Lakeland HOT Team, DECA Have Successful Weekend

The following was submitted to White Lake Patch by Scott Rolando.

Congratulations to the HOT robotics Team, winner of the Waterford District Competition and Engineering Excellence Award. The HOT team lit up the tournament this weekend, earning the most qualifying points of any FIRST team thus far in the world (44 of a possible 48 points). The HOT team, with their tournament partners Las Guerrillas (from IA East) and Crevolution (from Utica) posted the top tournament match score of 103 points (the average score was 22.7pts) and accomplished the unexpected triple balance to end the game, five times in six tournament matches. We ended up with such amazing partners due to the great work of our scouting team.  The HOT programming team came to the aid of many teams at the tournament helping them solve their code issues. Our design and machining team produced a peer award that was presented to the rookie team 4216 (Blue Ops) that was extremely well received. An excellent job was done by all.  You should be very proud of our team members: Ryan Allen, Brian Amburn, David Amburn, Matthew Baringhaus, Kaitlynn Bayne, Emma Beattie, Paul Bonnen, Deanna Brandell, Zachary Brei, Erik Britton, Anna Buzolits, Sergey Caren-Schmeling, Jordan Czernel, Jason Drouillard, Joe Elliott, Christian Eriksen, Nathan Feather, Nathaniel Fosmer, Alexandre Garrigo, Casey Grebe, Ashley Gurzick, Luke Jeries, Andrew Knox, Logan Laviolette, Emily Leonard, Bijan Masrouri, Pejman Masrouri, Ryan Maxwell, Kurtis McElroy, Josh Morse, Josh Orlando, Nicholas Ponti, William Robinson, Billy Schroeder, Abbey Senczyszyn, Lukas Senczyszyn, Alex Smith, Andrew Smith, Catrina Smith, Dominik Sweeney, Alex Vogel, Taylor Warden, Gary Zahn, Julia Zahn and Adam Zonca.

Lakeland DECA  

This past weekend 52 students competed at the DECA State Career Development Conference in Dearborn, Michigan. Lakeland DECA students ended up with 20 State Finalists, and 20 students advancing to the International Career Development Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah (April 27-May 2). Congratulations to the following students on advancing  to the International Competition:Alexander Peck, Taryn Lintol, Mark Taylor Janssen, Sarah Wagner, Danielle Rusas, Rachel Long, Eric Shubitowski, Eric Snoek, Christopher Lochkos, Charles (CJ) Richardson, Travis Richardson, Alexander Haren, Kelly Labuta, Mallory Wojtaszek, Megan Schultz, Gabrielle Gibbons, Andrew Pistana, Mikayla Keener, Rachel Wrobleski, Nicholas Paslek.    

Congratulations to the following students on being State Finalists: Alexander Peck, Taryn Lintol, Mark Taylor Janssen, Blair Davis, Rachel Wrobleski, Julia Salciccioli, Amanda Fields, Nicholas Paselk, Robert Schumacher, Sarah Wagner, Danielle Rusas, Rachel Long, Eric Shubitowksi, Eric Snoek, Christopher Lochkos, Kelly Labuta, Megan Schultz, Mallory Wojtaszek, Gannon Leblanc and Gabrielle Gibbons.

Drumline and Winter Guard

This past weekend the Huron Valley Percussion and Huron Valley Alliance (winter guard) competed at the Novi Invitational. Both groups won 1st place! This weekend is the Milford Invitational on Saturday, March 17, and the following weekend is the Lakeland Invitational on March 24. Please congratulate the students in both groups if you have them. They have had a tremendous season so far. The Drum Line is undefeated and the both groups are currently ranked #1 in the State!

Boys Swim and Dive

Congratulations to the 2012 Lakeland Boy's Swim & Dive State Team for earning a 12th place finish at the MHSAA Division 2 State Championship this past weekend Mar 9-10 in Holland MI.

The 200 Medley Relay team of Will Walker (10th grade), David Patawaran (10th grade), Ryan Johnson (11th grade) and Evan Goan (12th grade) achieved All-State honors by placing 8th overall with a time of 1:40.77. To get to the championship round, this team broke the LHS varsity record with a time of 1:39.87 in the preliminary round. Sophomore swimmer Will Walker also earned All-State honors in two separate individual events. In the 200 Free, Walker placed 6th overall with a new LHS varsity record time of 1:43.66. In the 500 Free, Walker placed 3rd overall with a new LHS varsity record of 4:39.74. Going into the meet Walker was seeded 12th in the 200 Free and 6th in the 500 Free, so the final outcome of both races represented a significant advancement for the team.  

Team captain Ryan Johnson made finals in the 100 Fly with a 9th place preliminary round swim of 53.12 that also set a new LHS varsity record and finished 10th overall. Johnson also made finals in the 100 Back placing 13th in the preliminary round with a time of 55.90 and finishing 15th overall. 

Sophomore swimmer David Patawaran earned 12th place in the 100 Breast with a time 1:02.35 that also set a new LHS varsity record. Patawaran was seeded 19th in this event going into the meet, but advanced to 15th during the preliminary round and 12th place in finals making this another significant advancement for the team.  

The 400 Free Relay team of Will Walker, Evan Goan, David Patawaran, and Ryan Johnson finished the meet in 14th place with a time of 3:20.01 that also set a new LHS varsity record.

In summary, this small group of 4 LHS All-State swimmers broke 6 varsity team records and earned 12th place overall in a MHSAA Division 2 bracket that contains over 70 schools including powerhouse swim teams as Dexter, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, and Holland. Many of these schools contained 2-5 times more state-qualifying swimmers as compared to Lakeland. Please congratulate these young men for their achievements and for a successful LHS swim season!