In its final tune up before the WesCo North qualifying meet, the Oak Harbor boys swimming team faced a strong Snohomish squad Thursday afternoon at John Vanderzicht Memorial Pool.
The undefeated Panthers (5-0, 6-0), dominated the majority of the events at the meet en route to a 110-60 victory, but the Wildcats did pick up three victories in individual races.
John Hu captured the 200-meter individual medley in a time of 2:16.11, and came back with a time of 1:14.95 to win the 100-meter breaststroke.
The individual medley was one of the more exciting races and was dead even through the first two legs. Hu pulled out to a one-body length lead during the breaststroke leg and brought it home over the final 50 meters swimming the freestyle.
“I didn’t think I’d beat him by that much,” a winded Hu said after the race. “When the coaches are working you as hard as they do to build up your endurance, it really pays off at the end.”
The other individual winner was Chris Klieman in the 100-meter backstroke.
Swimming in his final home meet, the senior was surprised with his time of 1:12.27 to win the race.
“I didn’t think I was going to do that good, but I guess I did pretty good,” he said with a big smile at the conclusion of the race.
Oak Harbor’s 200-meter medley relay team of Spencer Livermore, Hu, Cameron Spence and Zach Johnston placed second in a time of 2:00.25, and the same quartet came back with a time of 1:47.98 to take second in the 200-meter freestyle relay.
Johnston was also second in the 50-meter freestyle at 28.29.
The 400-meter freestyle relay team comprised of Bryce Vagt, Klieman, Brian Silvera and Spence placed second in a time of 4:25.54.
The team was in third place at the end of the second 100 meters, but Silvera swam a big leg to put the boys in second place and Spence held the advantage swimming the anchor leg.
“Overall, we had a pretty good season,” coach Erika Miller said. “We got some kids qualified for the state meet and we have the districts coming up. Hopefully, we’ll get another state cut at the districts. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
The district meet is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, at Snohomish.
