of 1:50.34, just missing the cut to qualify for the Division 2 state meet (the qualifying time is 1:48.19).
In individual action, Walls won the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.64, while DeLandsheer won the 100 yard breaststroke in 1:09.07.
Brandon’s other relay teams also did well in the league meet. The 400 yard freestyle relay team of Tyler Cole, Clayton Carpenter, Collier and MacIntyre finished second with a time of 3:38.08, while the 200 yard freestyle team of Carpenter, Cole, Thomas Strates and Ryan McCabe placed third with a time of 1:44.98.
The Blackhawks also notched a couple of fourth-place finishes, as DeLandsheer clocked in at 2:25.48 in the 200 yard individual medley, while Kyle Larner finished in 1:14.28 in the 100 yard breaststroke.
Other Brandon swimmers finishing in the top eight in their respective events were: Carpenter in the 200 yard freestyle (fifth, 2:10.36) and the 100 yard freestyle (seventh, 56.95), MacIntyre in the 50 yard freestyle (fifth, 24.65) and the 100 yard butterfly (eighth, 1:06.54), Collier in the 100 yard freestyle (fifth, 56.57) and the 50 yard freestyle (sixth, 24.78), John Voyer in the 500 yard freestyle (fifth, 6:01.43) and the 200 yard freestyle (eighth, 2:12.58), Aaron Hussong in the100 yard backstroke (fifth, 1:14.32), Billy Dixon in the 100 yard backstroke (sixth, 1:16.01), Dillon Richards in one-meter diving (sixth, 238.1), Joshua Dolecki in the 100 yard backstroke (seventh, 1;16.94), and David Donnay in one-meter diving (eighth, 218.65).