It all came down to this.
Through 11 of the 12 events in its Southwest and Central Michigan Swim League meet against Plainwell on Tuesday, Jan. 31, Allegan trailed, 87-82.
That meant the Tigers needed to win the meet-ending 400-yard freestyle relay and finish either second or third as well.
Allegan did just.
The Tigers’ “A” team won the event by seven seconds over the top Plainwell team, while Allegan “B” team finished third. That was enough to give the Tigers the slim 92-91 victory.
“Plainwell had some great swims tonight,” Allegan coach Mark Mattox said. “We were pretty lucky to come out on top. We knew they were going to swim tough against us and they did.”
Allegan’s winning 400 free relay team of Francisco Mosquera, Weston Rife, Daniel Smalla and Jackson Foster turned in a time of 3:41.05.
That gave the Tigers wins in all three relays.
The team of Rife, Sy TerAvest, Michael Curtis and Smalla opened the meet by taking the 200 medley relay (1:48.06). The team of TerAvest, Foster, Smalla and Mosquera, meanwhile, posted a winning time of 1:35.1 in the 200 free relay.
“Our relays did a good job holding position,” Mattox said.
And while disappointed with the results, Plainwell coach Andrea Murphy—the former coach at Allegan—found it difficult to be overly upset with her team’s performance.
“It was a great meet for us,” she said. “We were able to switch around our lineup a bit and everyone stepped up to the challenge and did above and beyond what they needed to do. We knew it’d be close.”
The diving competition proved to be pivotal in the meet’s outcome.
Allegan’s Nate Greenway easily won the event with a score of 206.6. But Plainwell’s Leonard Heger (96.4) and Jared DeBlecourt (65.4) were second and third, while a third Trojan diver was unable to compete due to illness.
“We had one of our divers who was sick and was unable to make the meet,” Murphy said. “That was the game changer for us. We would have gotten two extra points with that kid in diving and we could have won. Still, I am very happy with how we behaved and swam.”
In addition to its relay wins, Allegan won five individual events, including Greenway’s win in diving. The other individual wins for the Tigers were Foster in the 200 free (1:57.21) and 100 butterfly (59.36), Mosquera in the 100 free (50.82) and Rife in the 100 backstroke.
Wins for Plainwell came from Brendan Edgington in the 200 IM (2:12.92), Ricky Holly in the 50 free (22.86) and Chase Cushman in the 500 free (5:34.83) and the 100 breaststroke (1:10.26).
On Saturday, Feb. 4, Allegan participated in the Ottawa Hills Invitational, finishing third.
Winners for the Tigers were the team of TerAvest, Rife, Smalla and Calvin Kruithoff in the 200 free relay (1:37.9); Smalla in the 50 free (25.28)); TerAvest in the 100 free (51.63) and Rife in the 100 back (59.74).
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