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ANN ARBOR, March 14. - Birmingham Seaholm
retained the state Class
A high school swimming championship Saturday night, but the sensation
of
the competition was Doug Webster's come-from-behind victory over Pete
Adams
in the 400-yard freestyle.
Webster's 3:56.77 compared to Adam's 3:57.12 and both
had broken Doug's
mark of 3:59.78 mad in Friday night's preliminaries. Webster, 15, a
sophomore
at Royal Oak Kimball, has been trying to beat Adams, 17, a senior at
Seaholm,
for the last two seasons in both prep and open racing.
Adams was the champion and the record holder. Webster
was always the
runner up. Tonight was Doug's.
Ken Wiebeck, of Thurston High, also grabbed a starring
role. The versatile
swimmer smashed records in the 200-yard individual medley and the
100-yard
backstroke. His times were 2:03.8 and 55.6, respectively.
At the start, Adams burned up the water as he covered
the 50-yard distance
in :25.5, the 100 in :54.3, and the 200 in 1:54.6. At this point
Webster
was 15 feet behind, but moving along like and easy swimming
porpoise.
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At the 250-mark, Webster began to move up and Adams
faltered. At the
350-yard mark Webster flipped on even terms at the wall.
Doug moved in front to stay, but he was taking no
chances. As he cam
down the last length of the 25-yard pool he put his head down and
sprinted
the last five strokes. Adams also put on a spurt, but Webster took the
race by a stroke.
Coach Corey Van Fleet's well-balanced Seaholm squad
piled up 92 1/4
points as Royal Oak Kimball finished second with 73. Ann Arbor was
third
with 41 and Battle Creek Central fourth on 30 1/2.
The race between Webster and Adams somewhat
over-shadowed the superlative
record-breaking of Wiebeck. Ken ripped the 200-yard individual medley
mark
of 2:03.38. Rick Skarbo, of Western, held the old standard of 2:06.7.
After
the slim Wiebeck lowered his own 100-yard backstroke of :56.14 to
:55.65,
he was given a standing ovation in the jam-packed Matt Mann pool. This
is in tribute to the lad who has been called Michigan's greatest high
school
swimmer.
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