Jayce Calhoon won two events and swam on two winning relays, but it took a controversial win by Kieran Schaefer in the 400 freestyle relay to lift the Sweet Home boys swimming team to its first state swimming title since 2000, and its third ever, Friday at Mt. Hood Community College.
The boys scored 64 points to beat their nemesis the last two years, Cottage Grove, which finished with 54. The Huskies had finished second to Cottage Grove in both 2008 and 2007, last year 67-54.
Schaefer out-touched Cottage Grove’s David Elligott on the anchor leg of the 400 freestyle relay, winning by what Sweet Home Coach Doug Peargin said was a “hair’s breadth” after race officials ruled that someone on deck had touched the sensor in Cottage Grove’s lane before Elligott got to the wall. Meet officials awarded the victory to Sweet Home, ruling that Shaefer had hit the wall 13/100ths of a second ahead of Elligott.
Peargin emphasized that the championship was a team effort €“ all the way.
“We didn’t have one swimmer in the boys division that had a chance of placing that didn’t place,” he said. “If we would have had one kid falter, we would’ve placed third or fourth.”
The whole meet was back and forth, Peargin said. Cottage Grove, North Bend and La Grande were close all night.
North Bend finished third, with 50 points, and La Grande was fourth (44), followed by Marist (24).
“I’m glad it’s over,” Peargin said. “It could’ve gone any way. There’s a lot of talent on these four teams.”
“We had some good swims in there,” he said.
Calhoon, a junior, won the 200 intermediate medley in 1:57.91 and the 100 backstroke in 52.31 for his third and fourth career state championships, after winning the 100 backstroke last year (54:67) and the 500 Freestyle as a freshman. Calhoon also swam the lead-off leg of the Huskies’ winning 200 Medley Relay (1:42.11) and 400 Freestyle Relay teams (3:20.00). All four times were state records under the districting system that has been in place since 2007. The backstroke and IM clockings were also school records and his backtroke time qualifies him for All-American recognition, Peargin said.
Calhoon was named Outstanding Male Swimmer of the meet.
“Jayce is a tenacious competitor,” Peargin said. “Not only does he have God-given talent, but he’s able to use strategy along with that. When you can think and compete at the same time, you can really be tough.”
The Huskies had a lot of new swimmers this year, Calhoon said, and those new swimmers were scored the extra points the team needed to win.
They improved all year, so when it came down to it Friday night at Mt. Hood Community College, he had no doubts the Huskies could win the top spot.
“I wasn’t really surprised,” Calhoon said. “I was really relieved. I knew we could do it.”
The Huskies opened with a win in the 200 medley relay, setting the tone for the meet.
Calhoon got the team way ahead on the backstroke, Schaefer said. Zachary Pearce and Michael Simmonds kept the relay team ahead.
“All I had to do was finish the race,” Schaefer said. “A lot of the work was done before I went into the water.”
Schaefer , a junior, was second in the 100 freestyle and third in the 200 freestyle, events he won as a freshman in 2007, though he swam faster times in both Friday than he did in winning two years ago.
“Kieran is a big-meet swimmer,” Peargin said. “He comes along all year long and does what it takes to win, and then he takes it to a different level. He’s a great part of the team. There are some great athletes at this thing and he’s right there with them.”
Pearce, a freshman, and senior Sebas Mauer, a second-year swimmer, scored big points for the Huskies as Pearce placed third in the 100 butterfly (58.44) and Mauer took third in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.44). Pearce just missed the final in the 200 freestyle, finishing seventh. Pearce had been seeded 10th going into the preliminaries and Mauer was seeded sixth.
“Those two guys right there gave us outstanding performances when we needed to get it done,” Peargin said. “If they had not placed third in those races, we would not have won.”
“Those were great swims, pressure swims. Both guys swam exactly like they were supposed to to get us where we needed to go.”
The other key producer for the Huskies was Simmonds, another junior, who took fourth in the 500 freestyle (5:07.93) and fifth in the 200 intermediate medley (2:08.18), behind Calhoon.
Mike has gotten to where he is because of hard work,” Peargin said. “He’s a hard worker, a valuable part of our team. He’s the kind of kid who if you want someone to watch your back, he’ll give you everything he’s got. As tired as he can be, he’ll still put it on the line.”
The final swim of the night was the 400 freestyle relay.
The scoreboard showed Cottage Grove winning by a full second, but the timer was apparently pushed about five seconds before Elligott and Schaefer hit the wall, Peargin said. He said an alert race official noticed a hand in the water next to the touch pad prior to the race’s finish. The race was too close for a full-second difference. Opting to go with the back-up hand timers, officials ruled Sweet Home the winner, with a time of 3:20.00, winning by .13 seconds €“ which Peargin said was the space of a human hair. Both teams broke the existing state record of 3:20.22.
“It was tense,” Peargin said. “It was for a state title.”
If the Huskies had finished third in that relay, they wouldn’t have won the championship, Peargin said. If they had finished second, they would have tied for the championship trophy.
In a dramatic finish, similar to the Huskies’ win in the same event over Marist the week before, Schaefer swam the final leg of the relay against Cottage Grove star David Elligot.
They left together, Peargin said, and Schaefer got in first “by a human hair.”
“It felt good to finally win state,” Schaefer said.
While he wishes he could have done better in his personal 200 and 100 freestyle races, “I did good in the two relays.”
No Sweet Home girls finished in the top six in the preliminaries, which was necessary to make the state final, though sophomore Sami Webb was as close as she could get, finishing seventh in both the 200 intermediate medley and the 500 freestyle, a race in which she missed the final by 1.68 seconds.
Webb’s individual swims were her second-fastest ever, Peargin said.
“If she had swum her lifetime best, she would have had a chance to come back,” he said. “We’re looking for a big meet out of Sami next year. She knows what she has to do. She’s smart, strong and she almost pulled it off this year. She almost got in the finals in the 500. If she had had another 10 yards, she’d have had it.”
The girls 400 freestyle relay team of Niccole Simmonds, Laura Gourley, Faith Helfrich and Webb finished 10th in the prelims.
Peargin said he told the boys to relish the moment.
“You don’t get one of these every week,” he said.
4A/3A/2A/1A Swimming State Championships
Boys top three and Sweet Home finishers (*preliminary finish/time)
200 Medley Relay €“ (1) Sweet Home (Jayce Calhoon, Michael Simmonds, Zachary Pearce, Kieran Schaefer), 1:42.11; (2) Cottage Grove 1:44.96. (3) La Grande 1:46.75.
200 Freestyle €“ (1) David Elligott (Cottage Grove) 1:45.59; (2) Colin Eaton (Portland-Lutheran) 1:46.14; (3) Kieran Schaefer (Sweet Home) 1:46.28; (7*) Zachary Pearce ( Sweet Home) 1:55.57*.
200 Intermediate Medley €“ (1) Jayce Calhoon (Sweet Home) 1:57.91; 2, Jacob Deines (Marist) 1:59.83; (3) Kevin Waller (North Bend) 2:01.07; (5) Michael Simmonds (Sweet Home) 2:08.18.
50 Yard Freestyle €“ (1) Matt Johnson (North Bend) 22.41; (2) Alex Field (Rainier) 23.26; (3) Chase Kearney (Hidden Valley) 23.44.
100 Butterfly €“ (1) Jacob Deines (Marist) 52.38; (2) Colin Eaton (Portland-Lutheran) 54.31; (3) Zachary Pearce (Sweet Home) 58.44.
100 Freestyle €“ (1) Kevin Waller (North Bend) 48.58; (2) Kieran Schaefer (Sweet Home) 48.78; (3) Isaac Hewitt (Corbett) 49.10.
500 Freestyle €“ (1) James Verger ( North Bend) 4:48.75; (2) Gavin Nash (Cottage Grove) 4:54.59; (3) Soren Madsen (La Grande) 5:00.85; (4) Michael Simmonds (Sweet Home) 5:07.93.
200 Freestyle Relay €“ (1) Cottage Grove 1:30.82; (2) North Bend 1:32.54; (3) La Grande 1:34.14; (9*) Sweet Home (Byron Sanders, Sebas Mauer, Dakotah Keys, Rob Callagan ) 1:38.67*.
100 Backstroke €“ (1) Jayce Calhoon (Sweet Home) 52.31; (2) Isaac Hewitt (Corbett) 53.49; (3) Matt Johnson (North Bend) 54.65.
100 Breaststroke €“ (1) Colby Fix-Carter (Cottage Grove) 1:00.94; (2) Tony Vickery (Junction City) 1:04.73; (3) Sebas Mauer (Sweet Home) 1:05.44.
400 Freestyle Relay €“ (1) Sweet Home (Jayce Calhoon , Michael Simmonds, Zachary Pearce, Kieran Schaefer) 3:20.00; (2) Cottage Grove 3:20.13; (3) North Bend 3:23.91.
Boys Team Results
1, Sweet Home, 64. 2, Cottage Grove, 54. 3, North Bend, 50. 4, La Grande, 44. 5, Marist, 24. 6, Rainier, 14. 7, Corbett, 12. 8, Central, 10. 8, Portland-Lutheran, 10. 10, Newport, 6. 10, Junction City, 6. 12, Philomath, 5. 12, Hidden Valley, 5. 14, Henley, 1. 14, Baker, 1.
Girls top three and Sweet Home finishers (*preliminary finish/time)
200 Yard Medley Relay €“ (1) Marist 1:54.92; (2) North Bend 1:56.84; (3) Cottage Grove 1:59.96.
200 Yard Freestyle €“ (1) Aly Viles (Taft) 1:52.27; (2) Rachel Heaney ( North Bend) 1:56.33; (3) Alexis Mollahan (Marist) 2:00.05.
200 Intermediate Medley €“ (1) Crystal Kibby (Cascade) 2:06.45; (2) Ingrid Woelfel (Marist) 2:12.37; (3) Lauren Nelson (Marist) 2:21.40; (7*) Sami Webb ( Sweet Home ) 2:27.39*.
50 Freestyle €“ (1) Melinda Duran (Henley) 25.25; (2) Kayla Heath (Phoenix) 25.59; (3) Demi Maus (Cottage Grove) 25.65.
100 Butterfly €“ (1) Aly Viles (Taft) 56.84; (2) Alex Mpitsos (Newport) 1:02.88; (3) Jenny Conrad (Cottage Grove) 1:04.45.
100 Freestyle €“ (1) Melinda Duran (Henley) 54.62; (2) Alexis Mollahan (Marist) 54.88; (3) Michelle Kingsbury(North Marion) 56.19.
500 Freestyle €“ (1) Rachel Heaney (North Bend) 5:11.02; (2) Logan Gomez (La Grande) 5:33.68; (3) Mary Cummings (Marist) 5:34.40; (7*) Sami Webb ( Sweet Home) 5:49.99*.
200 Freestyle Relay €“ (1) Henley 1:44.67; (2) Cottage Grove 1:45.73; (3) North Bend 1:46.12.
100 Backstroke €“ (1) Kristin McBride (Henley) 1:03.72; (2) Michelle Young (Sisters) 1:04.51; (3)
Lauren Nelson (Marist) 1:04.56.
100 Breaststroke €“ (1) Crystal Kibby (Cascade)1:06.19; (2) Ingrid Woelfel (Marist) 1:08.80; (3)
Barry McLaren (Philomath) 1:13.62.
400 Freestyle Relay €“ (1) Marist 3:42.93; (2) La Grande 3:57.24; (3) Cascade 4:01.27; (10*) Sweet Home (Niccole Simmonds , Faith Helfrich, Laura Gourley , Sami Webb ) 4:18.91*.
Girls Team Results
1, Marist, 66. 2, Henley, 42. 3, North Bend, 32. 4, Cottage Grove, 29. 5, Cascade, 26. 6, Taft, 22. 6, Sisters, 22. 8, La Grande, 16. 9, Phoenix, 10. 10, Philomath, 6. 10, Portland-Lutheran, 6. 12, Seaside, 5. 12, Baker, 5. 12, Newport, 5. 15, North Marion, 4. 15, Molalla, 4. 17, Corbett, 3. 18, Stayton, 2. 19, Valley Catholic, 1. 19, La Salle, 1. 19, Tillamook, 1.