Oak Harbor swimmers make waves

For Oak Harbor senior swimmer David Swoish his performance at the 4A State Swim Meet last weekend was a perfect way to end his high school swimming career

February 20, 2002 10:00 am
Oak Harbor’s Jason Hunter dives in for his anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay consolation heat at the 4A state meet last weekend. Below right: Senior David Swoish checks out the scoreboard after his preliminary race in the 100 freestyle. Swoish posted a time of 49.48 and moved onto the finals where he took seventh place.
Oak Harbor’s Jason Hunter dives in for his anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay consolation heat at the 4A state meet last weekend. Below right: Senior David Swoish checks out the scoreboard after his preliminary race in the 100 freestyle. Swoish posted a time of 49.48 and moved onto the finals where he took seventh place.

For Oak Harbor senior swimmer David Swoish his performance at the 4A State Swim Meet last weekend was a perfect way to end his high school swimming career and give him the encouragement to pursue the sport in the future.

Swoish placed fifth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.61 in the finals and took seventh in the 100 freestyle with a finals time of 49.76 to earn two individual medals and help the Oak Harbor boys squad take 14th place in the team standings.

“It was awesome, if you would have told me at the beginning of the year that I would get a fifth and a seventh I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said. “This gave me the confidence to realize I can keep on swimming in college.”

Swoish had plenty of help from his Wildcat teammates. The Oak Harbor 200 freestyle relay squad, consisting of David Swoish, Kyle Ciminski, Paul Swoish, and Jason Hunter won its consolation finals heat with a time of 1:32.65 to take ninth place. The Cats’ 200 medley relay team of Colby Wiley, David Swoish, Ciminski and Hunter failed to make it to the finals finishing 18th with a 1:46.39 time during preliminaries.

“The medley team didn’t do what we expected to and we were a little disappointed to be out of the medals in the 200 freestyle, but we still won our heat,” said David Swoish. “Everyone swam great in the free final.”

Ciminski, a sophomore, should have a bright future. He placed 10th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.53 during the consolation final. Ciminski also swam in the 100 butterfly where he narrowly missed out on making the consolation finals as well.

“I was happy with my time (in the 50 free) because I was pretty sick at district’s and I’m just now gaining my strength back,” he said.

In addition to the medley relay, Wiley also swam in the 100 butterfly. After posting a 57.24 in the prelims, the junior swam a 57.27 in the consolation finals to take 16th place.

After receiving his medal for his fifth-place finish in the 50 free, Swoish had just moments to prepare for the 100 freestyle final. Obviously the mind-set change had no effect as he was able to earn another medel with the seventh place finish. Neither did the fact that he was swimming in the last high school races of his career.

“To get up on the medel stand was great, I don’t think I could have swam any better,” he said. “I didn’t feel any pressure, I knew this was my last race and it was kind of like a release.”

Five Wildcat swimmers participated in the meet, held at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Oak Harbor’s 14th-place finish improved upon the team’s 34th place finish from last season and was the second-best by an area squad. Lake Stevens placed seventh.

Besides the medals Swoish will take away the satisfaction of helping the the Wildcats swim program become a consistent league challenger. The team added divers this season and most of the team will return next year, including Ciminski, Hunter, Wiley and Paul Swoish. If the Cats can continue to add swimmers the outlook for the program is bright.

Cynthia Woolbright contributed to this story.

4A State Swimming & Diving Championships

Team scores:1, Puyallup 186; 2, Garfield 146.50; 3, Inglemoor 141; 4, Decatur 140; 5, Olympia 138.50; 6, Thomas Jefferson 138; 7, Lake Stevens 125; 8, Gig Harbor 121; 9, Wilson 120; 10, Foss 103; 11, Curtis 76.50; 12, Kentwood 67; 13, Auburn 61; 14, Oak Harbor 52; 15, Snohomish 51; 16, Capital 40.50; 17, South Kitsap 39; 18 (tie), Moses Lake, Shorewood 38, 20 (tie), Wenatchee, Stadium 37; 22, Jackson 36; 23, Marysville-Pilchuck 33; 24, Eastlake 31; 25, Evergreen 29; 26, Kentridge 28; 27, Kamiak 24; 28, Woodinville 19; 29 (tie), Eisenhower, Kent-Meridian 16; 31, Edmonds-Woodway 15; 32 (tie), Mount Vernon, Tahoma, Heritage 13; 35, North Kitsap 12; 36, Enumclaw 11.50; 37, Roosevelt 10.5; 38

(tie) Federal Way, Bremerton, Kentlake 9, 41 (tie) Redmond, Shorecrest 7; 43, Bothell 6; 44, Battleground 5; 45 (tie), Hudson’s Bay, Mountain View 4; 47, Shelton 2; 48, Juanita 1.

Individual results (winners and OH swimmers:

Diving: 1, Chris Dalman, Auburn 509.10; 200-yard medley relay: 1, Decatur, 1:38.88. 200 freestyle: 1, Ryan Verlatti, Stadium 1:42.27;200 individual medley: 1, Joon Youm, Decatur 1:53.37; 50 freestyle: 1, Max Hinricksen, Lake Stevens 21.30; 5, David Swoish, Oak Harbor 22.61; 10, Kyle Ciminski, Oak Harbor 22.53; 100 butterfly: 1, Cori Bemis, Curtis 51.52; 16, Colby Wiley, Oak Harbor 57.27. 100 freestyle: 1, Max Hinricksen, Lake Stevens 46.52; 7, David Swoish, Oak Harbor 49.76. 500 freestyle: 1, Graham Boyer, Puyallup 4:41.13; 200 freestyle relay: 1, Olympia 1:27.80; 9, Oak Harbor 1:32.65; 100 backstroke: 1, Cori Bemis, Curtis 51.52; 100 breastroke: 1, Joon Youm, Decatur 57.43; 400 freestyle relay: 1, Puyallup 3:14.36.