Defending champions headline Macomb County Girls Swim Meet – Macomb Daily

The champions are back for more.

Abby Keen, Nicole Malinova and Sara Kozel will again try to reach the pedestal of the winners.

Individual winners last year at the Macomb County Girls’ Swimming and Diving competition, these athletes are the top seeds for the 2022 championship which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at L’Anse Creuse North.

Dakota is the defending champion team.

Utica’s Keen won the 100-yard freestyle a year ago, and the eldest is the top seed with a time of 55.01 seconds.

She is also the top seed in the 200 freestyle in 2:01.37. Emma Bauer from L’Anse Creuse Nord won the event last year. The junior is ranked sixth.

Keen won the 50 free in 2021. She is not entered this time. The first seed is Chippewa Valley rookie Rachel Kincher, whose entry time was 26.87.

Malinova’s time of 1:02.94 made her the top seed in the 100 backstroke, an event the Warren-Mott star won last year.

The senior is also the No. 1 seed in the 100 butterfly clocking 1:03.80. Second-seeded Natalie Nehra of Dakota finished the race in 1:03.97.

Cousino’s Kozel scored 282.40 points to win the 2021 diving championship less than three points over Utica’s Jordyn Verhaeghe.

Kozel’s score of 215.60 topped the qualifying list and Verhaeghe was second.

The diving preliminaries took place on Thursday.

Eisenhower rookie Caitlyn LeBel is the top seed in the 200 IM with a time of 2:22.39. Nehra’s time of 2:24.37 was the second fastest qualifying appearance.

Dakota junior Katelyn Threlkeld had the fastest entry time in the 500 freestyle, 5:42.28. She finished third in the event last year to help the Cougars rack up 392 points.

Junior Utica Isabella Haewsky and second seed LeBel are both under 1:15.0 in the 100 breaststroke with times of 1:14.42 and 1:14.70 respectively.

Eisenhower was second and Dakota third in the team points standings last year.

ATTENTION COACHES: Email results to [email protected].