Cranbrook Swimmers Edged Out by Catholic Central

The Cranbook Kingswood Boys Swim and Dive team traveled to Livonia Thursday to meet the Catholic Central Shamrocks for what turned out to be a great preview of this weekend’s Oakland County meet.

While the Shamrocks took first in nearly every contest, the Cranes proved to be serious competition.

The meet started with Catholic Central’s 200 Medley Relay team of Jack Walsh, Ryan Newman, and Dan and Tim Szuba sailing into first with a D1 State Cut time of 1:40.64. Cranbrook’s Alessandro Gutilla, Jon Withrow, Peerason Chantadansuwon and Nate Tattrie came in a close second with their own D3 State Cut time of 1:47.51.

The 200 Freestyle field saw the greatest number of qualifying times, with Colin Brinkman of CC taking first place with a time of 1:46.83. Cranbrook’s Daniel Misra turned in a State Cut time of 1:53.20 for second place, and CC’s Neil Robinson took third. Cranbrook sewed up fourth and fifth places and added two more State Cuts with Alessandro Gutilla’s 1:54.76 and Ben Schneider’s 1:55.00.

The first nail-biter of the night came early during the 200 IM, with Catholic Central’s Jack Walsh and Cranbrook’s Matthew Liu swimming side by side the entire race. With a D1 State Cut time of 1:57.98, Walsh barely touched out Liu who turned in a State Cut of his own with a 1:58.19. CC’s Ryan Newman took third, with Alex Hogan and Mitch Buccalo of Cranbrook bringing in 4th and 5th and State Cuts of their own with 2:09.26 and 2:09.33 respectively.

Catholic Central’s Tim Szuba was the only swimmer to earn a State Cut, and with it first place, for the 50 Freestyle with a time of 22.25. Dan Szuba of CC and Cranbrook’s Nate Tattrie took 2nd and 3rd places.

The meet turned to diving with three competitors: Cranbrook’s Grant Glover and Ray Gagliardi, and Catholic Central’s Patrick Roelant. The competition went back and forth, but in the end Glover prevailed taking first place with a score of 132.00. Cranbrook’s Gagliardi was just behind with a 131.05, and Catholic Central’s Roelant took 3rd with a 120.75

Cranbrook Coach Scott McHugh was proud of his divers saying, “This meet was a great opportunity for us. The boys got to try some dives they normally don’t do, and they did quite well.”

The second half of the meet saw both teams picking up one State Cut time apiece for each event:

CC’s Dan Szuba and Cranbrook’s Peerason Chantadansuwon went head-to-head in the 100 Fly, coming in first and second with times of 55.08 and 57.26 respectively.

Tim Szuba of Catholic Central took first in the 100 Free with a time of 48.81, with Cranbrook’s Stefan Withrow taking second, and Charles Roelant of CC taking third.

Jack Walsh was back at it with a 4:54.15 in the 500 Freestyle, with teammate Neil Robinson taking second, and Cranbrook’s Matt Liu taking third with his State Cut time of 5:07.96.

Liu finished up the 500 and turned right back around as lead off for Cranbrook’s 200 Free Relay team, earning a State Cut and second place with a time of 1:33.10. The crowd was on its feet for the finish as Catholic Central just edged out Cranbrook for the win with a time of 1:31.69.

Catholic Central took the next three races with Cranbrook taking second. Both teams earned State Cuts for 100 Backstroke (Brinkman – CC; Hogan – CK), 100 Breast (Newman – CC; Withrow, J. – CK), and the 400 Free Relay.

The final score of the meet was: Catholic Central 105, Cranbrook Kingswood 78.

In spite of the loss, Cranbrook’s Head Coach, Tony Kurth felt this was a good meet for his team. “We got the opportunity to swim one of the fastest teams out there.” Commenting on the upcoming Oakland County, League and State Meets, Kurth said, “There is no better way to get experience than to take on challenges like this.”

This update was provided by Patch reader Carolyn Stevens, a Cranbrook parent that volunteers time to distribute swim team media releases.

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