Scott Swanson
Of
The New Era
Going
into the final event, the 400 Freestyle Relay, at the district
swimming championships Saturday afternoon, Feb. 15, Sweet Home’s
girls knew they were trailing Salem Academy by a point.
The
Huskies’ “A” team of sophomores Makayla Nelson and Esther
Gunselman, with freshmen Jessica Coats and Lucie Davis, had swum the
race once before – in the preliminaries on Friday, and at a very
pedestrian pace of 4:08.76, well behind Salem Academy’s 3:57.20.
The Crusaders, last year’s champions, were the only team to beat
Sweet Home this season in dual meet competition.
Some
were confident, but they didn’t include Coach Doug Peargin and the
team’s newest star, Davis, whose parents both are former NCAA
Division I college swimmers.
“I
was the only one who doubted,” Davis said. “I worried that one of
us would choke or something. I just prayed and I knew that God is
good.”
Long
story short, Sweet Home’s first three swimmers hung tight with
Salem Academy through the first three legs of the relay, when Davis
took over, powering past Salem Academy’s anchor swimmer to win by
2½ seconds in 3:49.74.
That
was what it took for the Huskies to take home their district title,
by five points over the Crusaders.
“Points-wise,
that was probably our closest win,” said Coach Doug Peargin,
thinking back over his 39 years at the helm. “I think we surprised
them. I don’t think they thought we had it in the tank.”
Gunselman
noted that Friday was the first time she and the other three had swum
the 400 relay together, though they had set a school record earlier
in the season in the 200 Freestyle Relay.
“We
took it easy,” she said of the preliminary time. “We knew the
team score. We knew it was up to that last relay.”
Peargin
said he wasn’t absolutely confident, but he hoped his team could
pull it off.
“I
knew we were tough, but I knew they were tough. They have five good
girls and they thomped us in that first (medley) relay.”
Sweet
Home’s boys finished third, with 160 points behind Philomath’s
223 and Salem Academy’s 201. But that was an “incredible”
accomplishment for the Huskies, Peargin said.
“With
only nine boys on the team going to the meet, I sort of thought
because of lack of depth that we’d end up about fifth or sixth
place,” he said. “But when all nine of your boys place in at
least two events each, it’s hard to keep them out of the trophy
chase.
“If
one boy in any event had placed one slot lower, we would have been
fourth.”
That
third-place trophy, just like the girls, came down to the last event,
the 400 Freestyle Relay, in which Sweet Home out-touched Blanchet
Catholic at the wall.
“We
had to beat Blanchet and we did,” Peargin said. “When you’re
fighting for a trophy at the big meets, it often comes down to who
has the heart to take it to the next level, and we did. I knew we we
were in great physical shape. I knew we have some good athletes.”
Freshmen
Brandon Vasfaret and Nathan Hager teamed with juniors Jaeger Howatt
and Ryan Yon in that relay.
“We
were just trying to make it through to state,” Howatt said.
Davis
led Sweet Home’s individual district titlists – all freshmen –
on both the boys and girls sides, with championships in two events,
the 200 and 500 freestyles, with Nelson right behind as runner-up in
both races. Coats won the 100 Butterfly and, on the boys side, Hager
was first in the 200 Freestyle and Vasfaret took the 500 Freestyle.
Coats
said she “didn’t even see the other girls until the end” of her
butterfly race.
“There
was some tough competition, but I did my part. It was good.”
The
girls finished with 10 state qualifiers: in the 200 Medley Relay, in
which they finished second, the 400 Freestyle Relay, Davis and Nelson
in the 200 and 500 Freestyle, Coats in the 100 Butterfly and the 200
Individual Medley, and Gunselman also in the 100 Butterfly and in the
100 Backstroke. Sara Helfrich and Elea Hewitt will be alternates on
the relay teams.
The
boys had six qualifiers: the 200 and 400 Freestyle Relay teams,
Vasfaret in the 500 and 200 Freestyle, junior Jaegar Howatt in the 50
Freestyle and Hager in the 100 Freestyle.
Vasfaret
said he managed to qualify in the 200, with a second-place finish,
despite swallowing “a whole bunch of water” in the race.
“In
the second I did better. I did good,” he said.
Hager
said his goal this year was to win a district championship and now
he’s shooting for a state title – at least by the time he’s a
senior.
Peargin
said the Huskies knew they had a chance on the girls side going into
the meet.
“What
worried me the most about Salem Academy wasn’t the amount of talent
on the team, but with 37 swimmers, I knew they had the depth to
undercut us on points. With a 12-place scoring system, depth is real
important in this meet.”
Sweet
Home had 17 swimmers in the meet and 13 placed, he said, and like the
boys, every one counted in the team title.
“It
took all 13 places for us to end up winning district. If only one
girl in any event had placed one place lower than she did, we would
have wound up in second place.
“I’m
proud of them. Not only did they swim like champions, but they also
conducted themselves like champions.”
The
4A/3A/2A/1A state championships begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21,
with preliminaries at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham. Finals
are at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22. The top six finishers from
preliminaries advance to finals. Ticket booths at the college open
45 minutes prior to the event. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for
students for both prelims and the finals.
Davis
goes into the state meet as the favorite in the 500 Free and seeded
second in the 200.
“I’m
not too worried about it, but I don’t want to not be worried,”
she said. “I have a lot of personal goals that I want to meet.”
Coats
is seeded third in the 100 Butterfly, which “I did not expect as a
freshman.” She faces some stiff competition in top-seeded Breanna
Sapienza of Cascade Christian, a three-time winner in the event, who
swam her district race (55.03) eight seconds faster than Coats’
1:03.04 on Saturday.
But
Coats is less than a second behind Olivia Dow of St. Mary’s, and
her seed time is comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.
Peargin
said he expects stiff competition for the girls from St. Mary’s,
North Bend, La Grande and Henley.
“There’s
about five teams that, if they swim well, will be right in the thick
of it, I’ll tell you,” he said. “Some of those teams, none of
them graduated anybody last year and they all just qualified in, like
we did.”
One
advantage for the Huskies, he said, is that they will swim the second
heat in the preliminaries in both relays Friday night.
“Our
kids can see what we have to do to come back (on Saturday night in
the finals),” he said.
On
the boys side, the major emphasis will be swimming on Saturday, team
members said.
Vasfaret
said their sixth-place seeding was “kind of a shock to us. It was
pretty good. We did not really expect it.”
Hager
said he believes the Huskies “have a good shot” in that relay at
making the finals.
“We
want to swim Saturday,” Howatt said.
Special
District 3
Swimming
Championships
Girls
Medalists and
Sweet
Home Scorers
*
State Meet Qualifier
Team
Scores – (1) Sweet Home 217; (2) Salem Academy 212; (3)
Philomath 191.5; (4) Ridgeview 145; (5) Stayton 121; (6) Blanchet
Catholic 110.5; (7) Central 66; (8) Sisters 58; (9-tie) Cascade and
Junction City 29.
200
Medley Relay – (1) *Salem Academy 1:55.14; (2) *Sweet Home
(Makayla Nelson, Jessica Coats, Esther Gunselman, Lucie Davis)
1:57.54; (3) *Ridgeview 2:00.99; (4) *Philomath 2:01.96; (5) Blanchet
2:13.94; (6) Stayton – No Points/False Start.
200
Freestyle – (1) *Lucie Davis (SH) 1:59.37; (2) *Makayla Nelson
2:03.37; (3) *Megan Waguespack (BC) 2:15.31; (4) Madi North (BC)
2:28.36; (5) Alia Campbell (BC) 2:30.55; (6) Anna George (P) 2:36.70;
(10) Megan Oberg (SH) 2:39.06.
200
Individual Medley – (1) *Rachel Haney (R) 2:15.73; (2) *Kiera
Supple (SA) 2:18.84; (3) *Jessica Coats (SH) 2:21.20; (4) Grace Ward
(SA) 2:26.07; (5) Elea Hewitt (SH) 2:31.36; (6) Laurel Luke (P)
2:38.91; (8) Sara Helfrich (SH) 2:42.86; (11) Natasha Benson (SH)
2:51.37.
50
Freestyle – (1) *Kendra Sheeder (P) 25.79; (2) *Emily Christen
(Sis) 26.17; (3) *Mary Stewart (Sis) 26.21; (4)*Callie Hinson (SA)
26.83; (5) Alyea Hill (Stay) 26.83l; (6) Kyla Daniels (SA) 27.19; No
Sweet Home Finalists.
100
Butterfly – (1) *Jessica Coats (SH) 1:03.04; (2) *Haley
Houghton (R) 1:03.85; (3) *Emma Boles (SA) 1:04.01; (4) *Mary Stewart
(Sis) 1:04.11; (5) *Laurel Luke (P) 1:07.57; (6) *Esther Gunselman
(SH) 1:08.34; (7) Elea Hewitt (SH) 1:09.23.
100
Freestyle – (1) *Julie Wallace (Stay) 56.59; (2) *Aleya Hill
(Stay) 57.77; (3) *Kendra Sheeder (P) 58.27; (4) Joelle Debban (SA)
59.15; (5) Callie Hinson (SA) 1:00.69; (6) Anna George (P) 1:04.03;
(12) Megan Oberg (SH) 1:13.88.
500
Freestyle – (1) * Lucie Davis (SH) 5:16.84; (2) *Makayla Nelson
(SH) 5:30.86; (3) *Haley Houghton 5:42.20; (4) *Caitlyn Linton (Stay)
5:42.86; (5) Megan Waguespack (BC) 5:52.69; (6) Lauren Hindman (P)
6:05.84; (8) Sara Helfrich (SH) 6:26.29; (12) Livvie Hindmarsh (SH)
7:07.57.
200
Freestyle Relay – (1) *Philomath 1:49.66; (2) *Ridgeview
1:49.78; (3) *Salem Academy 1:50.59; (4) Stayton 1:53.00; (5) Sweet
Home (Maddee Hawken, Sara Helfrich, Natasha Benson, Elea Hewitt)
2:03.54; (6) Sisters No Points/Disqualified; (9) Sweet Home (Megan
Oberg, Britney Romero, Kira Doding, Livvie Hindmarsh) 2:12.71.
100
Backstroke – (1) *Rachel Haney (R) 58.57; (2) *Kiera Supple
(SA) 1:00.05; (3) *Emma Boles (SA) 1:04.57; (4) *Emily Christen (Sis)
1:06.38; (5) *Esther Gunselman (SH) 1:06.57; (6) *Caitlyn Linton
(Stay) 1:06.80.
100
Breaststroke – (1) *Grace Warde (SA) 1:12.50; (2) *Lauren
Hindman (P) 1:15.21; (3) Casee Lantz (R) 1:16.89;l (4) Taniaya Wagner
(Stay) 1:21.54; (5) Katie Pratt (BC) 1:23.45; (6) Kyrie Prescott (R)
1:23.80; (No Sweet Home Finalists).
400
Freestyle Relay – (1) *Sweet Home (Makayla Nelson, Esther
Gunselman, Jessica Coats, Lucie Davis) 3:49.74; (2) *Salem Academy
3:52.15; (3) *Stayton 4:05.99; (4) *Blanchet Catholic 4:21.36; (5)
*Philomath 4:23.82; (6) Central 4:36.61; (7) Sweet Home “B”
(Maddee Hawken, Sara Helfrich, Livvie Hindmarsh, Elea Hewitt)
4:26.20.
Boys
Medalists and
Sweet
Home Scorers
Team
Scores – (1) Philomath 223; (2) Salem Academy 201; (3) Sweet
Home 160; (4) Blanchet Catholic 156; (5) Sisters 140; (6) Cascade 88;
(7) Central 81; (8) Junction City 59l (9) Ridgeview 66; (10) Stayton
23.
200
Medley Relay – (1) *Salem Academy 1:49.32; (2) *Philomath
1:49.41; (3) *Sisters 1:49.65; (4) *Blanchet Catholic 1:50.81; (5)
*Cascade 1:54.40; (6) Salem Academy “B” No Score/Disqualified; No
Sweet Home team in finals.
200
Freestyle – (1) *Nathan Hager (SH) 1:54.88; (2) *Owen Hucke (R)
1:58.25; (3) Ryan Sherman (JC) 2:03.31; (4) Ryan Yon (SH) 2:11.65;
(5) Bradley Derosiers (BC) 2:!2.06; (6) Zach Johnson (BC) 2:21.29.
200
Individual Medley – (1) *Jeremy Darst (BC) 2:10.19; (2)
*Vincent Kelly (BC) 2:15.32; (3) *Chris Strahan (Stay) 2:15.68; (4)
*Brandon Vasfaret (SH) 2:18.07; (5) Clay Youker (P) 2:18.24; (6) Ben
Michaud (P) 2:32.91; (11) Sean Wolthuis (SH) 2:41.24.
50
Freestyle – (1) *Micah Lautwyler (SA) 22.89; (2) *Trevor Barry
(Sis) 24.12; (3) *Jaegar Howatt (SH) 24.28; (4) Shane Clark (SA)
24.67; (5) Joshua Navarro (Cas) 24.71; (6) Jordan Emerich (SA) 24.28.
100
Butterfly – (1) *Vincent Kelly (BC) 58.81; (2) *Clay Youker (P)
59.60; (3) *Shane Clark (SA) 1:00.37; (4) Chris Strahan 1:01.99; (5)
Bailey Jones (P) 1:04.63; (6) Ted Warnock (P) 1:05.36; (8) Sean
Wolthuis (SH) 1:12.23.
100
Freestyle – (1) *Patrick Williamson (P) 51.63; (2) *Nathan
Hager (SH) 52.33; (3) *Owen Hucke (R) 53.61; (4) *Nathan Glade (Cen)
53.78; (5) Jonah Leutwyler (SA) 54.39; (6) Jaegar Howatt (SH) 54.73.
500
Freestyle – (1) *-Brandon Vasfaret (SH) 5:25.11; (2) *Ryan
Sherman (JC) 5:50.83; (3) Ryan Yon (SH) 5:53.90; (4) Scott Veldman
(P) 6:05.74; (5) Bjorn Syverson (Cas) 6:06.36; (6) Joel Markham (SA)
6:20.60; (10) Grant Jones (SH) 6:28.10.
200
Freestyle Relay – (1) *Sisters 1:37.00; (2) *Philomath 1:37.19;
(3) *Sweet Home (Nathan Hager, Brandon Vasfaret, Ryan Yon, Jaeger
Howatt) 1:39.71; (4) Cascade 1:42.88; (5) Junction City 1:42.95; (6)
Ridgeview 1:43.14; (10) Sweet Home “B” (Tanner Goble, Tadyn
Bentley, Adam Barber, Sean Wolthuis) 1:50.18.
100
Backstroke – (1) *Jeremy Darst (BC) 57.11; (2) *Brennan Miller
(Sis) 58.72; (3) *Micah Leutwyler (SA) 1:00.75; (4) Aaron Grumbo (SA)
1:07.10; (5) Nondo Neusteuer (P) 1:08.85; (6) Reid Priewe (P)
1:11.38; No Sweet Home Finalists.
100
Breaststroke – (1) *Patrick Williamson (P) 1:04.84; (2) *Nathan
Glade (Cen) 1:06.29; (3) *Brett Kelly (R) 1:07.04; (4) *Jonah
Leutwyler (SA) 1:07.97; (5) Ian Baldessari (Sis) 1:09.54; (6) Ryan
Rosas (Cent) 1:11.27; No Sweet Home Finalists.
400
Freestyle Relay – (1) * Salem Academy 3:32.67; (2) * Sweet Home
(Nathan Hager, Brandon Vasfaret, Ryan Yon, Jaegar Howatt) 3:37.55;
(3) Blanchet Catholic 3:38.11; (4) Sisters 3:50.01; (5) Philomath
3:52.95; (6) Central 4:00.91; (10) Sweet Home “B” (Tanner Goble,
Adam Barber, Grant Jones, Tadyn Bentley) 4:25.14.