Club Wolverine celebrated its 61st Annual Banquet last weekend at the University of Michigan Union. The keynote speaker was distance and open water great Emily Brunemann Klueh who regaled the audience with tales of perseverance and hard work. Emily is also a CW age group coach and works for the Michigan Athletic Department in the Athlete Transition Office. She has been married to distance great and recently retired CW swimmer Michael Klueh since 2014 who is currently studying medicine at Michigan.
CW had quite a year winning all 4 state titles in the Michigan LSC- 12 & Under and 13 & Over Long Course and Short Course state meets. The team also honored the 26 swimmers that swam in the 2017 NCSA Spring Championship Meet where CW placed 8th overall.
Head Coach Gunnar Schmidt and Associate Head Coaches Pat Wickering and Laura Cowley were busy handing out various awards that included breaking 53 team records and setting 16 new state records. Also, 19 different swimmers captured 62 USA Swimming Top-16 rankings in almost every age group.
CW had 32 athletes swim in the Olympic Trials this past year, 3rd most of any team and CW Elite Coach Mike Bottom was also selected as an Assistant Olympic Coach for USA Swimming. Four CW age groupers swam in the trials: Katie Portz (Texas A&M), Rob Zolfcak (Michigan), Jack Walsh (Stanford) and Cameron Craig (Arizona State). Connor Jaeger brought home a silver medal and set a new American Record in the 1500. CW’s Sean Ryan placed 14th in the men’s 10k open water swim in Rio. CW’s Ali Deloof also set 2 American records this past Winter at the World Short Course Championships in Windsor, Ontario in the 50 back and 200 medley relay. Her relay also set a new world record.
The Banquet ended with the traditional speeches by the age-group seniors. Taylor Seaman (Brown), Rudy Aguilar (Oakland), Emma Cleason (Michigan) and Daniel Keith (Air Force) shared their memories of fun, hard work and the team atmosphere of Club Wolverine swimming.
News courtesy of Club Wolverine.
Proud of these athletes and proud to be part of a great swim club and community!