Three in a row sure feels nice for the Oak Harbor boys swimming team.

Just a year removed from winning two meets all season, the Wildcats moved to 3-0 for the season with a convincing 128-57 victory over the Cascade Bruins on Thursday.

“The win was good,” said head coach Carla Edge after the meet. “It was our third of the year and the team only got two last year so everyone’s excited about that. It’s nice to have some depth, there isn’t a big gap between our top swimmers.”

Added depth has made the Wildcats a much stronger squad this season. Last year the team had talented swimmers who could win races, but without a deep team other schools built up points by placing second and third in events. This year the team has more swimmers who are capable of picking up points.

“We are a lot stronger this year,” said sophomore Jason Hunter. “Our top five were really strong last year, we could beat almost anyone but we didn’t have any depth under us. This year we have a lot stronger swimmers under our top five so were going to win a lot more meets.”

Hunter is one of the Wildcats’ top swimmers. He won the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle events on Thursday and helped his team win the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. He won the 500 with a time of 6:02.06, over 48 seconds faster than his nearest competitor, and then swam the anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay immediately after.

“It was two seconds off my best,” said Hunter about his 500 race. “We’re in a good position at the beginning of the year.”

Hunter, David Swoish and teammates Colby Wiley and Kyle Ciminski got the Wildcats off to a fast start with a convincing victory in the first event of the night, the 200 medley relay.

“It went really well,” Hunter said. “We sprinted well. I think Colby had his best time in the backstroke and Kyle and Dave swam the heck out of it.”

The team is aiming to send the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay to state this year. Hunter, Ciminski, David Swoish and Paul Swoish won the freestyle relay with a time of 1:50.51, over 10 seconds better than the Bruins’ top team.

“The season has gone really well so far,” Ciminski said after the event. “I’m excited because we finally have team spirit.”

Ciminski is another one of the top Wildcat swimmers. Besides swimming on the two victorious relay teams, he won two individual events as well – the 100 freestyle with a personal best 57.11 and the 100 meter breaststroke. Ciminski made it to the state meet last year and is itching to go back.

“I went to state last year as a wild card, and I didn’t do so well, but I learned a lot from the experience,” he said. “I want to make it back this year.”

A new but important addition to the Oak Harbor squad this year is the diving team. This is the first year that the Wildcats have divers. In previous years they would have to automatically forfeit those points.

“The divers have helped out,” said senior captain David Swoish. “If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have had a chance to win some of the meets.”

Despite their inexperience the three divers – Clayton Shepherd, Jomar Gonzales, and Carl Smiley – are learning fast and have brought a lot of enthusiasm to the team. Shepherd and Gonzales finished second and third against Cascade giving the team seven points that they wouldn’t have scored last year.

“They did really well tonight, it was our best meet so far, they’re just learning,” said diving coach Emilie Sullivan. “They’re doing great. We’ve only been practicing for a month and they all have had good scores. They all have six dives which you don’t expect for a couple of months.”

Each diver needs to complete six dives to be eligible for competition. Sullivan said the trio is working hard and hopes to take one or two of the guys to the state meet in February.

“They love it,” she said. “We have one hour practice every night and they would stay longer if they could. They practice on weekends and on trampolines at home.”

The Wildcats placed sixth out of 11 teams at district last season. With the team’s added depth, a higher finish could be in order this year. David Swoish sees the team’s toughest competition to be Marysville, Snohomish and Lake Stevens.

“Everything’s been good, he said. “It’s good for this team to do what we’ve been doing. It’s the best team we have ever had from my point of view. We have balance and depth.”

Next up for the Wildcats is a meet in Lynden next Tuesday. The team wraps up its pre-Holiday schedule with a home meet against Mountlake Terrace on Dec. 20.