Lansing boys, girls finished nationally ranked

The Lansing swimming and diving programs received national honors last week for both the boys and girls teams. The boys team was ranked seventh in the nation, and the girls were ranked eighth by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) among schools with an enrollment of fewer than 900 students.

Scores were submitted throughout the season to NISCA by member schools across the country and tallied up at the end of the year. Following a difficult and unique season, Lansing swimming and diving head coach Diane Hicks-Hughes was grateful for the recognition.

“I’m very pleased for the kids,” Hicks-Hughes said. “They had a tough year and they worked through it and they deserve it. The boys season was all virtual, even championships. So, that was very different. Then, two weeks later, we go to in-person meets [for the girls team]; that was really crazy. It was a totally different experience.”

Of course, the biggest difference this season was the lack of people at the meets. As guidelines were loosened, swim meets went from no fans to a limited capacity of only home team fans. Hicks-Hughes was impressed at the energy the team had without a crowd to draw from.

“When we were home, we could have our own fans for the girls,” Hicks-Hughes said. “The boys had no fans. It was totally virtual. But they did awesome. I was surprised at how well they psyched themselves up and competed against a virtual team. They did incredible, more than I could have ever dreamt up. The girls had somebody to compete with, and they did their normal routine. It was like apples and oranges for boys and girls.”

Hicks-Hughes recently concluded her two-year term as the president of NISCA, which had unforeseen challenges due to the pandemic.

“I can say that I am the only female president [for NISCA],” she said. “I’m also the only one that had to deal with a pandemic, and I would not wish that upon anyone. It was a very different, very intriguing term for me but not at all what I expected.”

With the lack of uniformity across states regarding high school sports protocols, not every state was represented in the final national rankings.

“We just had a few states that didn’t compete or didn’t have sections compete,” Hicks-Hughes said. “But overall, coaches did what they needed to do throughout the nation. We had the kids swim, and they posted some great times.”

Hicks-Hughes went into detail about some of the state-to-state differences that are even present in a normal season.

“Every state has their own protocol, and some sections have their own protocol,” she said. “Postseason is very different in every state. We are very unique. We hold two state meets — the federation and the public. I believe we are the only ones in the nation that do that. I’ve never found another one that does anything similar, but it works for us. As long as it’s going forward for the kids, that’s all that matters.”

The ripple effect of COVID-19 will still be felt next season. Considering the fall season occurred after the winter season earlier this year, the girls team will have a shorter offseason than normal when they return to practice Aug. 23. Hicks-Hughes is not sure what to expect in terms of how that will impact the teams’ performance.

“I honestly have no idea [what the impact will be],” she said. “COVID threw a wrench in the whole program, but the kids survived and did extremely well. I expect the kids to do extremely well under the normal circumstances. I’m really not expecting. I’m just going to kind of wait and see.”

Both teams have a promising outlook going into next season. The boys team graduated just one swimmer, team captain Sam Debbie, and is coming off a third-place finish at the Section IV Class C Championships. The girls team graduated three seniors, Olivia Larounis and NISCA Academic All-Americans Grace Kadlecik and Mackenzie Stark, and will be looking to build on a second-place finish at sectionals.

The team accolades continued beyond the top-10 national finishes for both teams. The girls and boys teams were both recognized with a Silver Level Team Scholar Award, owning a combined 3.717 GPA and 3.672 GPA, respectively. It was also the 32nd consecutive year the girls team landed in the national rankings.