“Brent Rivard, who swims for the Oak Harbor boy’s team, has no competition this season in the breast stroke … well, that is to say no competition from competitors of other schools, any way. Head coach Patrick Stewart pit Rivard against fellow Cat David Swiosh Thursday at the Wildcats’ meet against Mariner. The two battled it out all the while their team splashed the Marauders right out of the water for Oak Harbor’s first win of the year, 115-52. The win matches the team’s total for all of last year in just its third meet of the season.Rivard was a little bit under two seconds off from making the state cut in the breast stroke last season. This year is a different story, as Rivard posted a time of 1:11.84, just three-tenths of a second off the state qualifying time. Rivard says that he has been training three hours a day and hopes to make the state cut.“I have just been focusing a lot, eating well and training a lot too,” said Rivard. “He (Rivard) is going to do real well because he trains hard and he has a good attitude,” said Stewart. “I know he is going to make it, easy. After last week and the first meet of the season he was No. 1 in the league in breast stroke.”Stewart put Rivard against Swiosh in hopes of pushing him to get a better time and qualify for the state cut, according to the coach. The competition, along with the crowd support, pushed Rivard’s time to a personal best. “At the 50 split there was only a 10th of a second difference,” said Stewart. “Everybody keeps telling me how fast he (Swiosh) is. I put them up against each other because Brent didn’t have much competition. The rest of their teammates were betting on who was going to win, but I knew it was going to come down to who wanted it the most.” Stewart is also confident that Swiosh will make the state cut in the breast stroke as well, possibly sending two swimmers to state in the same event for Oak Harbor. Another swimmer that is doing exceptionally well this season is Jason Hunter.“He does really well in the long distances,” said Stewart. “He has won the last three meets in the 500.” Hunter destroyed the competition as he bested everyone in the 500 freestyle by more than a full minute with a time of 6:07.97. Colby Wiley has also racked up two wins already this season in the 100 butterfly. Against Mariner the Cats had crowd support, something they have lacked a bit in the past few years. Six boys from Oak Harbor each took a letter as they wrote GO WES! across their chest and cheered Wes Hartman, who placed third in the 200 free style behind his teammates Jason Hunter and Erik Mills.“This is the first time we have had a lot of spectators,” said Rivard. “Maybe next year we will have some more people on the team.”One of the reasons for the team’s lackluster season last year and their struggles this season have been the low number of swimmers turning out for the sport. But the turnout continues to increase with each season, according to Stewart.“I think we are doing alright,” said Rivard. “We have a good team this year. we have a lot of talent but we don’t have as many people as we would like. It’s not really a popular sport like basketball or football.” The team, which has gone 1-2 so far during the young season, has surprised Stewart as they have swam faster than he originally thought that they would.“The season is going really well,” said Stewart. “We only lost our first meet by 20 points and we had a couple of guys who were not able to swim, and with those guys it would have been a lot closer.” One good thing for the coach is that the team responds to him and will swim when he wants them to.“I don’t have any problems,” said Stewart. “Everybody is willing to swim pretty much where I put them. Everyone gets along real well and they have a good attitude.” Stewart says that the period after winter break will be the most important for the team as they will have two meets a week and very few practices. The boys next meet at home will be against Shorewood Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. Oak Harbor 115, Mariner 52At Vanderzicht pool200 medley relay: Oak Harbor (Hunter, Rivard, Wiley, Swoish) 2:07.11; 200 freestyle: Hunter (OH) 2:14.08; 200 individual medley: Swiosh (OH) 2:26.71; 50 freestyle: Rivard (OH) 27.67; Diving-none; 100 butterfly: Wiley (OH) 1:06.47; 100 freestyle: Bonner (Mariner) 1:10.73; 500 freestyle: Hunter (OH) 6:07.97; 200 freestyle relay: Oak Harbor (Marriott, Bressler, Vrbas, Epilepsia) 2:14.05; 100 backstroke: Wiley (OH) 1:16.61; 100 breaststroke: Rivard (OH) 1:17.84; 400 freestyle relay: Oak Harbor (Wiley, Hunter, Rivard, Swoish) 4:13.20. Records: Oak Harbor 1-2 in league and overall. Mariner 0-3, 0-3. “