Sweet Home’s boys and girls earned team victories in the Sweet Home Invitational Friday against many of the big players in District III swimming.
However, Coach Doug Peargin warned, it’s a little hard to tell where the others are at because swimmers on nearly all the teams were sick and some were missing from the competition. Sisters’ and Stayton’s girls both were lacking potential scorers, he said.
“Much like many of the other teams, we were a little short-handed due to illnesses that have been going around,” he said. “But despite that, I thought we swam pretty well.”
Sweet Home’s girls finished with 88 points, behind wins by Naomi Gunselman in the 100 backstroke (1:05.33) and the 100 Butterfly (1:01.29), and Emily Thompson’s victory in the 500 freestyle (6:14.81). Sweet home also won the 200 Medley and 200 Freestyle relays. Sisters was nine points back, at 79, and Stayton finished with 67.
The boys finished with 109 points, well ahead of Philomath (67), Central (54) and Sisters (45).
“With the exception of one boy, our entire team competed, even if they weren’t feeling up to par,” Peargin said. “I feel that, as a team, we caught the other teams a little off guard and got on top of them right out of the chute. By doing that, they weren’t able to really recover.”
Winners for the boys were Gravy Gunselman in the 200 IM (2:10.05) and the 100 Butterfly (30.5), Zach Pearce in the 50 Freestyle (22.36) and 100 Breaststroke (1:03.14) and Don Rockstead in the 100 Backstroke (59.93) and 100 Freestyle (51.62), along with the 200 Medley and 400 Freestyle relay teams.
“This was a good meet, with good competition,” Peargin said.
The Huskies will next be in action at 10 a.m. on Dec. 29.
“We don’t take Christmas break off like some of the other teams that we compete against,” he said. “We swim right through Christmas break. I feel this extra yardage gives us an added advantage – something we fall back on going into the district and state championships.”
Sweet Home Invitational
Girls Results (Top 3 and Sweet Home finishers)
Team Scores: (1) Sweet Home 88; (2) Sisters 79; (3) Stayton 67; (4) Junction City 30.5; (5) Philomath 29; (6) Central 14.5.
200 Medley Relay – (1) Sweet Home (Naomi Gunselman, Emily Thompson, Kimber Swanson, Paige Sanders) 2:09.01; (2) Sisters High School 2:12.25; (3) Stayton 2:12.66; (4) Junction City 2:21.84; (5) Sisters B 2:26.31 (6) Philomath 2:27.10 (7) Central 2:34.10 (8) Philomath 3:25.32
200 Freestyle – (1) Julie Wallace (St) 2:17.34 (2) Kimber Swanson (SH) 2:18.14 (3) Krysta Reynolds (St) 2:28.31 (6) Katie Turner (SH) 2:39.78
200 Individual Medley – (1) Katie Stewart (Si) 2:29.28 (2) Emily Thompson (SH) 2:44.73 (3) Kendra Keges (JC) 2:53.46 (8) Emily Claborn (SH) 3:15.11
50 Free