Swimmers lose close one to Royal Oak

Despite winning a majority of events, the varsity swim team fell to Royal Oak 92-88 on Tuesday, Jan. 25.
Oxford swimmers Jarred Butler, Jimmy Walker and Zach Lavender helped the Wildcats win nine of the 12 events on the evening. However, Royal Oak swimmers managed to keep it close, consistently finish in second and third and pulling it out in the end.
Individual results are as follows:
200 Medley Relay: Oxford’s A Relay of Butler, Lavender, Walker, and Blake Hibdon took first with a time of 1:54.69.
200 Freestyle: Butler took first with a time of 1:57.03 and Sean Thomas took fourth for Oxford.
200 Individual Medley: Lavender took first with a time of 2:26.53. Joey Tasch came in a close second and Lewis Marshall rounded out the top 5.
50 Freestyle: Walker took first with a time of 23.52, while Dylan Hency and Steven DeClercq rounded out the top five.
Diving: Jake Clark took first with a score of 194.25.
100 Butterfly: Walker took first with a time of 1:00.25. Hency and Corey Bell rounded out the top five.
100 Freestyle: Hibdon took second with a time of 55.84 and Sean Thomas took fourth for Oxford.
500 Freestyle: Butler took first with a time of 5:17.49 and Dan Stockard took fifth for the Wildcats.
200 Freestyle Relay: Oxford’s A Relay of Hency, Jones, Thomas, and Tasch took 2nd with a time of 1:42.29.
100 Backstroke: Hibdon took third with a time of 1:05.39 and Cody Wiebell came in fifth.
100 Breaststroke: Lavender took first with a time of 1:14.10. Dwight Merrill came in fourth for the Wildcats.
400 Freestyle Relay: Oxford’s A Relay of Walker, Tasch, Hibdon, and Butler came in first with a time of 3:43.75.
In earlier action, the Wildcats lost 99-71 to Brandon on Tuesday, Jan. 18 and 105-71 to Avondale on Thursday, Jan. 20.
With the three straight losses, Oxford is currently 3-5 overall.
Their next event will be the Oakland County meet at Lake Orion High School on Friday, Feb. 4 and Saturday, Feb. 5. Swimming for Oxford at the meet includes a relay team in the 200 Medley Relay and the 200 and 400 Freestyle Relays. Individual competitors include Clark in the diving portion and Walker in the 50 and 100 freestyle.