A final tune-up for Sweet Home’s swimmers Friday, Feb. 3, ended up not being as competitive as coaches hoped, but the Huskies still continued to deliver a wave of personal bests as they headed for the district championships this weekend.
Molalla was supposed to join St. Mary’s of Medford and North Marion in the Sweet Home pool, but the Tigers pulled out due to illness, Sweet Home Coach A. Jay Bronson said.
“I kind of wished they were here,” he said. “They went 1-1 with our boys, so we would have had that ytie-breaker. We would have had more competition.”
Still, he said, “we were happy with everything else. Our goal Friday was to race, and we did. We got quite a few big PR’s even though we haven’t tapered yet.”
Sweet Home won both the boys and girls competitions, which were missing a planned visit by Molalla.
The girls outscored St. Mary’s 121-54, with North Marion third with 23 points.
The boys finished with 94 points, to 39 from the Crusaders.
Individual winners for the boys were Arman Marble in the 200 Individual Medley and the 500 Freestyle, RJ Abbott in the 100 Breaststroke and the 100 Freestyle, Shayne Schuster in the 100 Butterfly and Blake Arthur in the 50 Freestyle. The boys also swept the relays.
Individual winners for the girls were Kirsten Sautel in the 200 Individual Medley and the 500 Freestyle, Peyton Markell in the 200 Freestyle, and Breeza Rodriguez in the 100 Freestyle.
The girls also won the 200 Medley and 400 Freestyle relays.
The wins gave the girls a perfect dual meet record for the season, and the boys finished 5-3.
“It’s not quite the same as basketball, but finishing 8-0 is a good thing,” the coach said.
Bronson noted that Rodriguez, who came into high school swimming with club experience, has continued to improve steadily all season.
“Breeza is constantly coming down in her times,” he said of the freshman.
Plus, he added, “(freshman) Andrew Tolman is just killing it. We put (freshman) Anna Perez in the 500 to see if she could do it and she did.”
The district meet will be Friday and Saturday at the South Albany pool. Should Sweet Home’s girls win, they will notch a streak of 10 straight district titles.
“That would be really cool,” Bronson said of the young girls team – the Huskies’ oldest swimmers are juniors Rylee Markell and Alyssa Voight.
“Both the boys and the girls have a shot at the district title.”
Stayton presents a challenge on the girls side, he said.
“If Marist and Junction City beat us in one or two events, Stayton could catapult ahead of us. They have enough good kids.”
On the boys side, defending district champion Marist is back with a team equal in size to the Huskies.
“Marist is the big one for the boys,” Bronson said. “They have the same number of guys. It’s going to come down to two or three races.”
Sweet Home has seen steady improvement from a lot of its boys.
Sophomore Shayne Schuster, who was brand new to swimming last year, continues to improve with almost every race in almost every event, he noted.
“Shayne was 12th in every event last year at distiricts. This year he’s in the top three or four.”
Junior Blake Arthur has also become an increasing force this season.
“Blake has gotten more competitive. He’s the No. 1 seed in both his events, but they’re sprints. You can either be first or fifth.”
Prelims will start at 10 a.m. Friday. Finals will be at 10 a.m. Saturday.
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