TRAVERSE CITY — Mary-Claire Rodebaugh found a home with swimming.
It offered something other activities couldn’t.
“The reason I joined swim was because all the other sports I was looking at, they didn’t have that sense of team,” the Cadillac swim team captain said. “That was something really important to me, and making friends and creating connections. I joined the swim team and that completely changed my life. Everyone here is just so nice. They just root each other on. It doesn’t matter if you had the worst swim in your life or the best. They’re going to be there for you 100 percent of the time. It’s the best experience I’ve ever had.”
The senior started swimming as a sophomore, a fairly late start in the sport.
The Traverse City Tritons won the meet handily, 140-29, in Thursday’s swim meet at the Grand Traverse YMCA in Traverse City. Rodebaugh had a hand in six of those 29 Viking points, picking up two third-place finishes and a pair of fourths.
“My first year was definitely a learning adjustment of just getting in the pool,” said Rodebaugh, who has relatives in Traverse City. “But the past two years have definitely been more competitive for me and winning races and getting medals for our team.”
She’s also a pole vaulter in track for the Vikings. With Madison Lundquist’s graduation (she moved on to Saginaw Valley), Rodebaugh will be Cadillac’s top returning vaulter.
The Tritons dominated the meet, taking the top two spots in each of the 12 events, with the lone exception of Cadillac senior captain Jordan Sprik posting a runner-up finish in the 100-yard butterfly.
For the Tritons, though, the score didn’t matter as much as competing at home. The meet was one of only two home events this season, and the second one next Friday turned into an intrasquad scrimmage after Gaylord pulled out of the meet.
“It’s nice because we don’t have to sit on a bus for three hours,” said Tritons senior captain Kayla Macnowski, who won the 100 butterfly in 1:10.86 by almost 16 seconds. “It’s fun because it’s where we’re used to practicing, and we have all of our friends and family and the crowd watching us.”
The Tritons — a cooperative team of athletes from Traverse City Central, West and St. Francis — field a roster of 28.
“It’s really nice to have friends and family around,” Tritons swimmer Kira Adams said. “We never get to have that, because our meets are so far downstate. It just feels like a lot of support.”
Ella Cabbage, the Tritons’ third captain, won all four events she entered — the 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke and legs of the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. Junior Lauren Johnson accomplished the same feat, winning the 500 freestyle, 200 free and as part of the Tritons’ winning 400 free relay and 200 free relay teams.
Adams started swimming at age 10, and she qualified for the state finals each of the last two years.
She went in the 100 breaststroke last year and as a relay alternate two seasons ago, and she hopes to add a 200 individual medley states berth this year as well. Cabbage also qualified for states last year, but Adams hopes the Tritons have a bigger contingent this time around.
“Nobody really knows about it up here,” Adams said. “It’s just so intense. It’s so much training, but it’s also a really loving sport. All your friends are with you, and it’s just very fun.”
The Tritons are split almost exactly evenly between Central (11) and West (12). For the intrasquad meet next Friday, the five St. Francis swimmers will be divvied up to make the teams even numbers.
“I knew an older girl that I was influenced by when I was a lot younger, and she did it,” Adams said. “So I started up, and I just fell in love with it — and here I am.
“Swimming is probably the most unique sport. It’s probably one of the only sports you can do for the rest of your life, and the team is just so special. It’s a co-op team, so it brings the whole city together. I wish more people knew more about it.”
Third-year Tritons coach Megan Petroelje said recruiting swimmers hasn’t been that difficult, even with the sport often going under the radar.
“It’s easier than most people expect because we have the Breakers,” Petroelje said. “We have such a good pool of kids that have been swimming for a long time. The hardest part is because we’re coming from three different schools. It’s hard at the beginning of the season to wrangle people and figure out who’s coming in and when, if they haven’t swam Breakers before.”
The Grand Traverse Bay YMCA Breakers develops younger swimmers, teaching the basics of the four strokes. Swimmers who pick up the sport at a later age often specialize in only one or two of the four.
“Even just between our first day of practice and tonight, it’s like night and day,” Petroelje said. “They’ve been working hard and trying to figure out the sport, and it’s not an easy thing to just jump in and swim a 50 freestyle. It’s been really cool to watch. That’s what I love about high school swimming. You see people who start for the very first time, and then you’ve got people who are hoping to do it in college, and you’ve got really everything in between.”
Macnowski started swimming at age 7 for the Breakers.
Macnowski said the Breakers are a little more individually based, getting swimmers trained in technique, whereas the Tritons feel like more of a team.
“With the high school team, it’s more like you’re swimming for your team,” said Macnowski, who also skis for St. Francis’ Great North Alpine co-op team in that sport. “You’re cheering on your team and teammates, and we all represent one team. I definitely like swimming with the high school even better.
“We’re really supportive. We all care about each other. We’re all proud of each other. We’re all really good friends, and it’s important to all of us to cheer for each other and support each other. It makes it more fun, too.”
Petroelje coached one year with Breakers in 2021 and then took over the Tritons program a year after that.
“It’s very fun for the girls to be able to have a lot more family here, friends here,” Petroelje said. “This being my third year, it’s less and less stressful, from start to finish, because I have so many great parents that help out and come in early. Tonight was the least stressed I’ve been at a home meet.”
The Tritons are aiming for a fourth consecutive Coastal Conference championship, and they looked the part Thursday.
Adams won the 50 free in 27.95 seconds, just beating out teammate Summer Lewandowski, while also taking the 100 breaststroke. Junior Abigail Houghton won the 100 freestyle, with Maeve Shuck and Reese Hartman rounding out the top three.
The Tritons swept the relays, taking the 200 medley relay with a team of Lewandowski, Adams, Cabbage and Paige Schillinger. The 200 freestyle relay team of Houghton, Adams, Johnson and Schillinger edged out TC’s second team by over seven seconds. The 400 free relay quartet of Johnson, Houghton, Lewandowski and Cabbage won by 18 seconds over the Tritons’ second team.
Cadillac’s program started up six years ago, with Scott Leesch taking over in the second season. The Vikings now have almost double the numbers they started with at 23 this year and 25 a season ago. Of those 23, four are brand new to swimming this year, as were nine the season before that.
Two years ago, Brie Leesch became Cadillac’s first swimmer to qualify for states and now competes for Davenport University.
“We’ve always had some really strong captains, really strong leaders,” Scott Leesch said. “They’re very much focused like today. They focused on supporting each other as they get personal bests and in a meet like today, that’s what you have to do.”
Leesch used to coach with an 8-and-under team at Easling that eventually became the Breakers.
The Vikings hope to host a meet next Thursday, although that was supposed to be against Manistee, which didn’t have enough athletes to field a team this season.
Numbers dropped in area teams since the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are creeping back up in Cadillac and Traverse City. Cadillac’s YMCA feeder team has grown each of the last two years.
“I wouldn’t have any other team,” Leesch said. “They celebrate each success. They put their arms around people who didn’t have success and console them. It’s just a great team atmosphere.”