Girl's Swimming vs Snohomish and Glacier Peak

The Oak Harbor Wildcat girls swim team hosted Snohomish and Glacier Peak in a tri-meet at Vanderzicht Pool Tuesday afternoon, beating GP, but falling to Snohomish.

The first event was the 200 Meter Medley Relay. In this relay, each of 4 girls each swims a different stroke, in the order of: Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Freestyle. Snohomish won the overall event, with the OHHS varsity team of Amanda Streubel, Rachel Weinstein, Ciara Hu and Karina Concepcion nabbing 2nd place, just .38 seconds behind. Two other OH teams were in the race, with the "B" team formed of Lily Doyle, Madi Shipley, McKenna Yockey and Erica Gregory (5th overall) and a "C" team of Kristen Ross, Abby Rankin, Lindsey Johnson and Lindsey Hall finishing 6th.

Second was the 200 meter freestyle, 8 lengths of the pool (4 laps), and was also won by Snohomish, but OH placed Abby Leete (3), McKenna Yockey (7) and Lindsey Hall (8) for points. Katherine Jones, Michelle Maxwell and Jessica Cathey also swam in the event for OHHS.

The 200 meter individual medley (IM) is similar to the relay, but one swimmer does all four strokes, and in a different order: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle. Ciara Hu was the top Wildcat, just .28 seconds behind the winner. Others earning points for the 'Cats were Amanda Streubel (3rd) and Lily Doyle (5)

The fastest event of the meet was next: the 50 meter freestyle. Carolyn Vasquez was the top OH swimmer, posting a time of 30.33 seconds, and earning 3rd place. Kerianne Wright was just .35 seconds behind Vasquez, and Karina Concepcion finished 6th to round out the OH scoring in that event. Also competing for OH were Kira Homola, Laurie Cummings, Samantha Lewellen and Beverly Gianino.

Oak Harbor put 3 girls into the diving event with 2 earning points for the team. Abby Rankin was tops for Oak Harbor and 3rd overall, with 97.65 points, followed by Erica Gregory scoring 63.45 points in her first dive outing at Vanderzicht Pool. Kira Homola was the 3rd OH diver.

In the 100 meter Butterfly, probably the hardest event, Ciara Hu finished 3rd, Kerianne Wright 5th and Madi Shipley in 7th.

OHHS also placed 3 swimmers for points in the 100 meter freestyle: Concepcion, Tori Nickerson, and Vasquez. It was a large field with tough competition for points, and although only 3 earned points, Lindsey Johnson, Alexa Ennis, Amanda Ridge and Laurie Cummings also swam the event for OH.

In the distance race, the 400 meter freestyle, Rachel Weinstein finished first for the 'Cats and 2nd overall, posting a time of 4:51.23, almost 20 seconds in front of the 3rd place finisher. Also earning points for OH were Abby Leete (6) and Madi Shipley (7)

In the 2nd of three relays on the day, the 200 meter freestyle relay, Snohomish nabbed the top two spots, but the OH "B" team of Tori Nickerson, Abby Rankin, Amanda Streubel and Abby Leete was 3rd, beating the OH "A" relay of Vasquez, Concepcion, Wright and Weinstein by over 15 seconds. OH also had a "C" relay team, made up of Ennis, Maxwell, Cummings and Johnson that finished out of the money.

Oak Harbor picked up their first win in the 100 meter backstroke, with Amanda Streubel posting a time of 1:11.62, almost 4 seconds faster than her nearest opponent. Other OH finishers were Doyle, Rankin, Ennis and Kristen Ross.

The 100 back was followed by the 100 Breast, which may be the most technically difficult stroke to master, as well being a relatively slow stroke. Rachel Weinstein of OH placed 3rd overall, and Nickerson and Yockey also earned points. Finishing the race, but not earning points were Johnson, Jones, and Leanne Empinado.

The final event of the day was the 400 meter freestyle relay. Although the top OH team finished 3rd, all four of the Oak Harbor teams that entered the race finished in the money, earning team points for OHHS. The "A" relay consisted of Hu, Vasquez, Wright and Leete, the "B" relay was Shipley, Nickerson, Doyle and Rankin, the "C" relay was Ross, Gregory, Yockey and Empinado, and finishing up in the "D" spot was Katherine Jones, Jessica Cathey, Lindsey Johnson and Amanda Ridge.

83 photos of the first half of the meet, including some nice sequence photos of the diving competition, are posted HERE.