It takes a special year to have more than two students named athlete of the year.

And 2005 was unquestionably one of those years at Oak Harbor High School.

With two female athletes signed to play sports at NCAA Division I schools in the fall, choosing Heidi McNeill and Missy McIntyre, along with male athlete of they year Chris Wichers, seemed the likely move.

“I was kind of worried about how they were going to do it because Heidi definitely deserved it,” said two-time OHHS athlete of the year, McIntyre. “I know they did three in the past, so I was just hoping they would choose her and Chris or all three.”

This year’s selection of McNeill, McIntyre and Wichers marked the seventh time in the 53-year history of the award that three athletes were honored. The last time it happened was in 2002 with Jon Garcia, Brent Thompson and Valerie Hartman.

Heidi McNeill

McNeill, who signed to play basketball at the University of Washington as a junior, was excited to get the award in her final year at OHHS.

“It means a lot,” she said. “When I was a freshman I saw Valerie Hartman get it and I looked up to her, so I really wanted to get it too.”

In her senior season McNeill, a 6-foot-3 post/forward averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game, while becoming the first OHHS female and only secondWildcat to be put up for a McDonald’s All-American basketball nomination.

McNeill’s most memorable moment this year came in her final contest when she tallied a career-high 40 points against Marysville-Pilchuck and did it in front of her future UW coach June Daugherty.

In her four years playing varsity basketball, however, McNeill said it’s her first two seasons, when the OHHS girls made the program’s first ever trips to state, that will be most remembered.

“Those were probably some of the funnest times that we had playing basketball as a team and being friends and stuff,” she said.

As a two-sport athlete, McNeill also shined in the volleyball court, helping the Wildcats to their first trip to the district playoffs in 11 years. She compiled 317 kills, the second most in school history, and 113 blocks. Because of the strong season OHHS head coach Kerri Molitor and McNeill were both asked to take part in the All-State volleyball game on July 14. It will be McNeill’s second all-state game this year, as she also took part in the basketball game this spring.

In one week McNeill will begin basketball workouts and summer school — moving her just one step closer to her first college game.

“I’ll probably be real nervous the first couple of games,” she said. “And TV games I’m going to be super nervous, but I’m really looking forward to getting down there and playing.”

Missy McIntyre

As a senior at OHHS, McIntyre had another outstanding year in the pool. She won her fourth state title in the 100 breaststroke with an All-American time of 1:02.80 and her third in the 50 freestyle at an All-American mark of 23.28. McIntyre also broke her previous 100 breast state record during the district meet, setting a new mark of 1:02.02.

Although it was a season for personal success, the moment that most sticks out to McIntyre came in a regular season meet at Mount Vernon. After getting team points taken away because a Wildcat swimmer wore a hair band around her wrist, Oak Harbor fell behind. The deduction forced a must-win from the second-team 400 meter freestyle relay in the final race of the evening.

After trailing to start the race, freshman Aelara Cordary made up a huge distance on the final leg, to take the relay and the meet for the Wildcats.

“That was probably the coolest meet of my high school career,” McIntyre said. “Just winning like that — it was like we were a football team, we were extremely aggressive.”

The victory helped the Wildcats to a 6-5 team record. They lost their first five team meets of the season.

McIntyre will head to the University of Southern California in a week. She knows working under the direction of USC head coach and US Olympic coach Mark Schubert will be no easy task.

“He’s going to kick my butt swimming wise and I wanted to kind of get used to that before classes started so that physically I was ready for it,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre leaves the OHHS swim program with 7-of-8 individual school records, seven state titles and a state record. Her next goal is to continue to improve her times and make the 2008 US Olympic team.

Chris Wichers

During a senior season that saw illness and injuries, Wichers was able to persevere and receive the top male athletic honor at OHHS.

As the Wildcats’ number one cross country runner, he began to not feel well toward the end of the season.

“I was number one on the team the whole year and at the end of the season I don’t know if I got sick or what happened,” Wichers said. “I was supposed to win districts and go to state — I didn’t do either.”

Wichers finished 19th in the WesCo North and 29th at districts.

During the wrestling season things were cruising along perfectly for Wichers. He was ranked fifth in the state at 140 pounds, was 16-0 with 12 pins and was only seven pins away from the school record when the unthinkable happened. Facing off with Monroe’s Philip Jacobsen in a Jan. 6 match, Wichers severely dislocated his right elbow, forcing an abrupt end to his season.

“I didn’t even care about the pain when I was on the mat,” he said. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to wrestle. It sucks to work that hard for four years and have that happen.”

His goal of winning state was crushed, but Wichers still showed up to practices and meets to support his teammates.

“I wanted to come back and help the team so I went to practice and tournaments and stayed with them and just tried to help,” he said.

In the spring Wichers tried something new. Instead of running track like he did for three previous years, he gave soccer a try.

“I wanted to have fun…it’s way less pressure I guess,” he said.

His most memorable moment on the soccer field came when he scored the Wildcats’ first goal of the season during their third game.

Next year Wichers will attend Western Washington University. He plans on taking a year off from sports, but the following year he said he may rejoin cross country or possibly try out for the WWU rowing team.

“It’s really different, I like trying different stuff and it looks like fun,” he said.