By: Jonathan Szczepaniak | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published April 3, 2023
ST. CLAIR SHORES — St. Clair Shores Lake Shore boys swim and dive has been continuously progressing each year, and their 2023 campaign brought home an achievement that has never been done in the program’s history.
On Feb. 24 at Lake Shore High School, Lake Shore earned first place in the Macomb Area Conference-Silver league meet by 14.5 points.
Lake Shore was a perfect 4-0 this season in league play to tally the school’s first outright league-winning season in school history.
“It was just a smile for everyone,” senior Ryan Peters said. “Our coach was more than happy about it, and we just took in every moment with it as far as pride goes.”
Sophomore Arber Buzi was electric at the MAC-Silver meet, tallying two first-place finishes in the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.
Buzi, who lost only one race this season, led Lake Shore in points this year and will be a force in the MAC the next two years.
“He’s a phenomenal swimmer,” Lake Shore coach Robert Couck said. “He’s on pace to have a real shot at our records when he’s a senior.”
Alongside Buzi, sophomore Glen Vasili took first in the 100 backstroke while junior Gavin Montgomery earned first in the 100 breaststroke. Vasili and Montgomery also teamed up with Buzi and sophomore Carter Kohl to take first in the 200 freestyle relay. Montgomery and Vasili, both students at the International Academy of Macomb, commute to Lake Shore every day during swim season to compete.
Couck said Montgomery, Buzi, and Vasili will look to be the catalysts for Lake Shore swim and dive moving forward.
“Those three kids were really kind of the leaders that led our team to victory in most of the meets,” Couck said.
While the young core were leaders in the pool, Peters and senior Josh Blevins, both team captains, were high-impact players in every aspect for Lake Shore.
Couck said their leadership qualities were a key factor in Lake Shore’s success this season.
“Every day, they were clear about how important it was to be at practice every day and doing all the things that I’m asking because they’ve seen in their three years the progression of kids not knowing what they’re doing to being top swimmers in their division, and even beating kids in higher levels,” Couck said.
It wasn’t an ideal start to the season for Lake Shore, dropping their first two meets of the season to out-of-conference opponents Warren Cousino and Warren Woods Tower.
Once league play opened up, Lake Shore was unstoppable en route to their 5-2 record on the year.
During their stretch of success, Couck said the team had its share of surprises, but none better than the production sophomore Brady Simmons provided.
“He joined this year new, never competitively swam and was one of our best swimmers towards the end of the year,” Couck said. “I never expect someone new to swim that strong. He was willing to take on every race and swim as best as he could.”
Lake Shore will need all the surprises they can get in 2024 as they are slated to move up to the MAC-Gold division, and also graduate 11 seniors in the process.
Winning the dual-meet league championship for three-straight years in the MAC-Silver, including a three-way tie for first in 2021, Lake Shore will look to continue its success behind a slew of talented underclassmen.
“I’m just hoping we can go for four years in a row here, but it’s going to be a challenge,” Couck said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”