Thursday was a busy day for Wildcat teams

Let's start with the events I was not at.

Freshman Football
I don't have a final score, but the freshman football team lost a tough road game in Monroe against the Bearcats. Sorry, but I don't have any details. The freshman team next plays at home vs Everett next Wednesday.

Girls Swimming
The opening swim meet of the year was originally scheduled for OH, but was moved to Kamiak. It was a close meet, with the Wildcats falling to the Knights 96-87. The 'Cats did win several events, including the marquee event, the 400 meter freestyle relay, won by the team of Rachel Weinstein, Tori Nickerson, Amanda Streubel, and Karina Concepcion, swimming in a time of 4:00.43. Other events won by Oak Harbor girls were the 200m freestyle, 100 butterfly, 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke. The swimmers hit the water next on Tuesday at the Lynnwood Pool.

Cross Country
The OH runners also opened their season today with a meet at the Wirth Farm off of Boon road against Everett and Stanwood. The event started with the boys JV, with the winner being an Oak Harbor runner whose name escapes me, finishing the 3-mile course in just over 20 minutes. Every Oak Harbor JV runner finished the race, which is not always the case.

In Girls Varsity, it's hard to assess the girls, as they were told not to run too hard by the coach as they are going to Oregon for an elite invitational this weekend. The 5 top runners, senior Kathryn Fisken along with teammates Alison Duvenez, Adrianna Royal, Jessica Denmon and Kimberly Kyle all ran the race together as a team. At the finish, the girls crossed the finish line together, punching a fist across the finish line and shouting "Wildcats" as they crossed. Even with their relaxed pace, they finished in 7th through 11th place. Even at the reduced pace, the girls beat all but one of the Everett runners. As a team, OH scored 45 points to land 2nd place in the meet.

The Boys Varsity race was similar, but different. The top boys were also going to Oregon and were told to hold back a little. Tyler King held back for about half the race, then he kicked it up a little, taking the lead before the 2-mile mark and keeping it to the end, finishing with a 1st place time of 16:47. Other top OH runners were Josh Duhrkopf, Cody Klauer, Michael Wright, and Matt Bolte, all of whom finished in the top 15. XC is in Seaside, Oregon for the weekend, and then is at Kamiak next Thursday.
Cross Country photos (149 of them) are posted here.

Girls Soccer
In Soccer, the JV girls played to a 0-0 tie with Stanwood. While it wasn't a win, the girls played hard. Coach Thompson was most impressed by the team defense, which did a good job in keeping the ball away from the Oak Harbor goal. On the Varsity side, the Wildcats lost 1-0 to 2-1 Stanwood- their 3rd 1-goal loss this year. Coach Barker had good things to say about his girls after the game, among them are "they didn't give up", and "they are a great group of girls...fun to coach". During the game, Coach said he discovered that he had two great bench players who went in and spurred the team. The lone Stanwood goal was a sloppy shot that happened to go in with less than a minute remaining in the 1st half. Next up for the soccer girls is at Everett on Tuesday the 23rd.

Volleyball
The Wildcats hosted Kamiak on Thursday at OHHS. In the Field House, the freshman team fought hard, but dropped all 3 game 5-25, 19-25 and 22-25. Coach Bjork said that despite the score, the first game was when her freshmen played best. The lopsided 1st game score was mostly due to Kamiak being able to get the ball to where our girls weren't. Games 2 and 3 were very close, aided by some good serving by Leah Pantoleon.

JV dropped 2 of their 3 games, 16-25, 25-18 and 23-25. The JV girls were in all 3 games, and according to Sophomore Janesa Ramos "we didn't give up". Sophomore Jordan Faralan added that she felt the team moved well on the court and played very good volleyball.

On Varsity, the Wildcats had their hand full against #5 ranked Kamiak of Mukilteo. Game one was close, with the Wildcats starting off 0-3, but knotting the score at 7 after some good volleyball. From there, though, Kamiak steadily opened a lead until at one point the score was 21-10 Kamiak. The 'Cats dug in, though, and some key kills by Senior Jennifer Jansen pulled Oak Harbor to within 5. From there, the teams traded points; neither gaining ground until the Wildcats simply ran out of points to give, falling 20-25 in the first. In the second, the girls came out fired up and ran to an early 3-1 lead. The game was extremely close, with neither team having more than a 3-point lead. The game continued past the normal 25 limit as in high school volleyball, a team has to win by 2 points. OH usually had the advantage during the extra points, but could not get that last point to end the game until Kamiak had a kill to take a one-point advantage, 27-26. A hitting error by the Knights tied it back up at 27, then a timely ace by Junior Emily Meagher followed by a Jansen kill won game 2 for the Wildcats 29-27. Game 3 was eerily similar, with both teams trading kills and hitting errors, keeping the game to within 2 points. With the score tied at 20, Kamiak went on a run of 5 straight points, including 2 service aces to win 25-20. Game 4 was just plain ugly for Oak Harbor as Kamiak showed why they held a state ranking. By the time the 'Cats got their first point, on a net violation by Kamiak, the Knights had scored 13. Even with kills by Jessica Muzzall, Devin Tanner, Kim Mowbray and Marisa Sutherland (back for her 1st game after an emergency appendectomy), Kamiak was able to place the ball well, earning numerous kills. In this game, it's not that the Wildcats were playing badly, it's that Kamiak stepped up and used ball placement to get through the Wildcat defense. Although the Wildcats lost the match, I think they showed they can play great volleyball against good teams, and should have a successful regular season. Look for some YouTube clips over the weekend. The volleyball girls get a week off from competition before facing 1-2 Jackson at home next Thursday.