Facing some of the best competition the state of Michigan has to offer, the Oxford Wildcats boys’ swimming and diving teams traveled to Birmingham Groves High School to compete in the Oakland Activities Association (OAA) Red Division Championships from Feb. 26-28.
Setting the field for the Feb. 28 showdown, the preliminary swimming races took place on Feb. 26, followed by the diving preliminaries the next day.
Totaling 184 points, the Wildcats finished in sixth-place among the half-dozen competing schools. The Birmingham Seaholm Maples (482 points) took home first-place, with the Farmington Falcons (407) and Groves (400) rounding out the top-three. The Stoney Creek Cougars (267) captured fourth-place and the Bloomfield Hills Black Hawks (225) occupied fifth-place.
Junior Zach Beatty was Oxford’s top individual performer, earning a third-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:55.68. Sophomore Nathaniel Johnston and classmate Cole Bukoski also earned points in this event, finishing in 11th and 14th-place, respectively.
Beatty added a fourth-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle and Ben Datsko, another junior, came in fourth in the 100-yard butterfly, as well.
The Wildcats posted their final top-five of the night in the last event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Consisting of all juniors – Beatty, Bukoski, Datsko and Nolan May – the team touched the wall in 3:21.55, their best time of the season.
On the diving side, senior Evan Covert, one of the team’s co-captains along with Datsko, posted 292 points, good for sixth-place. Covert will be among 26 divers vying for 12 Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) State Meet spots in the Diving Regionals at L’Anse Creuse North High School on Thursday, March 5.