The Bedford High School Boys Swim & Dive Team had a tremendous 2021 D-2 State Swim & Dive Meet. Eight young men represented Bedford in Grand Rapids on March 26th & 27th: Micah S., Thomas Z., Ian M., Ethan T., Austin C., Joey T., Nick Z., and Dylan H.
They finished in 7th place as a team and set 6 new school records in the process. They also compiled a total of eight Top 10 finishes at the state meet.
Micah’s name is associated with 4 of those records. He finished in 2nd place in the 50 Free, just being out touched by someone in a far lane by .03. His final time of 20.73 is a new School record and the first to break 21 seconds. He also finished 4th in the 100 Fly with a new school record of 50.40.
Micah also led the 4th Place 400 Free Relay team for a bonus 2-for-1: 2 records in 1 event. He broke a record for his split time in the event (45.48) and, along with the rest of the relay team, Micah, Ethan, Thomas and Ian set a new school record by dropping 7 seconds off of their time and breaking the school record by 2 seconds with a time of 3:09.32.
In addition to helping set the new 400 Free Relay record, Thomas set a new one in the 100 Backstroke and finished 5th overall in the event with a 51.1 time. His best finish at the state meet was claiming 4th place in the 200 IM where he had a personal best time of 1:54.8.
Ian also added an individual school record to the 400 Free Relay one. He had an outstanding personal best and new school record swim in the 100 breaststroke and finished in 4th place. His time was a quick 57.25. He also had a personal best in the 50 free for a 10th place finish.
Ethan proved to be a key part of three relay teams at the state meet. He swam in the record breaking 400 Free Relay, the 200 Medley Relay and the 200 Free Relay with personal best times in his relay splits. Individually, Ethan swam the 200 IM and finished 22nd for the Mules.
The 200 Medley Relay of Thomas, Ethan, Micah, and Ian had a 2 second drop in time and finished in 6th place. They just missed the school record by 0.2 seconds.
In the 200 Free Relay, Joey, Nick, Dylan, and Ethan each swam personal best split times and finished with a strong 21st place.
Sophomore diver, Austin, had his competition on the Friday evening of the State meet. He finished 23rd this year. This is his second year of qualifying for the state meet but his first time to compete after the season came to an abrupt end due to the COVID cancellation of the event his freshman year.
Bedford’s Boys Swim & Dive team also earned a couple of Southern Michigan Independent Swim League (SMISL) honors this season. Micah was named Co-SMISL Swimmer of the Year. He shares the honor with Andy Dobrzanski from Milan. Coach Holly Scheffer was also named SMISL Coach of the Year.
For a team to reach this level of success in such an extraordinarily challenging year is remarkable and Coach Scheffer is very proud of their efforts: “As the coach, I am so proud of all the accomplishments these boys had and their positive attitudes that they have had during this pandemic season. It definitely was not an easy task.”
Congratulations, Kicking Mules!