Kelly Frazier is one big reason the girls swimming and diving team was able to top Groves and Grosse Pointe South to finish 2nd overall on November 19th at State Championships.
“When you get a big 20 point lead from winning diving, it’s hard for other teams to come back,” said Seaholm Diving Coach Chalmers McGillivray.While the majority of the points in a swim and dive meet come from swimming, Frazier made a big splash by becoming the Michigan Division Two Diving Champion. This was the final piece to a season that saw her break a 30 year old team diving record by the last state champion diver from Seaholm, Kristin Coates. Frazier finished with a score of 433.35 points at the state meet to break the record by nearly 30 points.
But the season didn’t start with the expectation that Frazier would stand atop the podium come mid November.
“I knew she’d be up there, but I thought the defending state champion was too tough,” said McGillivray, “but we used the year to perfect her dives and she improved a lot from the beginning.”
Defending state champion Allie Murphy of Walled Lake Western finished with a fight, nipping at Frazier’s heels as she scored 424.85 at states.
“I was seeded second going in so I thought there might be a chance,” said Frazier, “but my scores were also close to the divers seeded 3rd and 4th so I knew all 11 dives had to be perfect.”
Frazier has been on the state team all 4 years at Seaholm, a major feat in itself, but nothing comes close to winning states.
“Winning states was definitely the biggest achievement I’ve had in diving, getting to states is what you work for all season. My goal had always been to be in the top five [In the state] at some point so winning was amazing,” said Frazier.
While Frazier was the one on the boards, she gives a lot of praise to second year diving coach McGillivray. Coaching stability on the diving team was key this season, as they’ve been through 3 coaches in the last 5 years.
“I had a great coach this year [McGillivray]; the team was really supportive of each other throughout the season,” Frazier said, “They made diving fun.”
Her teammates also praise her demeanor in practice and on the boards at meets.
“She was always extremely calm and positive, and modestly competitive,” said freshmen diver Sam Siegal.
Another big factor in Frazier’s win was her ability to succeed where others failed. The reverse dive category which is normally a weak spot for divers happens to be Frazier’s strong spot. In fact, going into her reverse dive category, Frazier had to fight her way back from a deficit that had her in 6th place. Frazier was able to score sevens and eights out of ten points on her reverse dive and reverse one and half somersault tuck where others scored fours and fives.
Because Frazier came in first, she earned her team 20 points. This was a big blow to Groves and Grosse Pointe South, seeing as the two only combined for six points in diving. This also took a sizeable chunk out of Holland’s big lead. After diving, Seaholm put together solid swim after solid swim and was able to stomp out any momentum that 3rd place Groves had.
Even some of the more experienced swimmers admit that they hadn’t seen anything like this before.
“We have never been so excited at a state meet in the four years I’ve been here,” senior swim captain Chelsea Abbott said. “Everyone was so happy and proud of her. When she stood up on the first place podium the whole team went wild.”
Next year, Kelly plans on diving for Coach Jason Glorius at Denison, a school that many Birmingham area star swimmers have flourished at.
