Photo courtesy of Golden Grizzlies

When great sports dynasties come to mind, people think of Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the ‘90s, Brady’s Patriots, Mickey Mantle’s Yankees in the ‘50s, or Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers in the ‘80s.

But what about the Oakland University swim and dive team? With their most recent Horizon League conference meet victory, they now have won 46 consecutive conference championships for men’s and 30 consecutive conference championships for women’s.

So how did this most recent meet go? Let’s break it down day by day.

Day One

The first evening of events started off with a bang as the women’s 200-yard medley relay won first place with a time of 1:42.39. Clarissa Bezuidenhout (backstroke), Bella Gary (breaststroke), Sophia Davis (butterfly) and Sam Thiessen (freestyle) swam excellently. The men came up short in second place behind IUPUI, losing by a mere 0.14 seconds. Harry Nicholson, Christian Bart, Colin Martin and Charlie Brown posted a 1:25.31 time, a new school record for the 200-medley relay.

Elleana Chalifoux, a senior, took first place in the 3-meter dive with a score of 323.35, followed by Victoria Sanders, who took third. The two teammates hold a very tight bond, with Chalifoux saying, “Watching her succeed and absolutely crush her dives makes me happiest, and I could not do it without her.”

The women’s relays continued to dominate the night, taking first place in the 800-yard freestyle relay behind junior standout Jordyn Shipps, Nora Molnar, Mia Englender and Thiessen again anchoring. The men also came in first, with Nicholson again leading, followed by senior phenom Jack Wike, Sofus Belladone and Jonas Cantrell.

The count at the end of the day stood at women’s 116 points in first and men’s 74 points in first.

Day Two

The 500-yard freestyles kicked off the second evening. No women Grizzlies placed in the top three, but Lola Laenen took fourth, Erika Pietras claimed fifth and Angelina Baker rounded it out in seventh. Jonas Cantrell took first for the men with a time of 4:20.27. Nicholson came in sixth as well.

Next up was the 200-yard IM. The women swept this race, with Shipps coming in first, Bezuidenhout taking second, and Englender in third. Bella Gary would come in eighth. For the men, Wike would set a school and Horizon League record with a time of 1:44.66. Teammates, Ian Allen (basketball game haircut legend), Max Haney and Dane Charleston took fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

In the 50-yard freestyle, the sprint of all sprints, Ronja Riihinen and Sam Thiessen would tie for third place, sharing a podium spot with a time of 23.31. The Grizzly star, fifth-year Christian Bart, came up just shy of first place with a time of 19.72, just 0.08 seconds behind first-place Spencer Jyawook from IUPUI. Oakland’s Micah Scheffer took fifth.

More relay domination was up next for Oakland. The women came in first in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with Shipps, Thiessen, Mia Keranen and Riihinen clocking in at 1:32.31. What did the men do? They only set a new Horizon League record to the tune of 1:18.49. “We’re gonna come back the next year and break it again. Winning is the main quest, the records are just life’s reward for working hard,” Scheffer said.

After a second day of events, the women still led with 325 points, a whole 83 points ahead of second-place Milwaukee. The men were still caught in a close matchup, trailing IUPUI by 12 points with 267 total.

Day Three

Jordyn Shipps set a school and league record in the 100-yard fly, coming in first with a time of 53.04. McNamara, Ajete Eggers, Davis, Killinger and Keranen all placed in the top eight as well.

“The race I am most proud of is the 100 fly,” Shipps said. “It’s always been one of my favorite races to compete in, but we also had six Oakland women in the A final, which is unheard of at a championship meet.”

Belladone would claim third place for the men, followed by Martin in fourth, Auben Nugent in fifth, and Scheffer in eighth.

In the women’s 400-yard IM, Mia Englender would finish third with a time of 4:27.96, followed by Delaney Buckner in eighth. Second place went to Ian Allen, followed by Charleston at fifth for the men.

The Grizzly women took third, fourth and fifth with Thiessen, Pietras and Molnar in the 200-yard freestyle. Jonas Cantrell claimed his third first-place finish with a time of 1:35.92. Brown followed him in eighth.

Another Grizzly came in first in the 100-yard breast, this time being Bella Gary, winning first place for the women with a time of 1:03.07. McNamara and Ava Lewis took sixth and eighth. The men took second, third, fourth and seventh, with Bart, Christopher Palvadre and Alex Lakin going second through fourth. Carson Ricker came up the rear in seventh.

Freshman of the Year in the Horizon League, Clarissa Bezuidenhout, came in first in the 100-yard back at 1:58.89. On the men’s side of things, Max Haney, Harry Nicholson and Sofus Belladone took fourth, fifth and eighth, respectively.

In the final dive event for Oakland, Chalifoux came in second, closely followed by teammate Sanders at third. Women’s diving coach Larry Albright won Horizon League Diving Coach of the Year as well.

Women’s relays could not be stopped, this time in the 400-meter relay. Another first-place finish for Bezuidenhout, Gary, Shipps and Riihinen. The men came in second with Nicholson, Bart, Martin and Brown.

After the third day of events, the men reclaimed first with 558.5 points, while the women held strong with a commanding 646.5 points.

Day 4

The Grizzlies reigned on the final day of the meet with utter dominance. It was first-place finish after first-place finish. The 200-yard back started the evening off strong, sweeping first place in both the men’s and women’s races. Clarissa Bezuidenhout took another first-place finish with 1:58.89, while Harry Nicholson swam a 1:42.64.

Oakland swept the 100-yard Free, as well. Ronja Riihinen went 50.41 followed by Christian Bart at 43.16. Two more Grizzly first-place finishes.

In the 200-yard breast, Bella Gary took her second individual first-place finish of the meet with a time of 2:18.64. Christopher Palvadre claimed second for the men with 1:56.49.

Shipps continued her stellar meet with yet another first-place finish, going 1:58.59 in the 200-yard fly. This was also a new school record. Auben Nugent had another great race to take a huge first place for the men with 1:45.79.

And finally, the 400-yard freestyle relays. The women’s team took first at 3:22.03, winning every single relay at the meet. Shipps, Pietras, Thiessen and Riihinen brought it home. The men won first, as well, solidifying their 46th consecutive conference title behind Nicholson, Scheffer, Wike and Bart.

“After watching the 4-medley relay happen and seeing us get second, I was fired up and I knew I wanted to be a part of the final relay to put the dagger into IUPUI,” Scheffer said.

Put the dagger into them they did.

As the dust settled, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies women’s team won the meet with a score of 909.5, while the men’s team won with 876.5. Shipps credits the coaches for “building a culture that is unmatched and playing a crucial role in our overall success.” More than that, though, is the “support for one another between the women and men and how that translates to our performance in the pool,” she says.

The next step for these swimmers is the National Invitational Championships in Florida, followed by the NCAA’s in Indianapolis.