As water drips off the starting blocks, a splash comes from each lane; these athletes are racing in one of the biggest meets of their high school careers. Schools in the Macomb Area Conference sent their top swimmers to the Macomb County Girls’ Championship meet.
On October 2nd, twelve entrants from across the county went to compete at L’Anse Creuse High School for diving preliminaries. Representing Utica High School was sophomore Allison Vavruska. She scored 160.25 points that night.
Every year, Utica’s swimmers set their sights on county cuts. This season, after completing six dual meets, eight girls made the mark. Seniors Alayna Collins, Olivia Lobb, and Nataly Dempsey, juniors Ella Sam, Paige Brinkey, and Makayla Malmsten, and sophomores Mara Marian and Leah Bryant were set to race in timed finals. On October 4th, at L’Anse Creuse North High School, the pressure was on.
“Honestly, when I qualified, I was just grateful because I worked really hard,” Malmsten said. “I’m thankful to have made it this far.”
Starting the meet on a high note was the 200-yard medley relay team. Sam, Collins, Marian, and Dempsey placed fourth with a season best time of 2:01.59.
In the 200-yard individual medley, Sam had the Chieftains and their fans roaring with excitement as she set a new Utica High School record. She came in at 2:16.30, breaking Lauren Himmel’s record of 2:19.81 from 2016. Sam placed third and qualified for the MISCA meet in the event too.
“It felt really good to get the record because I achieved both goals of getting the record and qualifying for states,” Sam said. “Lifting and practicing combined helped me train to get to this point.”
Marian made waves in the 50-yard freestyle, placing eighth with a time of 27.30, down 0.56 from her 2024 county meet time. Soon thereafter, Vavruska came back to finish what she started. She placed tenth in the county with a total of 19.65 from her eleven dives.
The second half of the meet was strong for Utica. Opening with the 100-yard butterfly, Collins placed seventh with a time of 1:05.29, qualifying her for the MISCA meet. Marian kept the energy high in the 100-yard freestyle by setting a new personal record of 58.95 and getting fourth place. Sam’s power stayed relentless as she placed third in the 500-yard freestyle with a MISCA meet qualifying time of 5:28.47.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team brought the heat. Taking a fifth-place finish, Marian, Collins, Dempsey, and Sam went a season best time of 1:49.79. That time puts the four girls exactly one second below their first-place time at the MAC White Championship in 2024 and 3.84 seconds above the Utica High School record, set in 2022.
The Chieftains closed out the individual events on a high note. Lobb went 1:11.62 in the 100-yard backstroke and got eighth place. Collins, meanwhile, got third place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:12.93 and, yet again, qualified for the MISCA meet in the process.
With the big MAC White division meet, November 6th– 8th, just short of a month away, the entire Utica girls’ swim team is looking ahead. Following the county meet, the team still has three dual meets ahead of them before the championship. With their confidence high and their goals set even higher, the Chieftains are determined to show up stronger than ever before.
