Pioneer, Dexter champs again
State powers keep Southeastern Conference swim title streaks going
Sunday, February 29, 2004
BY BRETT DEGROFF
News Sports Reporter
The Southeastern Conference Championships' 200-yard freestyle record Sho Koba set in the preliminaries Friday never made it onto the wall at Pioneer High School.
Koba (1 minute, 42.25seconds) beat his own record Saturday in the finals to lead the Pioneer High School boys swim team to its fifth straight SEC Red Division title.
Pioneer (694) had seven overall first place finishes to run away from second-place Saline (326). Pioneer's other overall
individual champions were Robert Steele (100 butterfly), Dustin Hennigar (50 free) and Kevan Whalen (500 free).
Dexter took the SEC White Division crown with 461 points. Chelsea (246) finished second, followed by Tecumseh (158) and Lincoln (59).
The championship for Dexter, which had nine first-place
finishes in the White and two overall firsts, marks its sixth in a row dating to before the SEC expanded and broke into divisions.
And Pioneer's Koba wasn't the only swimmer notching his name into the record books.
Dexter's Bryan Vessels upset Koba in the 100 freestyle and tied Dexter graduate Adam Messner's SEC record with a swim of 47.14.
"About halfway through, I knew I had an edge (over Koba)," Vessels said. "But I had no idea I'd be close to the record."
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