DEARBORN — It was a intra-city high school boys swimming tri-meet on Tuesday at Dearborn High School as the host Pioneers welcomed in their counterparts from Dearborn Fordson as well as Dearborn Divine Child.
With victories in nine of the 11 events that took place, Dearborn improved to 5-2 overall on the season by cruising past both their KLAA East rivals from Fordson (69-25) as well as their out-of-conference foes from Divine Child (74-17).
Fordson meanwhile salvaged a split on the evening by besting DC (65-20).
What was originally tabbed to be just a dual meet between Divine Child and Dearborn turned into a tri-meet to include Fordson, who the Pioneers were slated to face later in the week on Thursday. DC and Fordson were also scheduled for a dual meet against each other later in the month on Jan 28.
Tuesday’s tri-meet for Dearborn was by and large won by the trio of Riley Clark, Gio Bastajian, and Ali Mamlouk, each of whom won a pair of individual events and were part of two winning relays. That included the opening event of the night where they all teamed up with Youssef Salami to win the 200-yard medley relay (1:56).
Another Dearborn foursome of swimmers — Sven Busuioc, Mahdi Chehab, Mohammed Alawan, and Hassouna Beydoun — finished third in the medley relay (2:25) with Fordson’s team of Mahdi Alaweigh, Hassan Askar, Adam Salman, and Hanafi Elboraei finishing runner-up (2:19).
Clark elsewhere was the champion of both the 100-yard freestyle (55.91) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:07). The junior qualified for the Wayne County Championships with his respective times in both events.
Clark in the 100 free beat out teammate Ameer Hider (59.59) and Fordson’s Elboraei (1:06). Then in the backstroke, it was Alaweigh (1:20) and Busuioc (1:23) finishing 2-3, respectively.
Bastajian’s individual wins came in the 200-yard individual medley (2:37) as well as the 100-yard breaststroke (1:17). The senior for the Pioneers in the IM cruised past both Fordson’s Askar (3:02) and his teammate Busuioc (3:16). He then narrowly defeated Divine Child’s Sean O’Donnell (1:19) in the breaststroke with Chehab (1:27) placing third there.
As for Mamlouk, he took home first-place honors in the 50-yard freestyle (23.78), beating out his teammate Hider (25.80) and Fordson’s Elboraei (28.43) and qualifying for counties in the process. The senior for Dearborn then posted another county-qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle (5:28), an event that saw Salame (6:48) and the Tractors’ Hadi Alaweigh (7:01).
The “big three” for Dearborn were also key pieces in the other two relays on Thursday.
Bastajian teamed up with Hider, Salami, and Alawan to win the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:51), beating out Fordson’s Askar, Kareem Abusenenh, Hussein Mansour, and Firas Awadalla (2:03) and Divine Child’s O’Donnell, Patrick Bushrow, Luka Wonsul, and Owen Sims (2:11).
To end the night’s festivities, it was Mamlouk and Clark collaborating with Hider and Salami to win the 400-yard freestyle relay (4:04), just over 50 seconds ahead of the the Tractors’ unit of Mahdi Alaweigh, Hadi Alaweigh, Elboraei, and Muslim Muthala (4:54). Another Pioneer relay of Busuioc, Salame, Beydoun, and Heyaw Temesgen (5:16) placed third.
Fordson and Divine Child each collected one event victory on Tuesday.
Fordson’s win came in the form of Hadi Alaweigh (2:25), who beat out Dearborn’s Salame (2:26) by less than a half-second in the 200-yard freestyle. Divine Child’s Sims (2:43) placed third there.
For DC, their lone first-place finish came courtesy of the aforementioned Sean O’Donnell, who bested the field of five swimmers in the 100-yard butterfly (1:11). The senior captain of the four-man crew for the Falcons this winter, O’Donnell beat out Dearborn’s Chehab (1:!3) and Alawan (1:30) to win the fly.
UP NEXT
Dearborn is scheduled to partake is the Wayne Memorial Invitational, a two-day event that runs from Jan 17-18. The Pioneers will then return to the KLAA East portion of its schedule on Jan 23 on the road vs Livonia Churchill.
Divine Child won’t return to action until next Tuesday, Jan 21 for what is slated to be their only home meet of the season against Garden City. The Falcons’ house their home swim meets at nearby Crestwood High School.
Fordson also won’t be back in the pool until Jan 21 when they return home and host another city rival in Dearborn Edsel Ford. That will be the first of three straight home meets for the Tractors, who welcome in KLAA East foe Belleville two days later on Jan 23.
PHOTOS: Boys Swimming – Dearborn Divine Child vs Dearborn Fordson vs Dearborn High
