By Sean Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home High School girls and boys swim teams exceeded expectations – except maybe their own – finishing second in girls and fourth in boys at the state 4A/3A/2A/1A swimming championships Saturday, Feb. 17, at Mt. Hood Community College.
The Huskies also won five individual state titles, in five events.
“They did everything they could do today,” said Coach Doug Peargin. “They couldn’t have placed any higher. We were hoping for a top-four finish in both. I could not be any prouder.”
His teams just didn’t have the numbers other schools did this year, Peargin said. While he didn’t think the girls could win, he expected them to finish in the top four. By the numbers prior to the meet, the boys were likely to finish below the top four.
The Huskies went out and literally swam their best, Peargin said. Everyone set a lifetime best, and every relay team improved.
“What a great way to end up a great season,” a clearly enthused Peargin said as he ended his 44th year coaching the Huskies. “Our goals at the first team meeting of the year were to trophy at both district and state, as well as setting individual goals.
“All that work, all those yards spent in the pool, all those hours – they all worked out for us.”
The Huskies took 11 swimmers to state and all 11 of them swam personal best times, Peargin noted.
“Every swimmer who was seeded eight or better finaled for us. It was a tremendous overall performance.”
Lacking depth going into the meet, the boys thought just getting a trophy would be “sweet,” said senior Rawlins Lupoli. “Everybody did more than they had to.”
They hit their best times and earned a trophy, he said.
Senior Lauren Yon, in her final high school meet before heading to Oregon State University’s swim team, said she feels “really good” about her team’s performance. With just four girls in the meet, they focused on just having some fun and bonding. Finishing strong and in second place was “wonderful.”
Sophomore Megan Hager said they were able to pull together as a team, she said.
“We pulled it off because we had four amazing swimmers. I feel like we have more team spirit – and just knew we could do it – than any team that was there.
“We were more focused on having fun together as a team. The second place just came along with it.”
Fellow senior Mia Davis said after losing two big contributors in her sister Lucie, who is now at Boise State, and Jessica Coats, now at Wagner College – both Division I schools, “We honestly didn’t know what to expect. We lost some pretty powerful seniors. With only four girls, we didn’t think we even had a chance of placing that high. It’s amazing how much damage a small team can do. I think we really delivered. It’s pretty cool we got second.”
“They just outswam those guys,” Peargin said. “We just got tougher than they did.”
That was apparent when the Huskies won their first individual championship.
Yon won by a hair’s breadth over Eva Carlson of Catlin Gabel to kick big things off for the Huskies, taking the 200 Individual Medley championship by .04 seconds – for her fourth straight title in that event. Yon’s 2:05.76 set the new record, while Carlson’s swim also surpassed the old record.
“That’s the width of a human fingernail,” Peargin said. “You can’t see it with the human eye.”
He noted that Yon’s state division record was still just short of Leah Land’s school record of 02.05.6.
“My goal for the whole meet was just to have fun,” Yon said. In that relaxed mindset, the first 150 yards were “super smooth,” she said. Then, “the last 50, I kind of died. I just put my head down and finished it.”
And she finished at the top with a tiny fraction of a second to spare.
Yon went on to win the the 500 Freestyle, her first state race and title in that event.
She paced herself and ran in third place before decisively pushing into the front during the last couple hundred yards.
Yon said she was tired after winning the 200 IM, “so I was just really smart with my racing,” swimming as smoothly as she could for as long as she could then used her endurance to surge ahead later in the race.
After finishing second in the 50 Freestyle, Hager swam the 100 Free in 52.49 to win her second straight championship in that event, this time by 1.6 seconds ahead of Nina Zweifel of Tillamook.
Both her time in the 50 (24.44) and the 100 (52.49) were school records.
Hager said her win last year helped her win it this year.
She knew she could swim that time, she said. She has done it that fast before, but it’s the first time she did it in a high school meet.
“Honestly, I just knew that we trained a whole lot more probably than the other teams do,” Hager said. “A lot of it is the mental fortitude it takes.”
Races like that are exhausting, she said, and she was exhausted afterward.
The girls scored their final points winning the 400 Freestyle Relay in 3:37.67 ahead of Sisters, 3:45.81. The team included Yon, Hager, junior Sarah Hewitt and Davis.
Senior Rawlins Lupoli brought home the top trophy in the 100 Breaststroke, finishing in 1:00.94 ahead of Lance Denny of La Grande, with 1:01.44.
“I was pretty nervous,” Lupoli said. “The guy who got second won it last year.”
He beat Lupoli by .3 seconds, and the third-place swimmer finished beat Lupoli by .1 seconds, Lupoli said.
Denny is a fast swimmer, but he starts slow, Lupoli said. He saw him start creeping up in the last 25 yards. That’s when Lupoli began pushing himself to win.
After finishing third last year, Lupoli said, he took a break from swimming.
He got back into it after soccer, Lupoli said.
“I started training really hard. It’s something I really wanted.”
For the girls, other place winners were the 200 Medley Relay team of Yon, Hager, Hewitt and Davis in third – in a school-record 1:51.55, Hewitt’s third and Davis’ sixth in the 200 Freestyle, Hewitt’s third in the 100 backstroke.
“We really needed to just go really fast in all of our hundreds,” Davis said. “We were all pretty nervous for that relay, so we just needed to stay focused.”
The Huskies scored 57 points, ahead of Catlin Gabel with 52 and behind North Bend with 66. Sisters finished in fourth place with 34 points.
In the boys competition, Sweet Home[s 200 Medley Relay team, with junior Bradley Wolthuis, seniors Rowland Lupoli and Rawlins Lupoli, and junior Stewart Curtis, finished second. Rawlins Lupoli finished fourth in the 200 Individual Medley; Rowland Lupoli was third in the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Free; and Sweet Home, with Rawlins Lupoli, Curtis, senior Seth Wright and Rowland Lupoli, finished second in the 200 Freestyle Relay.
The boys finished with 37 points, behind Salem Academy with 39, North Bend with 48 and Newport with 74 and ahead of La Grande with 32.
“I’ve been to a lot of state meets, but this was one of the most enjoyable,” Peargin said. “It’s been fun. I hate to see the season end.”
OSAA 4A/3A/2A/1A State Championships
*State Record
Girls Results
Team Scores – North Bend 66, Sweet Home 57, Catlin Gabel 52, Sisters 34, Tillamook 33, La Grande 24, Newport 17, Marshfield 8, Corbett 5, St. Mary’s 3, Valley Catholic 2, Cascade 2, Salem Academy 2, Baker 1.
200 Medley Relay – (1) Catlin Gabel 1:47.23*; North Bend 1:51.09; (3) Sweet Home (Sarah Hewitt, Lauren Yon, Mia Davis, Megan Hager) 1:51.55; (4) La Grande 1:56.56; (5) Sisters 1:56.79; (6) Tillamook 1:56.93.
200 Freestyle – (1) Lizzy Cook (Catlin Gabel) 1:50.92; (2) Anna Hutchins (Marshfield) 1:56.25; (3) Lauren Bobo-Shi (Newport) 1:56.96; (4) Sarah Hewitt (SH) 1:59.24; (5) Bella Jones (North Bend) 2:00.45; (6) Mia Davis (SH) 2:02.60.
200 Individual Medley – (1) Lauren Yon (SH) 2:08.27; (2) Eva Carlson (Catlin Gabel) 2:09.18; (3) Riana Scott (La Grane) 2:13.78; (4) Kalea Mullins (Corbett) 2:14.99; (5) Natalie Cheal (North Bend) 2:18.03; (6) Makayla Proett (North Bend) 2:18.09.
50 Freestyle – (1) Vianka Hoyer (North Bend) 24:39; (2) Megan Hager (SH) 24.44; (3) Sarah Kuykendal (North Bend) 25.33; (4) Hawley Harrer (Sisters) 25.56; (5) Maryn Ringger (St. Mary’s) 25.58; (6) Kristal Jensen (La Grande) 26.12.
100 Butterfly – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
100 Freestyle – (1) Megan Hager (SH) 52.49; (2) Nina Zweifel (Tillamook) 54.09; (3) Bella Jones (North Bend) 54.34; (4) Sophie Dziak (Newport) 56.16; (5) Emily Mendyke (Valley Catholic) 56.54; (6) Maryn Ringger (St. Mary’s) 56.63.
500 Freestyle – (1) Lauren Yon (SH) 5:04.52; (2) Lydia Bartlett (Sisters) 5:04.77; (3) Helen Lin (Catlin Gabel) 5:11.19; (4) Anna Hutchins (Marshfield) 5:13.30; (5) Kalea Mullins (Corbett) 5:23.19; (6) Mia Davis (SH) 5:29.04.
200 Freestyle Relay – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
100 Backstroke – (1) Nina Zweifel (Tillamook) *57.45; (2) Helen Lin (Catlin Gabel) 58.71; (3) Sarah Hewitt (SH) 1:01.69; (4) Riana Scott (La Grande) 1:10.74; (5) Lauren Bobo-Shi (Newport) 1:01.82; (6) Sarah Kuyendal (North Bend) 1:02.18.
100 Breaststroke – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
400 Freestyle Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Megan Hager, Mia Davis, Sarah Hewitt, Lauren Yon) 3:37.67; (2) Sisters 3:45.81; (3) North Bend 3:47.52; (4) Tillamook 3:48.74; (5) Newport 3:53.46; (DQ) Catlin Gabel.
Boys Results
Team Scores – Newport 74, North Bend 48, Salem Academy 39, Sweet Home 37, La Grande 32, Nyssa 14, Marshfield 12, Henley 12, Scappoose 8, Philomath 7, St. Mary’s 6, Seaside 5, Stayton 4, Catlin Gabel 4, Baker 2, Cottage Grove 2, Phoenix 2.
200 Medley Relay – (1) Newport 1:40.73; (2) Sweet Home (Bradley Wolthuis, Rawlins Lupoli Rowland Lupoli, Stewart Curtis) 1:42.29; (3) North Bend 1:42.80; (4) La Grande 1:42.90; (5) Salem Academy 1:46.20; (6) Scappoose 1:50.90.
200 Freestyle – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
200 Individual Medley – (1) Ryan Trichler (North Bend) 1:56.24; (2) Lucas Ellingson (Newport) 2:00.75; (3) Jasper Zhu (St. Mary’s) 2:02.54; (4) Rawlins Lupoli (SH) 2:03.40; (5) Sid Pai (Catlin Gabel) 2:04.75; (6) Alexander Kliew (Marshfield) 2:06.78.
50 Freestyle – (1) TJ Morgan (Henley) 22.10; (2) Josh Shipley (Seaside) 22.23; (3) Rowland Lupoli (SH) 22.30; (4) Wilson McLean (Salem Academy) 22.46; (5) Will Blair (Scappoose) 22.23; (6) Caleb Ringger (St. Mary’s) 23.25.
100 Butterfly – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
100 Freestyle – (1) Garren Dutto (La Grande) 47.26; (2) TJ Morgan (Henley) 48.33; (3) Caden Shanks (Newport) 48.87; (4) Rowland Lupoli (SH) 49.09; (5) Sean O’Meara (Newport) 49.49; (6) Caleb Ringger (St. Mary’s) 50.65. Stewart Curtis (SH) placed ninth in prelims, 51.78.
500 Freestyle – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
200 Freestyle Relay – (1) Salem Academy 1:31.49; (2) Sweet Home (Rawlins Lupoli, Seth Wright Stewart Curtis, Rowland Lupoli) 1:32.06; (3) Newport 1:32.28; (4) North Bend 1:32.87; (5) Marshfield 1:35.14; (6) Scappoose 1:35.89.
100 Backstroke – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors.
100 Breaststroke – (1) Rawlins Lupoli (SH) 1:00.94; (2) Lance Denny (La Grande) 1:01.44; (3) Eric Seitz (Stayton) 1:02.38; (4) Zachary Holt (North Bend) 1:03.08; (5) Ian Dukes (Cottage Grove) 1:04.05; (6) Craig Hoefs (North Bend) 1:04.43.
400 Freestyle Relay – Finalists included no Sweet Home competitors. Sweet Home’s team of Stewart Curtis, Seth Wright, Cameron Taber, Bradley Wolthuis missed the finals by one spot, placing seventh in 3:33.89.