Scott Swanson
Last year it was the Sweet Home girls swim team that was a little thin in numbers and it cost them in the district meet as the Huskies finished fourth, though the boys won their 15th straight district title.
This year the boys are going to be the question mark.
“The big thing this year for us in the boys will be depth,” Coach Doug Peargin said. “Numbers-wise, we’re going to get hit on.”
The Huskies had eight boys committed to swimming as of Thanksgiving, with the possiblity of one more, while the girls have 13 on their roster thus far.
Depth has always been a key for Sweet Home in recent years and when the numbers haven’t been there, the Huskies have had a hard time scrounging together enough points to get the places in the district meet they expect to. They have been hit hard on the boys side by graduation.
“The last five years we’ve graduated heavy,” said Peargin. “We graduated 11 seniors last spring and nine were guys. Five of those were state place-winners. That was a heavy loss for a little school.
“We lost so many people last year that were college-capable kids. (Don) Rockstead, (Gravy) Gunselman and (Zach) Pearce could swim for an awful lot of schools.
The good news for the girls is that three swimmers – defending 200 IM state champion Naomi Gunselman, Paige Sanders and Emily Thompson, all of whom have state experience, are back.
Gunselman, a senior this year, was also a double winner in the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke at districts, and placed second in the latter event at state.
On the boys side, seniors Justin Hilburn and Victor Stupin swam club after last season and both placed in individual events last year.
“Victor’s the only one who went to state last year, as an alternate in the relay,” Paeargin said. “He swam in the trials but he didn’t swim in the finals.”
Also returning to the team for the girls are sophomore McKenzie Curtis, who made the district finals in the freestyle sprint events last year, and seniors Shelby Wymetalek, Emily Claborn and newcomer Kaitlyn Lucero.
Though the Huskies stand to lose some muscle to graduation after this season, unlike last year, the girls have a big influx of newcomers – with experience – in freshman Ester Gunselman, Makayla Nelson, Sara Helfrich, Natasha Benson and Livvie Hindmarsh. All have club experience and they will provide a foundation for the future.
“With the depth we have in the girls and the people we have coming back, I think we’ll have a stronger team overall than we did last year,” Peargin said.
Also new to the team are several swimming rookies in freshman Megan Oberg, sophomore Sierrah Owen and senior Jenny Yoon, an exchange student from South Korea.
Sophomore Ryan Yon has returned for the boys with experience from Sweet Home Swim Club, and senior Hunter Burge, who moved away midway during his sophomore season, is back.
As of last week the boys had one freshman, Grant Jones, along with sophomore Jaegar Howett, who is also a rookie.
The lack of new swimmers is a problem that Peargin said is due to the size of the student body.
“There are so many sports with schools this small,” he said. “It spreads your athletes.”
The good news is that a sizable portion of the team, particularly the girls, have club experience.
“Kids coming in with background definitely help,” Peargin said. “You don’t have to fundamental them to death. You just have to get them in shape. That really helps.”
“The guys are going to have to work for everything they get, not because don’t have talent but because we don’t have any depth,” he said. “The kids are putting in yards now, doing the practices. ”
As far as the district looks, Blanchet appears to be solidly situated to repeat its girls district title from last year, since none of its scorers graduated.
“They are extremely tough,” Peargin said. “They did not have one senior girl on the team.” He said he expects his girls, Sisters and Stayton to be in the mix for the top four positions.
As far as the boys are concerned, he expects Philomath and Central to mount a challenge for the district championship – “if they don’t lose anybody.”
“It’s going to be a dogfight for the rest of the teams,” he said. “We may be in the top four, we may be bottom four.”
The Huskies host Blanchet and Cascade at 4 p.m. Friday for their season opener and Peargin said he will begin to get an idea of where his team and all the others are after he sees that meet.
“It’s going to tell me a lot after this Friday where we stand and what we’ve got.”