Luke Newcomb, Brighton swimmers make history at state meet

GRAND RAPIDS — Once Luke Newcomb hit the water, he switched his mind off.

“I just let my body take over,” the Brighton junior said. “My mind wasn’t really in it at that point. I was just going through all the motions, what I’ve learned, leaving everything in it. It was kind of an out-of-body experience. It was really cool. When I finished, I heard all the cheering. I was just hoping it was for me.”

It was.

Newcomb hit the wall in 55.34 seconds, taking first place in the 100-yard breaststroke at the state Division 1 swimming and diving meet Saturday at Calvin University.

He became the first boys state champion from Brighton and the fourth champion from Livingston County, all of whom achieved their victories in the last four state meets.

Newcomb reached the top after climbing through the ranks. He was fourth in breaststroke as a freshman and second as a sophomore.

“So, this was the year,” he said. “I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to take it this year.’ I definitely still feel the nerves. I think the nerves are what helps me. I turn nerves into confidence, and that’s how I’m able to do it.”

Newcomb won by 0.48 seconds over Detroit Catholic Central junior Luke Mychalowych. In prelims, Newcomb was first by 0.38 seconds over Mychalowych with a time of 55.48.

“It was exhilarating,” Newcomb said. “As soon as I looked up and saw it, my coach Jason (Black) came running toward me and gave me the biggest hug. “My teammates were cheering. It was an awesome experience.”

Before Saturday, second-place finishes by Kevin Doak (1999 backstroke), JD Ham (2014 50 freestyle), Cade Hammond (2018 diving) and Newcomb (2022 breaststroke) were the best finishes by a Brighton boy.

Newcomb’s name now goes down alongside Howell’s Hunter Gubeno (2019), Pinckney’s Tyler Ray (2021, 2022) and Pinckney’s Erik Bolang (2022) as Livingston County’s only boy state champions.

Newcomb’s time easily eclipsed his own school record of 56.72 seconds set in prelims at last year’s state meet. It was one of five school marks broken by Brighton swimmers as they finished in third place with 156 points, the best finish and most points ever scored by a county boys team.

Senior Sam Keranen set two records with his third-place time of 4:37.63 in the 500 freestyle and sixth-place time of 1:41.96 in the 200 freestyle. Keranen took down the oldest school record in Livingston County, shattering the 200 freestyle mark of 1:43.43 set by Todd Mercer when he placed seventh in the 1985 Class A meet.

Senior John McHugh swam a school-record 51.20 time in the 100 backstroke prelims before placing third in the finals in 51.29.

The 200 medley relay team started things off for the Bulldogs by placing second in a school-record 1:34.37. McHugh, Newcomb, Keranen and Mason Staszel comprised that team.

Newcomb made all-state in all four of his swims. His other finishes were eighth in the 200 individual medley in 1:57.17 and fifth in the 400 freestyle relay with Staszel, Noah Shand and McHugh in 3:13.57. McHugh also had an all-state swim in the 200 IM, placing fifth in 1:54.78.

Brighton’s 200 freestyle relay also scored, placing 15th in 1:30.26 with the team of Keranen, Kai Megel, Shand and Staszel.

Ann Arbor Pioneer won with 288 points, followed by Holland West Ottawa with 156 and Novi with 155. Brighton’s performance passed Pinckney’s fifth-place showing and 154 points in Division 3 last year as the best by a county boys team.

It’s only the third top-10 finish ever for Brighton, which was eighth in 2021 and 10th in 1990 and 1991.

“This is the first time the boys got a trophy for top four at D1,” Black said. “The girls have those four banners hanging. Now I’ve got to put a banner on the opposite wall for the boys. I’m really excited for that.”

Brighton came into the meet ranked sixth in Division 1. The breakdown of scoring based on seedings had the Bulldogs placing eighth.

“It was the relays that really took us over the edge,” Black said. “We scored all three relays; it’s only the second time in history we’ve done that. Two of them were all-state. When you’re going into the meet and looking at eighth, you’ve got to make up a lot of points, which we did. We made up 35 points between the psych sheet and what we ended up scoring.”

Hartland placed 15th with 56 points, its best finish since placing 11th in 2015.

Junior Issac Davis had two all-state swims for the Eagles, placing seventh in the 50 freestyle in 21.77 and eighth in the 100 freestyle in 47.61. He was also on the 14th-place 200 freestyle relay team with Andrew Barrett, Hudson Schick and Josh Ray and the 16th-place 200 medley relay team with Nathan Bergkoetter, Ray and Tyler Davis.

Diver Jack Losert made all-state by placing sixth with 364.1 points after ranking 11th going into finals.

Tyler Davis was 12th in butterfly in 52.82 and 16th in the 200 freestyle in 1:46.20. The 400 freestyle relay team of Barrett, Sebastian Ritsema, Tyler Davis and Ray took 14th.

Howell diver Peter Mick was 14th with 330.25 points.

In Division 3 at Oakland University, Pinckney was 14th with 72 points.

The Pirates had two all-state relay finishes by Conor Trotter, Dylan Ray, Talon Koppman and Lucas Mondro. They were eighth in the 200 medley relay in 1:40.89 and seventh in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:19.97.

Senior diver Griffin Stahl made all-state by placing eighth with 335.25 points.

Ray was 10th in the 200 IM (1:59.78) and 11th in breaststroke (1:01.41). Koppmann was 15th in the 50 freestyle (22.58).

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Luke Newcomb, Brighton swimmers make history at state meet