Local Sports: Flat Rock's McNamara wins two state titles
ROCHESTER – Lauren McNamara got her three-peat — and another title to go with it.
The Flat Rock senior capped a great career by winning her third straight state championship in the butterfly and added a title in the individual medley in the Division 3 Swimming and Diving Championships at Oakland University Saturday.
“It was a goal Lauren had for this year,” said her mother and coach Shannon McNamara said of the two championships. “To do it, we knew she would have to put in a lot of work and be a fantastic competitor.”
The individual medley championship was the biggest challenge for McNamara.
She faced major challenges from Julijana Jelic of Broomfield Hills Cransbrook Kingswood and Scarlet Maison of Standish-Sterling.
The first leg of the IM is the butterfly.
McNamara pushed the pace in her signature event and never allowed anyone to catch her.
“We told her she had to,” Shannon McNamara said. “The girl who was second (Jelic) is strongest in the backstroke and the girl who was third (Maison) is strongest in the breaststroke. We told Lauren she had to be in front and stay in front if she wanted to win.”
McNamara finished two seconds ahead of Jelic with a time of 2:05.59. Maison took third in 2:09.23.
Following the emotional win in the IM, McNamara had limited rest (two events) before climbing back into the pool for the butterfly.
More: Monroe County Girls Swimming meet becomes showcase for Milan
“I think that was pure adrenalin,” Shannon McNamara said. “The 200 IM is before the butterfly and that event takes a lot out of you. She was pretty tired after the 200 IM. She kept telling me, ‘My body doesn’t hurt. My body doesn’t hurt.’ But she definitely put everything into the 200 IM.”
McNamara won the butterfly in :56.68 to finish a little more than a second ahead of Milan’s Kiera Luhrs, who placed second.
“Kiera Luhrs gave her a run for her money,” Shannon McNamara said. “She had a fabulous meet.”
Flat Rock, which had never qualified a relay for state before, placed 14th in the 200 freestyle relay (1:44.46) and 18th in the medley relay (1:58.87). The team of Lauren McNamara, Riley Chevelaier, Aileen McNamara and Sophia Chan broke the school record in both events.
“It was a very good weekend,” Shannon McNamara said.
Milan placed fourth in the team standings with 163 points. East Grand Rapids was the champion with 420.
Dundee was 10th with 85 and Flat Rock 15th with 46.
Luhrs was the runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle (:24.21) as well as the butterfly.
“Kiera Luhrs looked like she was shot out of a cannon and blasted a lifetime best,” Milan coach Dan Heikka said of her performance in the 50.
Annabelle Williams, Lila McKenna and Kam Stripp all placed in two individual events for Milan.
Williams was fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:53.49) and fifth in the 100 (:56.62), McKenna fourth in the 500 (5:20.48) and 14th in the 200 (2:02.81), Stripp placed 10th in the IM (2:15.39) and 13th in the butterfly (1:01.24).
Mary Kate Wayne was fourth in the breaststroke (1:07.11).
Milan was fifth in both the medley (Luhrs, Wayne, Stripp, Williams, 1:50.5) and 400 freestyle (Williams, Luhrs, McKenna, Stripp, 3:39.28) relays and 22nd in the 200 relay (McKenna, Sara Mitchell, Wayne, Laila Nemeth, 1:49.41).
Krista Cook placed 22nd and Mitchell 27th in the backstroke.
Joslyn Ball had a big day for Dundee, taking fourth in both the 50 freestyle (:24.2) and backstroke (:58.74) with school-record times.
She also swam on the fifth-place 200 relay (Kaylee Desbrough, Kaylee Imo, Lily Ratliff, 1:41.47) and eighth-place medley relay (Imo, Sara Carter, Ratliff, 1:52.48). Both relays set school records.
Sara Carter (16th in 500 freestyle). Kaylee Imo (18th in breaststroke), Ratliff (19th backstroke, 27th in butterfly) also had strong swims for the Vikings.
PREP SWIMMING
Fuleky takes seventh
HOLLAND – Bedford’s Alexa Fulkey placed seventh in the backstroke with a time of :58.38 Saturday in the Division 2 state finals at the Holland Aquatic Center.
PREP FOOTBALL
Carlson players picked
GIBRALTAR – Gibraltar Carlson has placed Jake Nagy, Jackson Zachary, Noah Derwick, Kyler Ostrowski, Joe Krolak, Izaiah Wright and Teegan Nagy \on the All-Downriver League Football team selected by league coaches.
PREP HOCKEY
Downriver United wins opener
SOUTHGATE – Downriver United, which features players from Monroe High and St. Mary Catholic Central, came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat Woodhaven 4-3 in its season opener.
PREP BASKETBALL
State Line goes 1-2
TEMPERANCE – State Line Christian opened its own Tip-Off Tournament with a 48-45 win over Immanuel Christian, then fell 47-23 to Dayton Temple Christian and 58-42 to Washtenaw Christian.
Cooper Worley was the standout for State Line. He scored 18 points in the first game, 12 in the second and exploded for 27 in the third.
GOLF
Noland gets first ace
Mark Noland of Monroe recorded his first hole-in-one Wednesday at Green Meadows Golf Club.
He aced the 165-yard No. 8 hole with a 5 iron.
JUNIOR HIGH BASKETBALL
Bedford teams win twice
TEMPERANCE – Bedford’s seventh and eighth-grade boys both are off to 2-0 starts.
The eighth graders beat Pinckney 30-5 and Ypsilanti Lincoln 31-22. The seventh graders beat the same teams 33-15 and 20-16.
ADULT SOCCER
Noble scores three
Brandon Noble scored three goals and Daniel Rios added two to lead Lamour Printing to a 7-6 win over Athletico in the Monroe Adult Indoor Coed Soccer League at LevelUp Training Sunday night.
Stephanie Zecman scored two goals for Athletico.
In the second game of a doubleheader for Athletico, Brian Merkle tallied three goals and Sophie Mapes two and Rob Kull added one to lead HotSpurs to a 7-2 win.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Local Sports: Flat Rock's McNamara wins two state titles
