Held at Waterford Mott High School on Feb. 7-8, the Oxford Wildcats swim and dive program finished in 15th place among 25 competing schools in the Oakland County Championships.
The Wildcats recorded 57 points, narrowly holding off the Berkley Bears and Detroit Country Day Yellow Jackets, who each posted 55 points.
For the third consecutive year, the Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks (328.5 points) went home as champions. The Farmington Falcons (232), Novi Wildcats (185), North Farmington Raiders (155) and Birmingham Groves Falcons (143) rounded out the top-five.
Beginning the festivities on Feb. 7, senior Evan Covert was Oxford’s lone diving representative, tallying a 30th place finish.
Head coach Jackie Rank’s 10 swimmers competed the following day, Feb. 8. Junior Ben Datsko, a team co-captain along with Covert, was the Wildcats’ top performer on the day, earning a fifth-place showing in the 100-yard butterfly with a school record time of 0:52.6.
Datsko added another top 10, and another school record, in the 100 breaststroke at 1:01.07. Classmate Zach Beatty posted Oxford’s only other top 10 performances, occupying sixth-place in both the 200 and 500 freestyle, motoring to a season-best time of 4:55.38 in the latter.
“I’m very proud of the way the boys competed,” Rank said. “We set two new school records, qualified for the state meet in three events, swam eight season-best times and 10 season-high relay splits.”