{"id":1155,"date":"2016-11-30T13:07:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T18:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2016-11-30T13:07:34","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T18:07:34","slug":"howell-do-you-know-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1155","title":{"rendered":"Howell Do You Know Swimming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathon Hansen<\/strong>
\nEcho
\nGrand Blanc HS
\nDivision 1, Yearbook
\nSports Reporting<\/p>\n

Swimmers were known to recover from difficult races by replenishing with chocolate milk or a cool-down. But after their loss to their rival, Howell, 99-87, the meet proved to be a hard one for swimmers to recover from.<\/p>\n

The outcome was especially agonizing for junior Ryan Johnston. Being the anchor of the relay, Johnston had a call placed against him. \u201cI was angry,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cI was really mad. I remember I dropped down to my knees. I felt cheated for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the meet, the score was close. It came down to the 400 freestyle relay, the last event. GB needed to get first and third to secure the win, and they felt confident that their team of Johnston, junior Bailey Curtis, senior Kenny Joynt, and junior Julian Russell could earn a victory. Initially, GB was declared the winner. Then they were disqualified, which gave the win to Howell. However, Howell was also given a DQ of their own, making the Bobcats champs once again.<\/p>\n

It was not long before the official gave GB another call that finally gave the win to Howell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won the last relay, and I jumped out of the pool and hugged Nick Price,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThe official disqualified me for getting out of the pool too early. We looked in the rule book and that wasn\u2019t a rule. So I threw my cap and he decided to DQ me for that. He reported me to the MHSAA, and lied about what I did and said I was shaking the lane line. But we had video evidence showing that I didn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team was determined to discover a reason for the calling. \u201cWe felt cheated and robbed,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cOur relay won that last event fair and square. We won. It was stupid for them to make a call that\u2019s not even in the rule book. To DQ us…it sucked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, Curtis believed the call was excessive. \u201cThe ref over-exaggerated the call, but it was out of our hands,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

Coach Overmyer tried to grasp what had happened. \u201cAt first, I had a brief moment of shock as I tried to comprehend the official\u2019s reasoning,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter that, all I wanted was proof that his call was a legitimate rule and persisted that he show it to me in the rule book. All I wanted to do was fight the call because the team worked hard and gave it everything they had in the end and did not deserve to be defeated with a false DQ.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effects of the DQ spiraled into the next meet. The official ejected Johnston, causing him to have to sit out the next competition in Hartland. But, that was not all. \u201cThe official also filed an unsportsmanlike conduct report on me,\u201d Overmyer said.<\/p>\n

While the loss was cemented in the record books, the experience fueled the team to beat Howell in meets to follow. \u201cThey can\u2019t wait to face Howell again,\u201d Overmyer said. \u201c[GBSD] are focused on getting the job done when it matters most, at Conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team faced Howell and all other teams at Divisions. Grand Blanc won (563 points), while Howell got 2nd (455 points). The next challenge was Conferences. GB won their first KLAA Conference meet since leaving the Big Nine in 2009. Grand Blanc boasted 90 percent personal bests with 36 of the 40 entries making finals. The bobcats earned 790 points, destroying Howell who had 690.<\/p>\n

The crew headed out to Eastern University for States, the last championship of the season, two weeks later. Qualifers included Johnston, Price, Curtis, Russell, sophomore James Walker, junior Matthew Wolfgram, and senior Anthony Quitos. Johsnton was the only swimmer who made it mack to finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jonathon Hansen Echo Grand Blanc HS Division 1, Yearbook Sports Reporting Swimmers were known to recover from difficult races by replenishing with chocolate milk or a cool-down. But after their loss to their rival, Howell, 99-87, the meet proved to be a hard one for swimmers to recover from. The outcome was especially agonizing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[102,3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sportsreporting","category-yb","category-ybverbal","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Aaron Vergith","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=6"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-iD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}