A big football game wasn’t the only Clarkston/Lake Orion battle last week, as the two girls swim squads hooked up for a rivalry meet of their own last Thursday at LOHS.
The Wolves pulled away in the second half of the meet to earn a 102-84 victory.
‘Some of our swimmers that swam extremely fast (at the county meet) duplicated their times and got better,? Lake Orion Coach Darin Abbasse said. ‘But when it really counted, Clarkston has a solid team and they stepped up.?
On his team, Abbasse singled out the efforts of Chrissie Forrest, who finished right behind teammate Emily Loerch in the 200-free and dominated the field in the 500-free (her time of 5:26.76 won by nearly nine seconds).
Dragon diver Jenna Dorey, meanwhile, set a school record in a six-dive meet with a score of 223.9.
In the end, however, Clarkston’s sweep of the relays was too much for LO to overcome, as the Dragons fell to 6-4 overall in dual meets and 4-2 in OAA II action.
Still, the team is the defending league champion and with a league-wide meet coming up at the end of the month, Abbasse believes the race is anyone’s to take.
‘I’ve been very pleased with our progression,? Abbasse said. ‘At the county meet, in eight of our 10 races we qualified for the state championship.?
Loerch, Forrest, Sarah Stiel, Nicole Kudla, Sara Simic, Ronnie Booth, Chelsey Booth and Dorey were among the qualifiers.
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Last night, the team hosted Groves, the defending Division II state champs, in another league meet.
The visitors took first place in nine of the 12 events, including two relays, to claim a 116-70 victory.
Lake Orion got victories from Dorey (diving), Loerch (100-free) and the 400-free relay team (Forrest, Simic, Kudla and Loerch).
The team travels to Harrison on Thursday night.