Seaholm's Payton Garn holds the fastest 100 breaststroke time in Michigan, leading a strong early-season showing for Birmingham and Bloomfield area swimmers on the first statewide leaderboard of 2026.

MLive published its first girls swim and dive rankings on Tuesday, Sept. 22, drawing from Swimcloud data after the season's opening month. Garn clocked a 1:04.26 in the breaststroke to claim the top spot. She also ranks No. 4 in the 50 freestyle at 24.36 seconds.

Right behind her in the breaststroke: Groves' Olivia Kamp at No. 2 with a 1:04.56. Three-tenths of a second separate the two Birmingham Public Schools swimmers atop the event.

Seaholm's Layla Woerner is tied for No. 10 in the same event at 1:07.35, giving the Maples two of the state's top 10 breaststrokers.

Detroit Country Day's Quinn Norlander rounds out the area's individual entries. The Beverly Hills school's backstroker posted a 59.00 to rank No. 6 in the 100 backstroke.

Seaholm relays among the state's best

Seaholm's relay squads landed three top-four finishes statewide. The Maples sit No. 3 in the 200 medley relay (1:49.17), No. 3 in the 200 freestyle relay (1:40.33) and No. 4 in the 400 freestyle relay (3:42.23).

Groves placed in two relay categories: No. 6 in the 200 medley relay (1:50.92) and No. 10 in the 400 freestyle relay (3:45.72).

Between individual and relay rankings, Seaholm and Groves account for nine top-10 entries on the leaderboard. Add Norlander's backstroke ranking for Country Day, and area programs hold 10 spots across the state's top 10 lists. The 100 breaststroke field also features area-adjacent swimmers Berkley's Mia Mracna (No. 3, 1:05.10), West Bloomfield's Alexis Conkey (No. 4, 1:05.84) and Royal Oak's Kassidy Collins (No. 7, 1:06.76).

What's ahead

MLive will update its top-10 rankings every Tuesday through the end of the regular season. The MHSAA girls swimming and diving state finals are scheduled for Nov. 20-21.