2025 Swim & Dive Oakland County Champions

Mercy wins third consecutive Oakland County Girls Swim Championship

By Bryan Everson The Oakland Press

ROYAL OAK – The numbers say that Farmington Hills Mercy was slightly better than last year at Saturday’s Oakland County Girls Swim Championship. After all, the Marlins finished with 364 points, one more than in 2024.

But just because no team came within 200 points of Mercy doesn’t mean victory came handily.

“I wouldn’t call today easy by any stretch of the imagination,” Mercy coach Mike Venos said. “They were very tired. One of the things I told them is, ‘Good teams don’t have it every day, but they bring it every day nonetheless.’ They brought it today.”

Saturday afternoon at Royal Oak Middle School ended the same way it started for Mercy – by securing full points with a first-place relay finish.

The Marlins edged out South Lyon East in the 200 medley relay by a little under a second in the opening event of the afternoon. To wrap it up, their 400 free relay team of Avery Tack, Campbell Shore, Ella Hafner and Lyla Collins had to edge our West Bloomfield’s quartet headlined by anchor leg Elizabeth Eichbrecht.

Despite the ground that Eichbrecht, one of the state’s top swimmers who had already claimed two wins on the day, was able to make up (finishing her leg in 48.78), Collins was fast enough to secure Mercy’s win in the 400 with a time of 3:33.04, just 13 hundredths of a second faster than the Lakers.

Collins said she normally clocks in at around 55 seconds for her leg of the event and on Saturday was several seconds quicker than that.

“I’d say seeing (Eichbrecht) out of the corner of my eye and her catching up really helped me to go faster, for sure,” Collins said. “I was just so proud of everyone I was on the relay with. I’m happy to represent Mercy with them.”

Added Venos, “These girls come in and swimming is such an individual sport that sometimes it’s hard to get kids to buy into the team aspect. If there’s anything we’ve had for years, even before I got (to Mercy), it’s that you swim for the M on the cap. A lot of girls made some individual sacrifices today that really (helped) do what’s best for the team … The fact our relay teams did better than our individuals says a lot about how they buy into the program.”

Along with Collins and Hafner (a sophomore), freshman Tessa Glass and junior Leah Graves made up the Marlins' foursome that beat out Rochester for first place in the 200 free relay.

Though Seaholm didn't win any events, it still pieced together 144 points, which allowed the Maples to beat out West Bloomfield for second place by just one point. Early in the day, Eichbrecht broke the county meet record (previously held by Marian's Mollie Pulte) in the 200 free by a tenth of a second with a time of 1:49.39.

She wasn't done there. Eichbrecht not only toppled her own county record in the 500 free previously set in 2022, but won with a time of 4:43.80, over two-thirds of a second better than any on record at a MHSAA state final. Per SwimCloud's website, there's no faster high school time in the country this year in the 500 than Saturday's effort by the Indiana commit.

Behind the top trio, South Lyon East took fourth (139.5 points), Novi came fifth with 133, and the rest of the top-10 included Berkley (123), Rochester (118), Country Day (111), Lake Orion (108) and Groves (104)

Other individual winners Saturday, other than Mercy's Tack (200 IM), included South Lyon senior Emma Klotz in the 50 free and the 100 butterfly, Adams junior Morgan Rea in diving, Country Day junior Quinn Norlander in the 100 free and the 100 backstroke, and Berkley junior Mia Mracna in the 100 breaststroke.

Norlander's backstroke time of 55.11 narrowly missed the county record held by Mercy's Katie Minnich by seven hundredths of a second.

"I'm very excited to have swam fast," Norlander said. "We've been working hard all season and it's nice to see the work pay off. I've been going like a 56 (flat) consistently, so 55 is pretty good for me."

As for the Marlins, who are looking to 3-peat at the D2 state finals, Venos likes his team's odds. "I think we're in a good place," he said. "We're right where we need to be to have a really good state meet. I'm boring to talk to in that way, because we never ever mention the word win. We always focus on the things we can control and what makes us better, and I think it's a big key to our success over the years. Winning a state championship depends on what everyone else is doing, and we don't focus on that. The more we focus on winning, the more we swim afraid to lose.

"It's been a rollercoaster year so far with a lot of mental approaches with some of the girls, but I think we're starting to pull it all together."