Scott Swanson
Senior Zac Pearce has swum long enough to know that in meets with elite competition, just about anything can happen.
Going into the final of the 100 Breaststroke at the OSAA 4A/3A/2A/1A state championships Saturday at Mt. Hood Community College, he knew he had some big competition from Scappoose’s Ryan Rafferty and Central’s Robert Berry, both of whom swam Friday’s preliminaries just 10ths of a second behind him – which was a second-and-a-half improvement for Berry.
“I had my doubts,” said Pearce, who last year won the state 200 Individual Medley title last year as well as anchoring the boys 200 Freestyle Relay team to a state title and a school record.
But 50 yards into the race on Saturday, he knew he had the lead – and the win – and that’s what he finished with, setting a personal best of 1:01.12, just short of the goal he’d set for himself – to break one minute.
That finish clinched a second-place trophy for Sweet Home’s boys, though, as the Huskies scored 41 points to finish behind Cottage Grove, which rode a strong corps of sprinters to 60 points and the state championship.
“They swam their hearts out,” said Coach Doug Peargin. “Every boy PR’d in every event. That’s tough to do.”
Despite an individual championship by junior Naomi Gunselman in the 200 Individual Medley (2:17.02), the girls had no other finalists and finished with the 12 points Gunselman scored by also placing second in the 100 backstroke, posting lifetime bests in both individual events.
The IM win came after she was touched out by Becca Haynes of LaGrande in Friday’s preliminary.
“I kept rewinding the finish throughout the night,” she said. “I kept thinking and thinking about it. I decided that that wasn’t going to happen again. I’m very happy.”
The girls 200 Freestyle Relay team of Gunselman, freshman McKenzie Curtis, Paige Sanders and Kimber Swanson set a school record of 1:53.96 in their preliminary Friday, but it wasn’t fast enough to qualify for the final as the Huskies finished.
The 200 Intermediate Relay team of Gunselman, Emily Thompson, Swanson and Curtis got closer to qualifying but finished in seventh, one spot out of the final, in 2:05.91.
The same thing happened to Swanson in the 100 Freestyle, as she got a slow start and finished seventh, in 1:00.91 – two-tenths of a second short of the final.
“I know Kimber was unhappy and the girls were unhappy about that relay, but when you swim your lifetime best – which they did – there’s not much more you can do,” Peargin said. “She got caught on the blocks. She’s usually a quick starter.
“I’d rather a kid get 11th than seventh. Seventh is a bitter bite.”
Swanson said a big challenge for the Husky girls was their lack of depth – the girls team this year was roughly half the size it’s been in recent years, though the boys numbers stayed up.
“Our team is small this year,” she said. “We didn’t even know if we could make it to state this year. All of our races were really close.”
The boys, with five swimmers returning who had swum previously at state, were able to qualify eight athletes for finals in seven events, including the 200 Medley and 200 Freestyle relays.
The team of Gravy Gunselman, Don Rockstead, Jake Johnson and Pearce set a school record in the 200 Freestyle Relay Friday with a time of 1:31.90, but got nicked in the final by Cottage Grove in that event, placing second. Gunselman, Pearce, Rockstead and Victor Stupin also placed second to the Lions in the 200 Medley Relay on Saturday.
Gunselman also placed third in the boys 100 Backstroke and sixth in the 100 Butterfly.
Peargin noted that Gunselman had cut his foot badly on a bed frame in a hotel room early that morning and had tried to swim with it bandaged, but found that he “couldn’t feel his foot.”
Gunselman said he was happy with his performance in the 200 Freestyle Relay but “I’m a little disappointed in my backstroke and butterfly. It messed up my starts, particularly in the backstroke,” he said of the injury. “I wanted to beat (winner Matthew Clark of LaGrande) in the backstroke. I thought I could. It was fairly close.”
Pearce set a school record in the 100 Freestyle, swimming 47.69 to place second behind Corbett All-American Colin Eaton (45.35), while Rockstead was fifth, in 50.26.
Rockstead, who started swimming as a freshman, said he had a good day.
“Personally, I felt good coming into all my events,” he said.
Johnson, who came as alternate last year, said he thought the team did as well as it could.
“I think we did great,” he said. “Everybody did their best. Lots of people set PRs and if they didn’t set PRs, they came extremely close.”
Pearce agreed: “We set two school records. I’m proud of the team more than anything. We did the best we could. That was as good as we were going to finish.”
Thompson, a junior swimming in her first state meet, said it was a good experience.
“I felt like I learned that, even if we didn’t make it to the finals, I can swim with these people at this meet,” she said.
Rockstead credited the Huskies’ performance to Peargin, who, he said, is “a great coach,” citing the example of Zane Jackson who had a torn ligament in his knee and still managed to swim a 24.8 50 in anchoring his 200 Freestyle Relay team at the district race two weeks ago.
“He took a football player with a busted knee and made him go 24 seconds in the 50. That’s crazy.”
“If you put in the time and effort, you’re going to go to this meet. He’ll make sure of it.”
Peargin said he was satisfied with the Huskies’ finish.
“The meets are getting tougher and tougher. More and more kids are starting to swim year round.”
Another challenge for public schools such as Sweet Home are the rise of small private schools, such as Corbett, which finished fifth among the boys, and Valley Catholic, which was fifth for the girls.
“The private schools are starting to recruit,” Peargin said. “ It’s a concern.”
He said an indication of the overall rise in talent is that the time Sweet Home’s Sami Webb, last year’s state champion in the 500 Freestyle swam to win that event wouldn’t have qualified her for the final this year.
“There were some awful good kids out there,” he said. “An awful lot of those kids swimming out there scholarshiped out of there.
For example, Kevin Waller of North Bend, who won the boys 500 Freestyle for the second year in a row, and LaGrande’s Matthew Cook, who beat Pearce in the 200 Freestyle Saturday, both clinched full-ride scholarships to Wyoming with their times at state.
“They cut them at that meet,” Peargin said.
“I’m happy with our kids’ performance,” he said. “Even if they can’t come back, this is something to look back on. This is an exceptional group of kids. I’m glad I got to coach them.”
The team will hold its awards dessert at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the cafeteria.
OSAA / U.S. BANK /
LES SCHWAB TIRES
2012 4A/3A/2A/1A SWIMMING STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Boys Results
Team Results – (1) Cottage Grove, 60. (2) Sweet Home, 41. (3) La Grande, 39. (4) North Bend, 34. (5) Corbett, 26. (6) Madras, 25. (7) Philomath, 20. (8) Newport, 16. (9) Cascade Christian, 14. (10) Central, 12. (11) Phoenix, 10. (12) Scappoose, 5. (13) Riverdale, 3. (14) North Marion, 2. (15) Blanchet Catholic, 1.
Finalists plus
Sweet Home finishers
*Preliminaries place and time
200 Yard Medley Relay – (1) Cottage Grove 1:40.62. (2) Sweet Home 1:41.58. (3) La Grande 1:44.55. (4) Philomath 1:44.68. (5) Madras 1:45.91. (6) Corbett 1:47.47.
200 Yard Freestyle – (1) Matthew Cook, La Grande, 1:42.13. (2) Kevin Waller, North Bend, 1:42.98. (3) Kyle Fringer, Cottage Grove, 1:48.89. (4) Bryce Williams, Madras, 1:50.08. (5) Don Rockstead, Sweet Home, 1:51.21. (6) Andrew Pence, Riverdale, 1:55.17.
200 Yard Individual Medley – (1) Aaron Ghiglieri, Cascade Christ, 1:51.15. (2) Austin Turner, Newport, 1:57.51. (3) Gavin Nash, Cottage Grove, 1:57.58. (4) Ian Goodwin, Madras, 2:01.33. (5) Philip Hewitt, Corbett, 2:05.16. (6) Dominic Clay, La Grande, 2:06.28.
50 Yard Freestyle – (1) Colin Eaton, Corbett, 20.48. (2) Sebastian Vollrath, La Grande, 22.45. (3) Robert Berry, Central, 22.57. (4) Kellen Wood, Newport, 22.79. (5) Taylor Hagel, Philomath, 22.91. (6) Andrew Hasbrook, Central, 23.17.
100 Yard Butterfly – (1) Aaron Ghiglieri, Cascade Christ, 49.52. (2) Gavin Nash, Cottage Grove, 51.39. (3) Taylor Hagel, Philomath, 53.48. (4) Jeoff Underwood, Phoenix, 54.21. (5) Max Stuntzner-Gibson, North Bend, 54.30. (6) Gravy Gunselman, Sweet Home, 55.01.
100 Yard Freestyle – (1) Colin Eaton, Corbett, 45.35. (2) Zachary Pearce, Sweet Home, 47.69. (3) Austin Turner, Newport, 48.40. (4) Kyle Fringer, Cottage Grove, 49.11. (5) Don Rockstead, Sweet Home, 50.26. (6) Sebastian Vollrath, La Grande, 50.31.
500 Yard Freestyle – (1) Kevin Waller, North Bend, 4:40.16. (2) Ian Goodwin, Madras, 4:49.11. (3) Caleb Leczel, Cottage Grove, 5:03.89. (4) Brady Tucker, Madras, 5:06.41. (5) Grant Cooper, North Marion, 5:16.64. (6) Jeremy Darst, Blanchet Cath, 5:16.80.
200 Yard Freestyle Relay – (1) Cottage Grove 1:30.06. (2) Sweet Home 1:31.38. (3) Corbett 1:32.15. (4) North Bend 1:32.44. (5) Central 1:34.25. (6) Phoenix 1:35.13.
100 Yard Backstroke – (1) Matthew Cook, La Grande, 51.68. (2) Jeoff Underwood, Phoenix, 55.34. (3) Gravy Gunselman, Sweet Home, 56.11. (4) Sam Garrison, Cottage Grove, 57.23. (5) Kellen Wood, Newport, 57.90. (6) John Pham, Cottage Grove, 58.06.
100 Yard Breaststroke – (1) Zachary Pearce, Sweet Home, 1:00.12. (2) Ryan Rafferty, Scappoose, 1:02.38. (3) Caleb Leczel, Cottage Grove, 1:03.34. (4) Robert Berry, Central, 1:04.25. (5) Garen Marter, Riverdale, 1:05.18. (6) Jordan Gemelas, Madras, 1:06.44.
400 Yard Freestyle Relay – (1) North Bend 3:23.75. (2) La Grande 3:24.91. (3) Philomath 3:25.48. (4) Madras 3:25.83. (5) Cottage Grove 3:26.13. (6) Newport 3:27.15.
Girls Results
Team Results – (1) Henley, 58. (2) La Grande, 44. (3) Madras, 32. (4) North Bend, 31. (5) Valley Catholic, 28. (6) Phoenix, 24. (7) Scappoose, 22. (8) Cascade Christian, 14. 9, Gladstone, 12. 9, Sweet Home, 12. (10) Sisters, 11 (12) Riverdale, 8. (13) La Salle Prep, 4. (14) Blanchet Catholic, 3. (15) Taft, 2. (16) Mazama, 1.
200 Yard Medley Relay – (1) Henley 1:57.27. (2) Scappoose 2:00.64. (3) North Bend 2:00.89. (4) Madras 2:01.14. (5) Sisters 2:02.40. (6) La Grande 2:02.72.
200 Yard Freestyle – (1) Alyssa Bennett, North Bend, 1:58.41. (2) Willa Holmes, Riverdale, 2:00.53. (3) Leta Spradley, Henley, 2:01.64. (4) Elizabeth Bartholomew, Blanchet Cath, 2:05.21. (5) Allie Godfrey, La Grande, 2:07.09. –, Aurora Gerhardt, Madras, DQ.
200 Yard Individual Medley – (1) Naomi Gunselman, Sweet Home, 2:17.02. (2) Alyse Darnall, Phoenix, 2:18.05. (3) Becca Haynes, La Grande, 2:19.20. (4) Willa Holmes, Riverdale, 2:19.70. (5) Kelsey Morgan, North Bend, 2:22.30. (6) Aunika Torres, Henley, 2:22.82.
50 Yard Freestyle – (1) Breanna Sapienza, Cascade Christ, 24.28. (2) Angela Kirschner, Henley, 24.95. (3) Elizabeth Armitage, Madras, 25.79. (4) Cassandra Miltich, Scappoose,
26.49. (5) Shelby Baker, La Grande, 26.62. (6) Emily Christen, Sisters, 26.83.
100 Yard Butterfly – (1) Breanna Sapienza, Cascade Christ, 54.63. (2) Sarah Clyde, Gladstone, 59.21. (3) Momoko Mayumi, Valley Catholic, 1:02.01. (4) Sophie Gemelas, Madras, 1:03.13. (5) Allie Godfrey, La Grande, 1:03.67. –, Julia Anderson, Valley Catholic, DQ.
100 Yard Freestyle – (1) Angela Kirschner, Henley, 55.26. (2) Elizabeth Armitage, Madras, 55.79. (3) Shelby Baker, La Grande, 57.46. (4) Anna Ford, Scappoose, 57.68. (5) Kathleen Shew, Valley Catholic, 58.48. (6) Taylor Gill, Mazama, 1:01.13.
500 Yard Freestyle – (1) Sarah Clyde, Gladstone, 5:14.03. (2) Alyssa Bennett, North Bend, 5:20.71. (3) Leta Spradley, Henley, 5:22.55. (4) Logan Gomez, La Grande, 5:23.10. (5) Alyse Darnall, Phoenix, 5:28.22. (6) Jenny Kirschner, Henley, 5:34.40.
200 Yard Freestyle Relay – (1) Henley 1:45.93. (2) Valley Catholic 1:46.47. (3) Phoenix 1:46.98. (4) Madras 1:47.84. (5) Sisters 1:48.11. (6) North Bend 1:50.75.
100 Yard Backstroke – (1) Logan Gomez, La Grande, 1:00.67. (2) Naomi Gunselman, Sweet Home, 1:03.24. (3) Becca Haynes, La Grande, 1:04.11. (4) Aurora Gerhardt, Madras, 1:04.13. (5) Momoko Mayumi, Valley Catholic, 1:04.92. (6) Alexa Bryant-Capellas, La Salle Prep, 1:07.07.
100 Yard Breaststroke – (1) Kelsey Morgan, North Bend, 1:11.66. (2) Sophie Gemelas, Madras, 1:11.72. (3) Sierra Myers, Henley, 1:13.43. (4) Alexa Bryant-Capellas, La Salle Prep, 1:14.58. (5) Destiny Zook, Taft, 1:14.84. (6) Olivia Sanchez, Phoenix, 1:15.99.
400 Yard Freestyle Relay – (1) La Grande 3:49.30. (2) Valley Catholic 3:52.36. (3) Phoenix 3:52.62. (4) Scappoose 3:56.83. (5) Henley 3:58.54. (6) Sisters 4:01.38.