Historic state finals showing for Farmington swim and dive

FARMINGTON — The Farmington swim and dive program has been around for 54 years, and for 54 years the swim and dive team has longed for a state finals trophy.

Various Falcons teams have been strong enough to bring one home, but sometimes it’s the group that comes out of nowhere that gets the job done.

The Falcons have been in the midst of a renovation the past few seasons, competing in the Oakland Activities Association Blue in 2021 and 2022 before moving to the White in 2023, and then finally making their stop in the highest conference, the Red, this year.

With quality senior leaders at the helm and returning a core of their state finals swimmers from last season, who finished seventh, Farmington had the makings of a team that could surprise everyone this season.

“The last few years have been more rebuilding the team and everything,” senior Lochlain Hart said. “We had a pretty young team last year, and we’ve just been continuously developing. Everybody has made massive improvements. It’s just been improving and rebuilding consistently.”

It just so happened that Farmington’s improvements landed them the highest state finals finish in school history this year when the Falcons finished tied for second in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 2 State Championship with Birmingham Seaholm March 9 at Eastern Michigan University, finishing one point shy of first-place Birmingham Groves.

Seaholm and Groves both faced a DQ throughout the meet, keeping Farmington in the hunt and inevitably having the state championship come down to the final event, the 400 freestyle relay, in which Groves came out on top.

Regardless of being so close to the state title, Farmington’s swim and dive trophy case was bare no more, and the guys were more than excited to show off the hardware.

“It was very honorable and cool that the Seaholm coach was like, ‘Hey, you guys can go ahead and take that second place trophy,’ even though we tied,” Farmington coach Andrew Hansz said. “The MHSAA is going to send Seaholm a trophy later, but just for those guys to have that trophy to hold and walk around with Saturday night, and I know because I saw pictures. On Monday, I had practice after school for my club team and a couple of the kids came in, and one of them was one of the captains holding it. I could just picture him all throughout school yesterday carrying that trophy around like he was in health class carrying around a flour bag, like in health class when you have to carry it around like a baby. That’s what I pictured of him carrying the trophy around from class to class.”

The only thing the Falcons should feel is a sense of pride for what they accomplished, and it was a top-to-bottom team effort at the state finals.

Farmington earned individual all-State performances (awarded to the top-8) from senior Leland Curanovic (200 freestyle/100 freestyle), junior Paul DeMartini (200 individual medley/100 butterfly), sophomore Luke Morden (50 freestyle), sophomore Joshua Luo (200 individual medley) and Hart (100 backstroke).

Farmington had a strong showing on the relay side as their 200 freestyle relay (Morden, Luo, Curanovic, and junior Jack Tomlinson) earned the state championship trophy, while the 400 freestyle relay (DeMartini, Hart, Tomlinson, Curanovic) were state runners-up. The 200 medley relay (Hart, Luo, DeMartini, and sophomore Zach Kipf) earned all-State honors as well.

The Falcons took care of business in the championship final races, but they also dominated the consolation races as well, keeping them alive for second place.

The consolation heats (9th-16th) belonged to Farmington as Kipf (200 individual medley), Tomlinson (100 freestyle), Luo (500 freestyle) and Morden (100 backstroke) all took ninth.

“We went on a string of winning every one of those,” Hansz said. “We never would’ve been in the position we were in had those kids not raced and won those consolation heats and finished in ninth place.”

Ironically, the Division 2 state title came down to a trio of OAA Red teams that were all too familiar with each other.

Being a graduate of Groves in 1991, Hansz knows the competition level of the OAA and what’s expected, so he was prepared for a dogfight week in and week out this season, and he’s excited to return to the Red for another year.

“We maintained Red status again for next year, and that’s important, because you’re swimming against the top kids in the state week to week and dual meet to dual meet,” Hansz said. “That’s who you’re going to see at the state meet. It’s extremely important.”

Curanovic and Hart are both expected to swim at the collegiate level, with Curanovic currently committed to Wayne State University, and they’ve left an expectation for the young Falcons to continue.

“They worked hard all year,” Hansz said. “Because of that, they set the foundation for our sophomore and junior class, and even the freshman that didn’t make the state meet.”

There’s a healthy number of young talent looking to take the next step for the Falcons, and there’s plenty of momentum to build on for next year.

The leadership void will be tough to fill, but Curanovic said DeMartini has all the makings to be a great leader next year.

“He carries himself really well,” Curanovic said, “He’s a quiet guy and a respectful guy, and very humble. He’s a very talented swimmer; he likes to speak more with his actions than his words. He sets a really good example for those younger guys, and I think he’s going to step up and really lead this team to future success.”