Buccaneer swimmers finally get back home in exciting win over Jenison
Sep. 17—GRAND HAVEN TWP. — Sure, they train there on a daily basis, but Grand Haven swimming definitely wanted to return home for competition after five meets.
The evidence showed itself on Thursday night, as the Buccaneers celebrated a conference win over Jenison, quite loudly. Their excitement over winning could be attributed to some mind games from coach Doug Thorne.
"Part of it was being happy since the training's cranked up a little bit," sophomore Grace Ackerman said. "We were a little happy just because Doug was telling us that we were going to lose on paper. It might have been a little bit about proving him wrong."
Ackerman put the exclamation point on a 166-149 victory over the Wildcats, rocketing off her second turn in the 400-yard freestyle relay to anchor a 3-minute, 44.84 second time alongside Claudia Busse, Madelyn Hudson and Ellie Todd, which won by seven seconds.
It was part of a strong night that saw the Bucs take home all three relays and all but one individual event victory, part of a strong start to the conference season. If Thursday was a test for where the Bucs stand, it's one they'll be pretty proud of the outcome.
"We were working on this for a week and a half knowing it was going to be a big meet," Thorne said. "We knew if we wanted an opportunity to win the conference, we needed a win here. They got some emotion into their swims and good things happened."
Hudson, Ackerman, Todd and Rosalee Springer kicked off the night with a battle in the 200-yard medley relay, where Todd opened up a half-second lead in the butterfly to win by just over a second in 1:51.38.
The freshman turned around to win the 200 freestyle by four seconds in 1:59.11.
Ackerman won comfortably in the individual medley, hitting a state-qualifying mark in 2:12.28. After Clare Duplissis secured more valuable points with a diving victory, Todd won the butterfly in 58.88 and Springer won the 100 freestyle in 52.7.
"It was just exciting to be back home," the sophomore Springer said. "Tonight, we had to work hard for it, and it was exciting seeing how close it was."
Ackerman cruised to a victory in the 500 freestyle and a victory from Springer, Olivia Busse, Olivia Schafer and Veda Vargas in the sprint relay wrapped up the team victory.
"I've basically got three groups at different stages, and Veda has really stepped up and been a leader," Thorne said. "She's stepped her game up tremendously."
Hudson and Springer earned victories in the backstroke and breaststroke, and a team of Ackerman, Busse, Hudson and Todd completed the night with their 400 freestyle relay win.
"Tonight was a nice reward for how hard we've been working," Hudson said. "Our freshmen have stepped up lately and it's been really fun watching them blend in with the rest of the group and they've put in a lot of work so far."
That set up loud celebrations from the Bucs — due in part to both excitement at returning home for competition and at a conference win that proves a young team could make quite a bit of noise in the later stages of a long season.
"We know there's still some work before we get our best times," Ackerman said. "Nothing beats being at home, the away meets are fun, but getting all our spectators in here was really fun."
The Bucs head to Grandville next Thursday before hosting Caledonia on Sept. 30 — they'll finish their regular season with a pair of home meets before they host the OK Red conference meet in early November.
You can email Kyle at kturk@
grandhaventribune.com or find him on Twitter @KyleTurkGHT.
