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There appears to be a new star around every turn of
the pool in Michigan
high school swimming.
Many of the standouts of this season, which ended
officially Saturday,
will be in college next fall. But some of the returnees promise to be
something
special.
Take Doug Webster, 15-year-old Royal Oak Kimball
sophomore.
Already the National Junior AAU long-distance
champion, young Doug became
the first Michigan high school swimmer to crack 4:00 in the 400-yard
freestyle
Friday night with a time of 3:59.8. He came back Saturday in the
finals of the event in the state Class A meet at Ann Arbor with a
blazing
time of 3:56.8.
"One of the greatest races I ever saw." appraised Gus
Stager, University
of Michigan coach.
That performance almost automatically gave Webster a
spot on the second
annual Detroit News All-State swimming team, which includes several
others
of national ranking.
Those selected with Webster are: Ken Wiebeck, of
Thurston, the finest
all-around swimmer yet produced here; freestylers Pete Adams and Tom
Coupe,
of Birmingham Seaholm, and Dave Gibson of Saginaw Arthur Hill, and
butterfly
specialist John Musulin, of Monroe.
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Frank Freeman, of Fordson, a midseason grauduate who
has the fastest
100-yard breaststroke clocking in the nation, and Rocherster's one-man
team, backstroker Hugh Wilder, also are on the All-State list.
DOUG WEBSTER
400-Yard Freestyle
* * * * *
Ann Arbor High's combination of Fred Boyles, Dave
Cushing, Pete House
and John Baird was chosen for the medley relay with the Birmingham
Groves
unit of Kevin Tooma, Scott Jones, Chuck Mitchell and Dave Mead listed
for
the freestyle relay. Chuck Stenback, of Ferndale, is the All-State
diver.
Don Trost, producer of two consecutive state Class B
championship teams
at Riverview, is The News' swimming coach of the year. Cory Van Fleet,
of Seaholm, was selected last season.
An exception from normal All-State policy was made in
the case of Freeman,
whose breastroke clocking of 1:01.7 for the 100 yards just prior to his
February graduation was only a tenth of a second off the national
scholastic
record.
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Midseason graduates do not usually qualify for
All-State consideration.
But Freeman, who appears headed for Indiana University, was so
outstanding
that coaching experts and rivals alike could see no other choice.
Wiebeck,
also one of the hot college prospects, wound up his prep career with a
smashing time of 55.8 in the backstroke and 2:03.9 in the individual
medley
in the Class A meet.
The versatile Thurston star was placed in the
individual on the All-State
with Wilder, runner-up in the backstroke despite an unfortunate final
turn,
named to the squad in his speciality.
Adams blazed to a record of 1:50.2 in the 200
freestyle at Ann Arbor
and still had the stuff to lead Webster to his mark in the 400. Adams
was
timed in 3:57.2 in the second event.
Coupe, Adams' Seaholm teammate, hit 49.6 for the 100
freestyle at Ann
Arbor, near Wiebeck's 1963 record of 49.3; Bigson swam the 50 in 22
flat
and placed third in the Class B finals and his next two were runners-up
to East Grand Rapids. His dual meet won-lost record now stands at 61-30.
All-State selection, aided by Pat Wallace, of Dondero
High, who compiles
the weekly lists of outstanding times published in The News, will bring
approved awards to the boys chosen.
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