Sturgis’ boys swimming and diving team placed third at the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference East league meet over the weekend with 239 points.
Battle Creek Lakeview won the championship with a score of 425, followed by Marshall (326). Loy Norrix claimed the fourth spot with 191, Harper Creek (142) placed fifth and Battle Creek Central was sixth with 63.
Hunter Stanke defended his league title in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1 minute, 3.21 seconds.
“This was just an awesome swim meet for the Trojan swimmers,” head coach Andy Feyes said. “Everyone on the team had dropped a lot of time in their events. As a team we had 61 personal-best times this week, which I could not have been anymore proud of the boys. We also made six more state times this weekend.”
Daniel Tetzloff, Hunter Stanke, Michael Clark and Grant Brown were third in the 200 medley relay and qualified for next month’s state finals with a time of 1:44.10 seconds.
In the 200-yard freestyle, Nathan Stemen took fourth in a state-qualifying time of 1:52.75. Brown placed fourth in the 50 free and also earned a spot in the state championship with a 23.02-second performance. He was also second in the 100 free (50.42), which was a qualifying time.
In the 500 free Nathan Stemen placed second. In the 400 free relay the team of Stanke, Tetzloff, Stemen and Brown made a state time going a 3:25.83.
“It was a great way for the team to end the season with so many personal-best times,” Feyes said. “The kids really worked hard for this meet and it showed them that the effort that they have been putting in the water really pays off, so I could not be happier for them.”