Swimmers make a start in the Waverly Relays Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016, at Waverly High School.
WAVERLY – Okemos boys swimming coach Patrick Saucedo had plans of breaking up his 400-yard individual medley relay team at the start of Wednesday’s annual Howard Comstock Waverly Relays. The eighth-year coach was looking at the big picture, as he was trying to preserve some of his top swimmers for events later in the night.
Senior Andrew Himebaugh and the rest of the relay team were against it. They felt like they had a chance at breaking the 15-year meet record, and they convinced Saucedo to give them a chance.
Himebaugh, along with Ewan Woolcock, Kevin Yan and Adam Schnepf, made the most of their opportunity. The relay group went on to break East Lansing’s previous record (3 minutes, 56.01 seconds) with a time of 3:55.03 and helped the Chiefs capture a first-place finish at the kick-off meet for the first time since 2014.
“We told (Saucedo), ‘Hey, we think we can do it’,” Himebaugh said. “He let us swim it, and we ended up getting it.
“Getting that initial boost of morale, going into winter break, which is one of the worst periods of time to practice, is very significant.”
An Okemos swimmer competes in the Waverly Relays Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016, at Waverly High School.
Okemos, with 224 points, edged out the Chelsea Bulldogs, which finished with 207 points. Chelsea is coached by former Waverly grad Dave Jolly, who helped the Warriors’ boys swimming team capture its only state championship in 1983. The Bulldogs set three meet records Wednesday night.
St. Johns placed third with 188 points. The diving duo of Brock and Cayden Petrak handed the Redwings a victory in the 1-meter diving event. Brock Petrak, a senior, finished seventh at the Division 3 state meet last season, while Cayden Petrak, a sophomore, placed fourth.
Cayden Petrak said the friendly competitiveness between the two siblings has been a big factor in their development.
“It’s pretty competitive, but we like to push each other to get better,” Cayden Petrak said. “It (the competitiveness) helps us get our goals.”
Mason’s Lucas Barnes competes in the Waverly Relays Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016, at Waverly High School.
DeWitt finished fourth (168 points), Holt finished fifth (165 points) and Haslett placed sixth (125 points).
The combination team of Waverly-Lansing Catholic finished in seventh place with 122 points, which was the best of all the CAAC Red schools in the event. The program tied for first in the conference last season with Mason, and despite the loss of standout Joey Lashbrook to graduation, Waverly-Lansing Catholic has hopes of remaining at the top of the conference
“The momentum from last year is still a driving force on our team,” senior Joe Wright said. “We want to maintain our spot in our conference and send more people to the state meet.”
Williamston (102 points), East Lansing (97 points), Mason (93 points), Grand Ledge (38 points) and Lansing Legacy (16 points) rounded out the bottom five teams.
Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.