Forest Hills depth prevails in swim dual with EGR, 108-78

Jen Judson | Advance Newspapers, January 12, 2011 3:57 a.m.

ADA – It was the depth of the Forest Hills boys swim team that pushed it ahead of East Grand Rapids on Tuesday night at the Forest HillsAquaticCenter, 108-78.

“These are two competitive programs, and this was a nice team win,” said Forest Hills coach Dennis Neat. “We’ve been working really hard. We’re in a tough stretch right now, and to see how well we are swimming, it’s great. I’m very proud of how they responded to the adversity and be ready to perform tonight.”

While Forest Hills’ Nate Fagen, Griff Billups, Brandon Muma, and Hayden Cassidy finished first (1:41.78) in the first event of the night, the 200 medley relay, East Grand Rapids took second, third, and fourth in that event. Kurt Swieter, Matt Hooper, Casey Bloom, and Bobby Lundquist were the second-place relay and touched in 1:44.65.

Hooper also won the 100 individual medley for the Pioneers with his swim of 2:06.93.

In the 200 freestyle, Forest Hills went 1-2 with swims from Brad Klanderman (1:48.70) and Paul Kersjes (1:48.92). Forest Hills also went 1-2 in the 50 free, with Cassidy in first (22.81) and Muma in second (22.83). Muma took first in the 100 butterfly (56.12), ahead of Fagen in second (57.96).

“It was a team performance tonight,” said Neat. “It’s tough to say one guy over the others did well, because of so many first-third, 2-3-5. We really got team depth out of tonight.”

Forest Hills diver Nick Nicoletti scored his personal-best with a 213.90 in the diving competition. East Grand Rapids’ Ben Merlotti was second (194.55) and Kevin Paul third (191.90).

Lundquist won the 100 freestyle in 50.40 seconds and Klanderman took the 500 freestyle with his swim of 5:03.82. Fagen finished tops in the 100 backstroke (59.41).  Hooper was first in the breaststroke (1:01.47) and teammate Lucas VanderBilt qualified for the state meet for the first time with his finish in that event.

“Forest Hills is always a good program,” said EGR coach Butch Briggs. “They swam great tonight, and we had good swims. We weren’t disappointed at all. We had a lot of kids with best times tonight, and that was kind of the objective of the whole thing.”