Sometimes a little anger—when properly channeled—can be a good thing.
Just ask Otsego boys’ swim coach Darryl Belton.
After suffering a loss to Marshall in their previous meet, the Bulldogs came out and won 10 of the 12 events against Allegan on Tuesday, Jan. 10, to post the 114-69 win over the visiting Tigers.
“We were outswam by Marshall last week and I think the boys were all swimming very angry,” Belton said. “To be honest, I was surprised at how well we swam.”
The trio of Trevor Sparks, Traxel Jirgens and Brennan Richardson led the way for Otsego, with each winning two individual events in addition to being part of two winning relay teams.
Sparks won the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.69) and the 100 free (50.66), Jirgens won the 200 IM (2:10.11) and the 100 breaststroke (1:05.01) and Richardson won the 50 free (22.63) and the 500 free (5:08.75).
Richardson and Jirgens teamed with Josh David and Adam Coe to win the opening 200 medley relay. Jirgens and Sparks were joined by Dylan France and Coe in the winning 200 free relay (1:34.58), while Sparks and Richardson competed with Owen Grile and David to win the 400 free relay (3:26).
David accounted for the other event win for Otsego, taking the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:02.39.
“I’m very proud with the way the team responded to the adversity (of the Marshall loss),” Belton said. “We swam like the champions we want to be.”
And while neither France nor Dillon Avery won any individual events, Belton had nothing but praise for them.
“A few of our kids had best times,” Belton said. “Avery and France, in particular, were outstanding.”
Avery was third in the 500 free at 5:56.65, while France was third in the 200 free at 2:05.42.
Belton hopes such performances are a sign of things to come.
“Hopefully this is what we get every week until March,” he said. “Because if we compete like this every week, we will be hard to beat.”
Allegan won two events, including Nate Greenway taking the diving competition with a score of 204.45. That was good enough to better his own school record.
Weston Rife accounted for the other win, securing the top spot in the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.03.
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