By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
YPSILANTI—People collect all sorts of things, like baseball cards, stamps, coins and rocks.
Otsego junior Liam Smith? He collects state championships.
In the Division 3 Boys Swim & Dive State Finals on Saturday, March 15, Smith won both the 200-yard IM (1:49.07) and the 100 butterfly (48.68) to give him five state titles in three years.
Smith, who was also All-State as part of Otsego’s 400 free relay, led the Bulldogs to a seventh-place finish with 110 points.
Hamilton had the best local finish, placing fifth with 154 points. Plainwell was 12th with 62 points and Wayland was 15th with 31 points.
For his efforts, Smith was named Swimmer of the Meet as well as Division 3 Swimmer of the Year.
“What else can you say about Liam,” Otsego coach Darryl Belton said. “And as good as he is as a swimmer, he’s even better as a leader and even better than that as a human. He’s also a monster competitor. I knew going into that pool that nobody, regardless of seed times, stood a chance.”
That competitive nature could be seen in Smith’s assessment of his performance.
“I was a little disappointed with my times,” said Smith, who garnered automatic All-American honors in the 200 IM and All-American consideration in the fly. “But you can’t go your fastest every race and I can’t complain about winning. It never gets old. It’s awesome.”
In the 400 free relay, Smith was joined by Willsun Fuller, Blake Guerrant and Carson Bydash to take seventh at 3:18.74. The top eight finishers in each event are All-State.
Fuller was All-State in the 100 fly, placing seventh at 53.61.
“Willsun making the top eight in the fly was fun,” Belton said. “He has worked so hard in the last year to do that and when it was announced he was in the top eight, I couldn’t have been happier.”
Belton was also happy for Caleb Wesseldyk, who was All-State in diving after placing sixth with 348.95 points.
“Caleb barely missed the top eight last year and both he and I said that wasn’t going to happen again,” Belton said. “It was top eight or bust. And he did it. He was so focused this weekend. I knew after his second dive that he was going to be in the top eight. I felt so good for him.
“I couldn’t be prouder of all the guys. I’m not ready to think about next year yet, but those guys have a lot to live up to.”
Aside from Smith, the top individual performance came from Plainwell’s Sam Harper.
After placing second in the 500 free as a freshman and fourth as a sophomore, Harper captured his first title in the event with a time of 4:34.62. He was also second in the 200 free at 1:41.81.
“Words cannot describe how proud I am of Sam and the rest of the team,” Plainwell coach Andrea Murphy said. “Sam is a great leader and teammate. His team really respects him, and he inspires them to work harder and to show up.
“Him getting a state title is pretty impressive. He also rebroke his 500 school record and the 200 IM record this year and the 200 free school record. The 200 free record has been there since the late ‘90s. So, it has been a bit.”
Plainwell diver Aidan Ranger nearly joined Harper in earning All-State. Ranger finished ninth, just six-tenths of a point out of eighth place with 312.45 points.
Fellow diver Phil Mathis placed 20th.
“Aidan and Phil had their best season to date,” Murphy said. “It has been amazing to see how much these two both have grown in their sport.”
Hamilton’s Jack Langeland also had an impressive day, earning All-State in four events.
Individually, he was third in the 200 free (1:42.76) and sixth in the 100 fly (52.55). He also joined Landen Maatman, Justin Stark and Owen Lewis to place third in the 200 medley relay (1:36.81) before joining Stark, Brett VandenBerg and Lewis to place fifth in the 200 free relay (1:28.62).
Lewis, Jackson Hansen, VandenBerg and Stark placed eighth in the 400 free relay (3:24.86) as all three Hamilton relays earned All-State.
Other All-State performers for Hamilton were Stark in the 100 breaststroke (seventh at 1:00.09) and the diving duo of Brodie Brown (fifth at 360.9) and Jayden Bierschbach (seventh at 313.05).
