Three individuals, and possibly a fourth, and three relay teams qualified for state for Oak Harbor as the Wildcats finished third at the 11-team district swim meet at Marysville-Pilchuck High School Saturday, Feb. 9.
Senior Josh Jepsen and juniors Kevin Levy and Caley Powers finished in the top three in individual events at district to earn state slots. They teamed with senior Jerik Bainco on two relay teams and sophomore Toren Wood on a third to also qualify in the relay events.
The first three in each district event snagged automatic berths at state.
Bainco finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.67), and his time most likely earned him a wildcard slot at state, according to coach Alex Thierry. The wildcard positions will be officially announced Tuesday, Feb. 12.
Junior Cedric Cabigting is an alternate on the medley relay team and may compete at state, according to Thierry.
The state meet is at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way Friday and Saturday, Feb. 15 and 16.
This will be Jepsen’s fourth trip to state. Levy, Powers and Wood also qualified last year.
Thierry chose to load up the relays at district, sacrificing possible berths in individual events.
He said, “Our relays should be seeded top-10 at state.”
He added, “As far as performance at districts, I am very happy. None of my state qualifiers are tapered yet so seeing such great time drops in them was really nice to see. My district qualifiers had some great drops even from prelims to finals. Every one of my swimmers should be very proud of how they have performed this season. I am very happy and excited for state.”
Jepsen collected the only championship, finishing first in the 100-yard breaststroke (12:02.56).
Powers was second in the 100 butterfly (54.64) and Levy third in the 50 (22.58).
Wood, Jepsen, Powers and Levy snared second in the 200 medley relay (1:42.82). Jepsen, Powers, Levy and Bainco were second in the 400 free relay (3:22.28) and tied for third in the 200 free relay (1:31.98).
As expected, Shorewood took the title over 10 other teams with 529 points, followed by Shorecrest (511) and Oak Harbor (324).
Other Oak Harbor results in the finals:
Bainco, fifth, 200 IM, 2:09.14; Cabigting, fifth, 100 back, 59.64, eighth, 200 IM, 2:13.55; Michael Johnson, sixth, 100 fly, 59.38, sixth, 100 back, 1:00.33; Wood, seventh, 100 back, 1:01.57, ninth, 50 free, 23.98; Joe Gorman, ninth, 500 free, 5:37.06, 11th, 200 free, 2:05.61; David Kusnick, 11th, 100 breast, 1:09.98, 16th, 50 free, 24.61; Joey Jepsen, 14th, 500 free, 5:59.11.
