Gig Harbor’s Oates wins two titles at 3A state swim meet
The Gig Harbor and Peninsula boys swim team both competed in the Class 3A state swim meet at the King County Aquatic Center over the weekend. The teams faced strong competition in a tough state for swimming but had their own respective successes. Here’s how each team finished their year.
GIG HARBOR’S OATES WINS PAIR OF TITLES, SETS TWO SCHOOL RECORDS
Originally, Tides’ sophomore Billy Oates wasn’t going to come out for the team this year, planning to limit his competition to his club team.But he had a change of heart early in the season and came back to swim for the Tides, and at the state meet, had the strongest showing of his team. Oates won a pair of state titles at the meet, taking first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.53 seconds and also taking first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 49.10, both of which were school records. All of this lead to the Tides finishing in ninth place in the team standings.
“I think they went as well as they could have gone,” Oates said. “I think I got a really good warm up and warm down in for my events. I think I was just in a good mindset going into my first race. Seeing it play out the way I wanted it to definitely helped throughout the rest of the meet.”
For Oates, it came down to visualizing and putting that focus into action.
“I think it was just pure focus on doing everything the way I wanted it to go,” Oates said.
That two-win performance was a historic one for Gig Harbor coach Mike Kelly, as it was the first time he had an athlete win both their individual events at State. He was both excited about that performance from Oates as well as the recognition he received at the end of the meet. “It was an incredible meet for the Tides,” Kelly said. “Billy was the recipient of the WISCA Swimmer of the Meet Award, which is presented to the best athlete of the meet based on power points which are linked to the time of the swimmer. This was the first time in my coaching career that one of my athletes received this recognition. It is also the first time any Tides male athlete has won this award. It was a very exciting bonus to an already exciting meet.”
Still, not everything went as smoothly as the team had hoped especially when they had wanted the relays to get them some extra points. The first event was a rough one for the team when they were disqualified in the 200 medley relay due to an early start.
“Unfortunately, Michael Derouin swimming the freestyle leg left 0.28 seconds early and the Tides were disqualified,” Coach Kelly said. “If we had stayed legal we would have qualified second.”
Even with the disqualification, there were no hard feelings from the team and they worked to just keep moving forward.
“That happens,” Oates said. “I just know that you know, relay exchanges and early starts, that happens in relays. I think we all realized that this isn’t that big of a deal. It happens and to get over it and have a good rest of the meet is more important.”
Oates said the team was ultimately happy with their finish and how the meet played out.
“I think we were all really happy. Despite getting disqualified in the medley, our team was super happy with how we placed and how well we did,” Oates said.
With that being said, Oates still had some points of improvement he wanted to work on.
“There are definitely some minor things that have to go along with my race,” Oates said. “I think both of my finishes, I took an extra stroke on both of them. Probably could’ve done more underwaters on my backstrokes, probably could’ve gone out a little bit farther and just maybe a little bit more work on my walls. Other than that, it was pretty good.”
Also with strong showings were Derouin in the individual event of the 50 free where he finished behind Oates in seventh with a time of 21.81.
Carson Eliason, in his last year of high school swimming, finished 13th in the 100 breast with a time of 59.77.
PENINSULA FRESHMAN HOBBS HAS BEST FINISH OF TEAM; JUNIOR GIESY ALSO COMPETES TO HELP TEAM FINISH 27TH
Freshman Hunter Hobbs was the standout for the Seahawks with a 13th place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 1:58.84 and a 12th place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.10.
“I think that it went well. I didn’t do very well in finals in my 200 IM,” Hobbs said. “But talking to coaches and everything, they made me realize for my first year I did pretty well.”
The big thing that the team struggled with was the speed of the competitors, which is something coach Tim Messersmith noted.
“Oh man, the state of Washington is getting fast. It really is,” Messersmith said. “Our expectations for the season were to get to the state meet because we didn’t have anybody there last year.”
Hobbs had come in ready for the speed and even he agreed at the increase in speed.
“I’ve been watching state for quite a few years so I was kind of expecting it but it also does get faster every year,” Hobbs said.
A secondary challenge was recovering from districts with a short turnaround to state.
“It’s really hard to come back after districts. If you taper for districts and then you have two weeks to get back in shape and taper again, it’s always hard,” Hobbs said. “I think I was given the best opportunity possible.”
Messersmith has hopes that Hobbs will continue to grow for the team in the future years.
“I’m trying to tell him to keep your eye on the prize. These next few years, you’re going to be climbing that ladder,” Messersmith said. “We’re on the right path.”
However, Hobbs wouldn’t commit to coming back next year and will take some time to make a decision.
“I’m not completely sure if I’m going to be doing high school next year if I’m going to be honest,” Hobbs said. “My only other thing I’m looking into is just doing club rather than high school swim just because it’s a little more intense, more serious.”
What makes high school swimming less serious for Hobbs? It comes down to a question of focus.
“It’s a lot more lighthearted. Everyone isn’t as focused on the swimming because most people on the team are just high schoolers that have never been swimmers before,” Hobbs said.
Even if Hobbs does leave, he wasn’t the only one on the team that was at state. Junior Tanner Giesy finished 19th in the 100 fly with a time of 56.16, a personal record and a finish he was proud of.
“I thought things went pretty well. I’m pretty sure we all set personal records,” Giesey said. “It was clearly high competition because it was state. Some of the best swimmers of the state were there. It was really fun to swim in but it was also just fun to watch how fast everybody else is.”
Messersmith also offered his praise of the finish Giesy had especially as someone who doesn’t swim club.
“Tanner, he does not swim club swimming. He is not a year round swimmer. He is probably one of maybe a handful of kids in that entire meet that do not swim club. For him to get nineteenth and to come back and do a best time is phenomenal,” Messersmith said. “I’m like ‘well Tanner this should convince you to swim club now and quit lacrosse’ and he’s like ‘ah no.’ I was like ‘well you can’t get concussions doing swimming like you do lacrosse.’
That was echoed by Giesy even as he doesn’t have plans to commit to swimming year round. “For me, not swimming year round and being able to go to state is a pretty big accomplishment for me,” Giesey said.
When it all came down to it, Giesy felt the team as a whole just went in to do their best without putting much pressure on themselves.“As a team, I wouldn’t say we were up with the competition as much,” Giesy said. “We didn’t go there with much expectation. We just went there to try to set personal records and perform at a high stakes competition.
How will the team fair next year? They will have to do some rebuilding. “I think we have a pretty strong program. We’re losing a lot of our seniors this year. Our team is probably going to be pretty small next year,” Giesey said. “Overall, I think we have some pretty strong swimmers on our team so I’m not too worried about next year.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
