By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
CLARKSTON — The Clarkston Boys Swim and Dive team hosted crosstown rivals in the season opener and lost 136-50, Dec. 12.
“Tonight was a big meet for the guys,” said Haley Grisdale, head coach. “They swam against somebody that is up in a higher division. We’re swimming up against competition and they are kind of the leaders in the OAA Red, going to be top at the county.”
She added this year’s team is small with 21 student-athletes. The number includes seven new to the team. Of those seven a few are brand new to competitive swim.
“Today was a lot about learning how a meet operates, what we were trying to focus on our goals and really kind of taking the things that we’ve been working in the past two weeks of practice and really starting to try to apply those into our races,” Grisdale said. “The boys are learning, getting lots of feedback and definitely trying to prepare and progress throughout the season so that we’re ready for our meets within our league.”

She added they will have a week of training to get more practice in and apply those lessons before this Thursday for their next meet.
Scoring points for the Wolves in individual events were: in the 50-yard freestyle, Braeden Covintree in second place in the time of 23.78; Eddie Zarzycki, fifth, 25.40; 100-yard butterfly, Zarzycki, third, 1:04.06; Max Sloan, fifth, 1:10.25; 100-yard freestyle, Covintree, second, 51.61; David Ryan, fifth, 1:00.14; 100-yard backstroke, Ben Guzal, third, 1:01.99; Jack Smith, fifth, 1:13.12; 100-yard breaststroke, Griffin Eastman, fourth, 1:19.29; John Young, fifth, 1:19.34; 200-yard freestyle, Jack Smith, fourth, 2:08.61; Weston Miller, fifth, 2:12.86; 200-yard IM, Guzal, second, 2:15.10; Eastman, fifth, 2:28.25; 500-yard freestyle, Blake Davidson, third, 5:51.32; and Miller, 5:52.45.
“We did have some good second place finishes, close finishes,” Grisdale shared. “I think our 50 and 100 freestyle for Covintree were great races, and again areas of improvement that we’re talking about getting better. Our 500 freestyle was a really nice race for us. All three guys dropped a lot of time and really looked nice in that race having two under six minutes and then having Ryan Kornas under seven minute, first time, breaking seven minutes it’s pretty awesome for him. We looked pretty well in breaststroke and backstroke. Those were definitely good races for us and just kind of maintaining right those good finishes.”
For relays, the 200-yard medley team of Guzal, Eastman, Covintree and Ryan finished in second place in the time of 1:51.62;
“Our 200-yard medley relay was a solid relay for us, only a couple second off of Lake Orion,” said Grisdale.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Smith, Zarzycki, Griffin Eastman and Conner Quinlan finished in third place, 1:46.39; and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Covintree, Ryan, Smith and Guzal, second, 3:49.29.
For 1-meter diving, Jonathan George finished in second place with 167.30 points and Rocket George, fourth, 147.90.
The Wolves head to Bloomfield Hills this Thursday, 6 p.m.; and Fenton for the Fenton Relay Invite on Saturday, 9 a.m. They return from holiday break hosting Stoney Creek on Thursday, Jan. 9, 6 p.m.

  boys swim and dive, Clarkston Athletics