Sweet Home’s girls won their eighth straight district swimming title Saturday, June 19, in their own pool as the Huskies hosted the Special District 3 meet for both boys, on Friday, and the girls.
The Husky girls qualified 14 individuals for the state 4A meet to be held this weekend in Cottage Grove, along with all three relay teams, and the boys, who placed fifth at districts with six swimmers in the water, qualified three individuals and all three relays.
Coach Doug Peargin said both the girls and boys had an “excellent meet.”
“We only had 11 girls, and all but one scored in every event they swam,” he said. “We started out by winning the first four races.”
Individual district champions for the girls were Chloe Tyler in the 200 Freestyle (1:57.92) and the 100 Backstroke (58.78), Malia Hewitt in the 200 Individual Medley (2:17.44) and 100 Breaststroke (1:08.20), and Jamie Seward in the 40 Freestyle (25.96). All are juniors.
The 200 Medley Relay team of Tyler, Hewitt, Maren Weld and Meagan Baham (2:00.44) and the 200 Freestyle Relay team of Tyler, Baham, Isabel Sayer and Seward (1:48.06) also won district titles.
The girls outpaced second-place Stayton 297-203, with Blanchet third with 174 points.
Qualifying for state for the girls were all the district champions, plus Sayer, a junior, in the 200 and 500 Freestyles, Baham, also a junior, in the 50 and 100 Freestyles, and freshman Rylee Markell in the 100 Breaststroke and 100 Butterfly, sophomore Taryn Abbott in the 100 Backstroke, and senior Olivia Martineau in the 500 Freestyle.
The boys had no district winners, but junior Micah Wright qualified for state in the 200 and 500 Freestyles, and senior Hunter Calderwood qualified in the 100 Butterfly. They will be joined by Bill Hawken, Chase Lopez and freshman Ben Tolman in the relays.
“This was, by far, our best boys meet of the year,” Coach Doug Peargin said. “We had 20 swims, with 19 of those PR’s. For our guys, the biggest thing was staying focused. The entire team was ready to really get after it through the enire meet. We swam as well as we could with only six boys. The good news is that every boy placed in every event he was in. I’m proud of every one of them.”
He noted that the meet “was more organized and ran smoother than any district that I can remember,” crediting Sweet Home Aquatics Director AJ Bronson, who has helped coach the Huskies this season.
The girls won’t be facing Catlin Gabel, a Portland-area private school that won last year’s state meet, as this year’s competition will only include 4A schools. The OSAA has lumped 4A and smaller schools together for two decades, but Bronson said that after the OSAA decided not to have culminating events this year, 4A-division athletic directors decided to run their own, with more relaxed qualification standards – 16 instead of the 12 OSAA has implemented in recent years, and to limit it to 4A schools.
However, Newport’s girls have improved over the past few years and the Cubs look like the team Sweet Home will need to beat to win a state title, Peargin said.
“Newport and us are going to have a war,” he said. “Looking at the times from districts, going into the final relay we could be four points down to them.”
Sweet Home
District Swimming Championships
Girls Results
*4A State Championships Qualifier
Team Scores – (1) Sweet Home 297; (2) Stayton 203; (3) Blanchet 174; (4) Philomath 143; (5) Salem Academy 27; (6) Marist 68; (7) North Marion 55; (8) Cascade 47; (9) Kennedy 24; (10) Junction City 18.
Top 3 and Sweet Home Finishers
200 Medley Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Chloe Tyler, Malia Hewitt, Maren Weld, Meagan Baham) 2:00.44*; (2) Stayton 2:09.57; (3) Blanchet 2:09.99; (4) Salem Academy 2:11.58; (5) Philomath 2:22.27; (6) North Marion 2:46.77; (7) Cascade 2:49.17.
200 Freestyle – (1) Chloe Tyler (SH) 1:57.92*; (2) Kylie Mannix (Stay) 2:07.69*; (3) Sofia James (M) 2:09.23*; (4) Isabel Sayer (SH) 2:16.36*; (9) Olivia Martineau (SH) 2:40.42; (10) Nora Pettner (SH) 2:47.50.
200 Individual Medley – (1) Malia Hewitt (SH) 2:17.44*; (2) Lauren Kennedy (B) 2:23.13; (3) Raquel Druery (SA) 2:33.85; (7) Taryn Abbott (SH) 2:50.02.
50 Freestyle – (1) Jamie Seward (SH) 25.96*; (2) Kayla Greenwood (B) 26.00; (3) Caitlyn Martinak (Stay) 27.01; (6) Meagan Basham (SH) 29.26*; (14) Ivy Dewitte (SH) 33.36; (29) Alaina Curtiss (SH) 41.09.
100 Butterfly – (1) Raquel Druery (SA) 1:07.74; (2) Abby Salnas (M) 1:16.58; (3) Olivia Banning (B) 1:17.51; (6) Rylee Markell (SH) 1:26.20*; (7) Maren Weld (SH) 1:27.87.
100 Freestyle – (1) Kayla Greenwood (B) 1:00.07; (2) Bethany Wagar (Stay) 1:02.97; (3) Meagan Baham (SH) 1:05.53*; (11) Alaina Curtiss (SH) 1:32.08;
500 Freestyle – (1) Kylie Mannix (Stay) 5:38.84; (2) Isabel Sayer (SH) 6:02.52*; (3) Audrey Davis (P) 6:10.68; (6) Olivia Martineau (SH) 7:14.78*; (8) Nora Pettner (SH) 7:34.79.
200 Freestyle Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Chloe Tyler, Meagan Baham, Isabel Sayer, Jamie Seward) 1:48.06*; (2) Stayton 1:49.08; (3) Salem Academy 2:05.45; (4) Philomath 2:06.21; (5) Marist 2:13.91; (6) Blanchet 2:14.73; (7) Kennedy 2:23.61; (8) Cascsde 2:27.17; (9) North Marion 2:28.73;
100 Backstroke – (1) Chloe Tyler (SH) 58.78*; (2) Jamie Seward (SH) 1:02.28*; (3) Sofia James (M) 1:06.05; (4) Taryn Abbott (SH) 1:13.54*; (9) Maren Weld (SH) 1:23.59.
100 Breaststroke – (1) Malia Hewitt (SH) 1:08.20*; (2) Lauren Kennedy (B) 1:15.03; (3) Melia Morton (P) 1:17.05; (5) Rylee Markell (SH) 1:22.75*;
400 Freestyle Relay – (1) Stayton 4:02.84; (2) Sweet Home (Isabel Sayer, Jamie Seward, Taryn Abbott, Malia Hewitt) 4:02.98*; (3) 4:09.18; (4) Philomath 5:11.95.
Boys Results
Top 3 and Sweet Home Finishers
Team Scores – (1) Marist 308; (2) Philomath 154; (3) Stayton 128; (4) Salem Academy 123; (5) Sweet Home 118; (6) Blanchet 116; (7) North Marion 80; (8) Cascade 53; (9) Kennedy 32; (10) Junction City 10.
200 Medley Relay – (1) Marist 1:51.37; (2) Philomath 1:54.90; (3) Blanchet 2:04.43; (4) Salem Academy 2:09.12; (5) North Marion 2:15.19; (6) Sweet Home (Jacob Kennedy, Bill Hawken, Chase Lopez, Ben Tolman) 2:16.87*.
200 Freestyle – (1) Tanner Fixsen (Stay) 1:52.88; (2) Trent McQuaid (M) 1:57.03; (3) Sami Hussein (2:13.78); (4) Micah Wright (SH) 2:15.98*; (7) Hunter Calderwood (SH) 2:18.01; (11) Bill Hawken (SH) 2:24.07.
200 Individual Medley – (1) Clifford Hegney (B) 2:34.48; (2) Jude Toth (NM) 2:35.40; (3) Hudson Jarvis (M) 2:48.59.
50 Freestyle – (1) Parker Dirkx (Stay) 24.22; (2) Kyler Lajoie (M) 24.55; (3) Carrson Hirte (P) 25.46; (7) Chase Lopez (SH) 26.36; (18) Ben Tolman (SH) 30.31; (23) Jacob Kennedy (SH) 31.67.
100 Butterfly – (1) Cameron Miller (K) 58.66; (2) Jackson Anderson (M) 1:02.95; (3) Keilen Houchin (P) 1:12.66; (4) Hunter Calderwood (SH) 1:12.78*.
100 Freestyle – (1) Trent McQuaid (M) 53.10; (2) Parker Dirkx (Stay) 53.19; (3) Carrson Hirte (P) 56.38; (11) Ben Tolman (SH) 1:11.72.
500 Freestyle – (1) Tanner Fixsen (Stay) 5:08.61; (2) Jude Toth (NM) 6:11.99; (3) Micah Hugo (M) 6:16.76; (4) Micah Wright (SH) 6:24.93*.
200 Freestyle Relay – (1) Marist 1:41.90; (2) Philomath 1:44.16; (3) Stayton 1:45.02; (4) Sweet Home (Bill Hawken, Chase Lopez, Hunter Calderwood, Micah Wright) 1:48.46*; (5) Salem Academy 1:56.58; (6) North Marion 1:56.62; (7) Cascade 2:01.49.
100 Backstroke – (1) Cameron Miller (K) 59.43; (2) Kyler Lajoie (M) 1:01.97; (3) Elijah McLennan (P) 1:03.42; (10) Jacob Kennedy (SH) 1:24.32.
100 Breaststroke – (1) Clifford Hegney (B) 1:12.99; (2) Hudson Jarvis (M) 1:13.74; (3) Caleb Matthews (P) 1:16.74; no Sweet Home entrants.
400 Freestyle Relay – (1) Marist 3:44.04; (2) Stayton 4:01.56; (3) Sweet Home 4:07.18*; (4) Salem Academy 4:08.38; (5) Blanchet 4:13.74.