ROYAL OAK — Detroit Catholic Central ruled the pool at last year’s Oakland County Boys Swim Championships, but didn’t finish its season the way it wanted to at state finals.
Time will tell if the Shamrocks finish this campaign in a satisfying fashion, but they are kings of the county yet again.
A total of 274 points was more than enough for Catholic Central to repeat as champs on Saturday at Royal Oak Middle School.
“I’m really proud of the boys today,” Shamrocks head coach Jessica Stoddard said. “A win is a win, even when it’s ugly. My standard’s a little bit high for my guys, but with everything considered with what we had going on, the pool, everything else, we found a way.”
Runner-up to the Shamrocks was Troy with 229 points, and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood came in third once again with 216 points.
In regards to the adversity Stoddard referenced, Catholic Central has some swimmers on its team that have been sick throughout the week, and just as much if not more significantly, it has had to practice at an assortment of locations in the lead-up to Saturday with its usual pool (Mercy) unavailable.
That didn’t stop some of the Shamrocks’ big stars from shining, like junior Camren Turowski. The D1 defending state champ (and defending county champion) in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle, Turowski broke the pool record by winning the 50 in a time of 20.81 seconds and bested his own Oakland County record set in the 100 free last year by seven-hundredths of a second, winning with a mark of 45.18.
“I tried not to think about (the disruptions) that much and just go with the flow,” Turowski said. “Things don’t always work out like you want them to, and you’ve just got to adapt and continue to execute.”
Asked how his performance in those trademark events, he added, “I felt pretty good. Right now, we’re just focusing on little things, not so much times. I was happy with both races. My underwaters have gotten so much better this season, and I’m really just focusing on really dominating come March.”
West Bloomfield’s Trae Lewis swims in the 200-yard IM at the Oakland County Boys Championships held Saturday in Royal Oak. Lewis won that event, as well as the 100-yard backstroke. (MOTH ARRICK – For MediaNews Group)
The first Oho State commit in the Buckeyes’ Class of 2027, Turowski clearly wasn’t the only one from the Shamrocks to thrive. Sophomore Bobby Gusumano took second in the 200 free, and freshman Edward Lesnau and sophomore Jaxson Woods were also top-five finishers in individual events.
“We’ve had a great freshman class,” Stoddard said. “Edward, his dad swam for CC, he’s on fire, and he was really sick last week. James Meiselbach has been sick the past two days and finally is fever-free, and he was looking to have a great meet today, but he’s doing what we need him to do by picking up points. And Bobby, I could put him in any event and he’d be top-eight. Right now, we just focus on everything coming together at the end of the season and not so much winning every single meet.”
Photo gallery from the 2026 Oakland County Boys Swim Championships in Royal Oak
As for the second-place finishers, Troy, who improved upon last year’s placement of sixth and is ranked two spots behind No. 3 Catholic Central in the D1 rankings, had the 200 free winner in senior Ben Bricker (1:39.74, a pool record), and finished at least third or better in the relays.
“We had a lot of great times kids (improved), team culture is great,” said Colts head coach Kyle Larson, who said the finish of second is the best in program history at the county meet as far as he’s aware. “I’ve been coaching for seven years and we’ve never placed this high before.”
Talking about expectations for this group and the postseason, Larson added, “Every year, the kids do well well and exceed their expectations, and that’s allowed us to raise the bar each season. Have I seen success coming down the pipeline? I think so. I knew that, this group of guys, when they were freshmen and sophomores, there was something really special about this team. And I feel really privileged to be a part of it … But we’ve still got championship season coming up, and as far as (postseason) expectations, the way I see it, there is no meeting expectations. We always push for more, raise the bar. I’m really pleased with how the team’s done, but we’re not done yet.”
Other winners included West Bloomfield senior Trae Lewis, who won both the 200 IM (1:50.50) and the 100 backstroke (49.60), Groves junior Nathan Stebbins in the 500 free (4:43.75), and the Cranbrook duo of junior Ethan Xu (100 butterfly) and senior AJ Farner (100 breaststroke).
——————————
TEAM SCORES: 1. Detroit Catholic Central, 274. 2. Troy, 229. 3. Cranbrook-Kingswood, 216. 4. Stoney Creek, 204. 5. Bloomfield Hills, 179. 6. Farmington, 157. 7. Lake Orion, 120. 8. Birmingham Groves, 114. 9. Rochester Adams, 110. 10. Birmingham Seaholm, 100. 11. Novi, 82.5. 12. South Lyon, 78. 13. Huron Valley United (Milford/Lakeland), 74. 14. Clarkston, 72. 15. Brother Rice, 66. 16. Rochester, 57. 17. Detroit Country Day, 46. 18. West Bloomfield, 40. 19. Oxford, 30. 20. (tie) Walled Lake Central, 23. 20. (tie) Royal Oak, 23. 22. Troy Athens, 12. 23. Walled Lake Northern, 11. 24. Ferndale, 7.5.
200 MEDLEY RELAY: Cranbrook-Kingswood (Ryan VanDyke, AJ Farner, Ethan Xu, Will Schwab), 1:34.56. 2. Troy, 1:37.49. 3. Stoney Creek, 1:37.51. 4. Farmington, 1:38.01. 5. Groves, 1:38.10. 6. Seaholm, 1:38.47. 7. Bloomfield Hills, 1:39.12. 8. Catholic Central, 1:39.14. 9. Rochester, 1:39.65. 10. Huron Valley, 1:39.71.
200 FREESTYLE: 1. Ben Bricker, Troy, 1:39.74. 2. Sam Campbell, Huron Valley, 1:43.49. 3. Bobby Gusumano, Catholic Central, 1:44.09. 4. Braeden Covintree, Clarkston, 1:44.59. 5. Ryan VanDyke, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 1:44.66. 6. Seif Elbaradey, Bloomfield Hills, 1:44.96. 7. Edward Lesnau, Catholic Central, 1:45.15. 8. Aidan Arthurs, Adams, 1:45.42. 9. Will Schwab, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 1:47.37. 10. Aiden McDonald, Lake Orion, 1:47.69.
200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: 1. Trae Lewis, West Bloomfield, 1:50.50. 2. Ethan Xu, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 1:50.63. 3. Zach Kipf, Farmington, 1:57.75. 4. Kingston Teng, Adams, 1:59.01. 5. Jaxson Woods, Catholic Central, 1:59.85. 6. Larson Custer, Troy, 2:00.22. 7. Charlie Antone, Bloomfield Hills, 2:00.46. 8. Austin Pursley, Stoney Creek, 2:00.62. 9. Kyle Hulliberger, WL Northern, 2:00.75. 10. Jonathan Nelson, Stoney Creek, 2:02.23.
50 FREESTYLE: 1. Camren Turowski, Catholic Central, 20.81. 2. Miles Marx, Bloomfield Hills, 21.35. 3. AJ Farner, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 21.77. 4. Jack Higgins, Country Day, 21.79. 5. Gorka Zozaya-Morales, Stoney Creek, 21.82. 6. Turner Worth, Brother Rice, 22.05. 7. James Miselbach, Catholic Central, 22.20. 8. Lonis Weslati, Troy, 22.26. 9. Cayden Womack, Lake Orion, 22.40. 10. Joshua Luo, Farmington, 22.45.
1-METER DIVING: 1. Colin Bauer, Adams, 407.75. 2. Matthew Schwarzenberger, Lake Orion, 386. 3. Tyler Mollan, Lake Orion, 357.40. 4. Bennett Hunt, South Lyon, 300.65. 5. Dylan Dowdell, Royal Oak, 277.55. 6. Nathan LaGest, Oxford, 273.75. 7. Everett Marshall, Troy Athens, 261. 8. Finn Ferguson, South Lyon, 253.75. 9. Ishaan Thurman, Novi, 248.65. 10. Jimmy Jones, Lake Orion, 237.30.
100 BUTTERFLY: 1. Ethan Xu, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 49.62. 2. Miles Marx, Bloomfield Hills, 50.77. 3. Gorka Morales-Zozaya, Stoney Creek, 52.24. 4. Jayson Kim, Stoney Creek, 53.24. 5. Braeden Covintree, Clarkston, 53.31. 6. Liam Lindberg, Oxford, 53.53. 7. Jonathan Nelson, Stoney Creek, 53.76. 8. Diego Baca, WL Central, 53.77. 9. Ryan Brown, Catholic Central, 53.93. 10. Blake Davidson, Clarkston, 54.74.
100 FREESTYLE: 1. Camren Turowski, Catholic Central, 45.18. 2. Elliot Rijnovean, Seaholm, 47.84. 3. Seif Elbradey, Bloomfield Hills, 48.22. 4. Maddox LaMothe, Lake Orion, 48.59. 5. Lonis Weslati, Troy, 48.62. 6. Jack Higgins, Country Day, 48.83. 7. Kaiden Hammond, Troy, 493.1. 8. Ian Whan, Groves, 49.38. 9. James Meiselbach, Catholic Central, 49.47. 10. Joey Vicari, Stoney Creek, 49.69.
500 FREESTYLE: 1. Nathan Stebbins, Groves, 4:43.75. 2. Aidan Arthurs, Adams, 4:44.73. 3. Larson Custer, Troy, 4:46.64. 4. Bobby Gusumano, Catholic Central, 4:47.16. 5. Edward Lesnau, Catholic Central, 4:50.34. 6. Will Schwab, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 4:52.04. 7. Victor Malinski, Bloomfield Hills, 4:53.96. 8. Riley Weber, South Lyon, 4:54.95. 9. Nolan Goff, Seaholm, 4:55.32. 10. Mason Fecteau, Farmington, 4:56.41.
200 FREESTYLE RELAY: 1. Catholic Central (James Miselbach, Bobby Gusumano, Edward Lesnau, Camren Turowski), 1:26.38. 2. Bloomfield Hills, 1:27.46. 3. Troy, 1:28.60. 4. Farmington, 1:29.41. 5. Stoney Creek, 1:30.24. 6. Huron Valley, 1:30.32. 7. Clarkston, 1:31.89. 8. Rochester, 1:32.21. 9. Brother Rice, 1:32.99. 10. Country Day, 1:33.10.
100 BACKSTROKE: 1. Trae Lewis, West Bloomfield, 49.60. 2. Elliot Rijnovean, Seaholm, 50.60. 3. Sam Campbell, Huron Valley, 50.68. 4. Ben Bricker, Troy, 50.82. 5. Ryan VanDyke, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 51.11. 6. Joshua Luo, Farmington, 53.04. 7. Thomas Collias, Catholic Central, 53.54. 8. Turner Worth, Brother Rice, 54.22. 9. Joey Vicari, Stoney Creek, 54.32. 10. Daewon Lee, Troy, 54.58.
100 BREASTSTROKE: 1. AJ Farner, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 57.17. 2. Nathan Stebbins, Groves, 58.74. 3. Austin Pursley, Stoney Creek, 1:00.53. 4. Zach Kipf, Farmington, 1:00.59. 5. Kingston Teng, Adams, 1:00.71. 6. Finn Murray, Seaholm, 1:00.84. 7. Eric Zhou, Troy, 1:00.97. 8. Riley Weber, South Lyon, 1:01.04. 9. Markus Cho, Farmington, 1:01.08. 10. Jaxson Woods, Catholic Central, 1:01.47.
400 FREESTYLE RELAY: 1. Cranbrook-Kingswood (Ethan Xu, Ryan VanDyke, Will Schwab, AJ Farner), 3:08.44. 2. Catholic Central, 3:09.20. 3. Troy, 3:10.83. 4. Stoney Creek, 3:18.01. 5. Lake Orion, 3:18.94. 6. Novi, 3:18.96. 7. Groves, 3:19.36. 8. Bloomfield Hills, 3:19.49. 9. Farmington, 3:20.47. 10. Adams, 3:21.52.