Freshman Lucie Davis and sophomore Makayla Nelson were named Outstanding Swimmers for the girls and Jaegar Howatt for the boys at the team’s awards potluck Thursday, Feb. 27.
Underclassmen of the Year were Jessica Coats and Esther Gunselman for the girls and Nathan Hager and Brandon Vasfaret for the boys.
Coach Doug Peargin, winding up his 38th season with the Huskies, described this year as “the most enjoyable” he’s experienced in the last 15 years as he reviewed his team’s successes.
“All of these kids were good kids,” he said.
The girls won the district title by swimming past Salem Academy in the final event of the conference meet and then placed third at state as a team with two individual state titles by Davis, second- and third-place finishes by Nelson in those same events, and a second-place finish by Coats.
Though the boys didn’t have the depth to score enough points to trophy at district or state, “the guys were 17th out of 42 teams with only guys making the state finals,” Peargin said.
He noted that the only seniors on this year’s teams are exchange students Mami Sakamoto of Japan and Kiera Doding of Germany.
“These are all frosh/soph swimmers going against juniors and seniors,” he said.
Peargin handed out six Perfect Attendance awards, to swimmers who never missed or were late for a practice, morning or afternoon, to: Kristen Adams, Natasha Benson, Davis, Doding, Gunselman and Grant Jones.
The team had one third-year letter winner, Ryan Yon, who is one of two juniors on either team.
Peargin said he looked to, and got, leadership from Yon and fellow junior Howatt, who received a second-year letter.
“I never caught them letting me down,” he said, to chuckles from the crowd, adding that when the team was at the hotel for the state meet, the Huskies stayed in their rooms while other teams were running the halls.
Howatt, he said, provided leadership by “putting effort into his swimming that I’d never seen before,” Peargin said.
That paid off in his making the finals in the 50 Freestyle by two-hundredths of a second and then placing fourth in the final with a lifetime-best time.
“I just told him to beat the guy in the lane next to him,” Peargin said.
Although the boys 400 Freestyle Relay team did not make the final, placing eighth, they swam faster than last year’s Huskies, who were sixth.
Also receiving second-year letters were Nelson, Gunselman, Jones, Benson, Megan Oberg, Livvie Hindmarsh and Sara Helfrich.
Nelson and Gunselman both qualified for state in four events, including swimming legs on two relays, and posted lifetime bests in all of them, he said.
Gunselman’s leg in the 400 Freestyle Relay final was “the hardest I’ve ever seen her work,” Peargin said, and Nelson was “second best in the state of Oregon” in the 500 Freestyle.
“The bad news is she swam behind Lucie all year.”
Davis, who received her first-year letter, swam a two-second lifetime best to win the 200 Freestyle at state and missed the state record by less than a second in winning the 500 Freestyle.
“I know the kind of shape she’ in,” Peargin said. “If you’re with her at the halfway mark, you’re beaten.”
Also earning first-year letters were Adams, Doding, Tadyn Bentley, Adam Barber, Tanner Goble, Sean Wolthuis, Maddee Hawken, Elea Hewitt, Brandon Vasfaret, Nathan Hager and Coats.
Peargin said Hager and Vasfaret had outstanding freshmen seasons, both qualifying for state. Vasfaret placed sixth in the 500 Freestyle, in a five-second personal best, and Hager missed the 100 Freestyle finals thanks to a faulty starting mechanism that gave him a bad signal, said Peargin, whose protest did not prevail with the officials.
“He would have finaled in the 100 Free. If he had been a senior, it would have been a nightmare, but I told him, ‘You’ve got three more years.’”
Coats, who spent the three days prior to the state meet throwing up, Peargin said, was determined to compete despite being sick and spent the day sleeping in her hotel room prior to the evening preliminaries. Peargin said he decided to pull her from the 200 Individual Medley when he looked over and saw her “as white as this,” pointing to a sheet of paper. But she made the final in the 100 Butterfly, and, after spending all day Saturday sleeping until the finals, placed second in that event in a lifetime best and swam lifetime bests in her legs of the 200 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay.
Receiving junior varsity certificates were Sakamoto, Hannah Burge, Carol Ross, Sierrah Owen and Brittany Romero.
Peargin said the Huskies had a lot of “good swimmers who got behind great swimmers” this year.
“It was a wonderful season for everyone.”