Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Jayce Calhoon reprised his role as a state champion Saturday when he won the 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke competitions, setting state and high school records, at the 4A state swim meet at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham.
While returning 100 and 200 freestyle champion Kieran Schaefer swam better times than last year he didn’t come up with a title. He did set school records and win four second-place medals; and the Husky boys finished second behind a powerful and deep Cottage Grove team.
Sarah Rosa was the only girl to bring home medals. She also put her name in Sweet Home High School record books.
Two relay teams finished second.
In the 200 medley relay, Calhoon, Michael Simmonds, Brinden Sanders and Schaefer finished in 1:42.7. In the 400 freestyle relay, Sanders, Jonathan Lemar, Calhoon and Schaefer finished in 3:23.8. Both were the second-fastest times in school history.
“We just hit it with everything we had,” Coach Doug Peargin said. “I couldn’t have been happier with their performance. Everybody there stepped up to the plate and did as well as they could possibly do.
“Cottage Grove had a couple more people there than we did.”
In the 500 free, Calhoon finished first, setting the state and school record at 4:51.9. He set the school record and won the 100 back at 54.6 seconds.
Schaefer finished second and set the school record in the 200 free in 1:45.9. In the 100 free, he tied the school record and placed second at 48.2 seconds
Simmonds finished fifth and set the 14th fastest time in school history with 2:12.1 in the 200 individual medley. Simmonds finished in sixth place, setting the 12th fastest time in school history at 5:16.
Sanders was fourth in the 50 free in 23.1 seconds, the 11th fastest time in school history. He was third in the 100 free at 50.6 seconds, clocking the 12th fastest time in school history.
Rosa finished fifth in the 100 butterfly, in the fifth fastest time in school history at 1:05.1. She finished sixth in the 100 back, with the fifth-fastest time in school history at 1:09.7.
The girls 200 medley relay team, Rosa, Laura Gourley, Justine Calhoon and Faith Helfrich, finished seventh in the preliminaries Friday at 2:05.1.
“Our relay should’ve made it,” said Rosa, a senior. “With the time that we went, we would’ve went fourth today.”
As a team, the boys scored 54 points. Cottage Grove scored 67 to win it, while Tillamook finished third with 35 points and North Bend fourth with 33 points.
“We’re swimming as hard as we can swim,” Peargin said as the final event, the 400 free relay, was about to start.
Sanders led off the relay touching the wall in the lead, Sanders said.
Lemar said he lost some time on his leg.
The Huskies dropped to second, he said, “so I tried to stay ahead of Tillamook.”
On the third leg, Calhoon’s goal was to catch up and put the Huskies in a position to win when Schaefer hit the water, he said.
“I dove in,” Schaefer said. “But Zachary Taylor (Cottage Grove) is pretty much my equal in the 200 free” and Taylor beat him to the wall.
Overall, the Huskies were just outnumbered Saturday.
Cottage Grove had a lot of boys in the finals, like the Huskies did at their district meet, Lemar said.
Cottage Grove had enough guys for an extra relay, Calhoon said.
“It was a solid meet,” Sanders said. He performed better than he had hoped, finishing at third and fourth, helping boost the team score.
At the same time, high on their performance at the district meet one week earlier, Sanders said, “we were anticipating a win.”
“Everybody swam really good,” Schaefer said. Neither the team nor he came up with a title, but almost everyone set PRs, school records and finished with a second-place medal, so it was a good day.
“We all performed at our peaks,” Schaefer said. Everyone but Lemar set a PR, and Lemar matched his best performances.
In the 500 free, “I didn’t expect to do that good,” Calhoon said. He was hoping to beat the school record, and he got that by three seconds.
“I met all my personal goals, so I’m really happy about it actually,” he said.
The 500 free and the 100 back were back to back, he said, so he was tired when he went into the backstroke. Toward the end, his legs were kind of giving out on him.
He said he trailed the first 50 yards of that race and started catching his opponent, Ben Hewitt of Corbett, in the third lap. He finally caught him in the last 25 despite the exhaustion.
Matt Johnson of North Bend raced in the 200 free this year, Schaefer said. At first, Schaefer had the edge on him, but Johnson slipped by him at the end for the win.
In the 100 free last year, Johnson lost to Schaefer by four-hundredths of a second. This year, he beat Schaefer by four-tenths of a second.
They always swim closely when they compete, Schaefer said.
Next year, Schaefer plans to come back stronger and shoot for junior national times, he said. As a team, he hopes to get some freshmen coming up to replace seniors Sanders and Lemar, while Cottage Grove loses many seniors this year.
In the 100 butterfly, Rosa went out a little faster than usual, she said. “I didn’t feel nervous. Just something wasn’t right.” She set a PR in the preliminary, but finished a second slower during the finals.
“My backstroke felt really nice,” she said. She finished with the same time she did last year.
She was happy overall, she said. She was able to improve her times over past years, even if she didn’t improve her butterfly in the finals, which was what disappointed her most.
She is looking forward to continuing swimming with the Sweet Home Swim Club this year and hopes to swim at college. She plans to attend California State.
Peargin said the team was “all-business, the whole trip.
“Every one of those kids, if they had my last name, I’d be prouder than snot of them,” he said. “I’d take any one of them in a flat minute.”
OSAA 4A/3A/2A/1A SWIMMING STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sweet Home Results
Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay: 1. Cottage Grove ‘’ (David Elligott 11, Colby Fix-Carter 11, Cameron Barton
12, Zachary Taylor 12), 1:42.33; 2. Sweet Home ‘’ (Jayce Calhoon 10, Michael Simmonds 10, Brinden Sanders 12, Kieran Schaefer 10), 1:42.76; 3. Valley Catholic ‘’ (Ben Blankenmeister 10, Wes Lindstrom 12, Gavin Burgess 10, John Drew 12), 1:46.71; 4. Tillamook ‘’ (Noah Boring 12, Tyler Weber 12, Daniel Werner 11, Tim Teran 12), 1:47.44; 5. La Grande ‘’ (Zach Gray 11, Richard Mills 11, Brandon Taylor 12, Clayton Holler 10), 1:50.17; 6. Marist ‘’ (Tyler Parmelee 11, Mike McGirr 11, Jacob Deines 11, Colton Hansen 9), 1:50.57.
Boys 200 Yard Freestyle: 1. Matt Johnson, North Bend, 1:45.65; 2. Kieran Schaefer, Sweet Home, 1:45.91; 3. David Elligott, Cottage Grove, 1:48.20; 4. James Verger, North Bend, 1:51.71; 5. Soren Madsen, La Grande, 1:53.67; 6. Erich Mielke, La Grande, 1:54.38.
Boys 200 Yard IM: 1. Andy Ottolia, Blanchet, 1:59.28; 2. Jacob Deines, Marist, 2:03.00; 3. Gavin Burgess, Valley Catholic, 2:07.23; 4. Zach Gray, La Grande, 2:07.25; 5. Michael Simmonds, Sweet Home, 2:12.10; 6. Richard Mills, La Grande, 2:13.30.
Boys 50 Yard Freestyle: 1. Zachary Taylor, Cottage Grove, 22.15; 2. Josh Hammes, Valley Catholic, 23.13; 3. Austin Ouderkirk, Newport, 23.21; 4. Brinden Sanders, Sweet Home, 23.23; 5. Tim Teran, Tillamook, 23.29; 6. Noah Boring, Tillamook, 23.30.
Girls 100 Yard Butterfly:
1. Aly Viles, Taft, 58.15; 2. McKenna Peterson, Corbett, 1:04.70; 3. Courtney Nelson, Phoenix, 1:04.93; 4. Victoria Weiler, Marist, 1:05.38; 5. Sarah Rosa, Sweet Home, 1:06.40; 6. Rebecca Rafferty, Scappoose, 1:07.16.
Boys 100 Yard Freestyle: 1. Zachary Taylor, Cottage Grove, 47.72; 2. Kieran Schaefer, Sweet Home, 48.29; 3. Brinden Sanders, Sweet Home, 50.68; 4. Dustin Manley, Astoria, 50.79; 5. Josh Hammes, Valley Catholic, 50.92; 6. Austin Ouderkirk, Newport,
51.43.
Boys 500 Yard Freestyle: 1. Jayce Calhoon, Sweet Home, 4:51.92; 2. James Verger, North Bend, 5:01.13;
3. Soren Madsen, La Grande, 5:07.17; 4. Cameron Barton, Cottage Grove, 5:07.26; 5. Isaac Hewitt, Corbett, 5:11.23; 6. Michael Simmonds, Sweet Home, 5:16.09.
Girls 100 Yard Backstroke: 1. Brittany Baldessari, Sisters, 1:04.20; 2. Kayla Heath, Phoenix, 1:04.36; 3.
Kristin McBride, Henley, 1:04.90; 4. Mary Cummings, Marist, 1:05.70; 5. Amy Arnold, Cottage Grove, 1:06.10; 6. Sarah Rosa, Sweet Home, 1:07.72.
Boys 100 Yard Backstroke:
1. Jayce Calhoon, Sweet Home, 54.67; 2. Ben Hewitt, Corbett, 55.05; 3. Matt Johnson, North Bend, 55.11; 4. Brian Greaney, Sisters, 55.42; 5. Ethan Zimmer, Henley, 56.20; 6. Zach Gray, La Grande, 58.91.
Boys 400 Yard Freestyle Relay:
1. Cottage Grove ‘’ (Colby Fix-Carter 11, Cameron Barton 12, Jon Berg 11,
Zachary Taylor 12), 3:20.22; 2. Sweet Home ‘’ (Brinden Sanders 12, Jon Lemar 12, Jayce Calhoon 10, Kieran Schaefer 10), 3:23.85; 3. Tillamook ‘’ (Tim Teran 12, Noah Boring 12, Miguel Nieves 12, Daniel Werner 11), 3:25.29; 4. North Bend ‘’ (James Verger 9, Daniel Canaga 12, Ephraim Morris 12, Matt Johnson 10), 3:27.56; 5. La Grande ‘’ (Erich Mielke 11, Brandon Taylor 12, Richard Mills 11, Soren Madsen 11), 3:29.78; 6. Valley Catholic ‘’ (Ben Blankenmeister 10, Wes Lindstrom 12, Gavin Burgess 10, Josh Hammes 10), 3:33.20.
Final Girls Team Points
1. Marist, 53; 2. Henley, 48; 3. Cottage Grove, 36.5; 4. Taft, 26; 4. North Bend, 26; 4. Cascade, 26; 7. Phoenix, 24; 8. Blanchet Catholic, 14; 8. Sisters, 14; 10. La Salle, 10; 11. Corbett, 5; 12. Astoria, 4.5; 13. Seaside, 4; 14. La Grande, 3; 14. Sweet Home, 3; 16. Tillamook, 2; 16. Philomath, 2; 16. Ontario, 2; 19. Scappoose, 1.
Final Boys Team Points
1. Cottage Grove, 67; 2. Sweet Home, 54; 3. Tillamook, 35; 4. North Bend, 33; 5. Valley Catholic, 31; 6. La Grande, 27; 7. Blanchet Catholic, 14; 7. Corbett, 14; 9. Marist, 12; 10. Newport, 5; 11. Sisters, 3; 11. Philomath, 3; 11. Astoria, 3; 14. Henley, 2; 14. Junction City, 2; 16. Phoenix, 1.