Shorecrest’s depth too much for Oak Harbor
Published 10:36 pm Thursday, January 5, 2012
SHORELINE — It’s something so simple, and if spectators don’t pay attention to the Shorecrest boys swim and dive team after the diving break of their meets, it could be easy to miss.
This season a simple tradition has been one of the team’s keys to success. Scots captains Carter Osborne, Marcus Frates, and Josh Dyck gather the entire team in the warm-up pool—all 58 members— and Osborne blows a conch shell followed by the captains yelling, “S-C” then “O-T-S” from the rest of the team. After three calls and responses, everyone yells, “Gooooo Scots.” The team splashes each other and gets a bit crazy before returning to the normalcy of the meet.
“It’s just kind of a way to get the energy back in people after sitting around for diving,” Osborne said. “You can feel the energy getting down and that’s just a really great way to get people back into the mood for swimming.”
The mid-meet rally began last year and gained steam this year when Frates brought the conch back from a trip to Hawaii. On Thursday at Shoreline Pool it worked again. Prior to the diving break, the Scots trailed the dual meet with Oak Harbor 32-30, but blew out the Wildcats in the second half to finish with a 103-82 win in a showdown of two of the area’s best 3A teams.
“It’s amazing what that can do to boost our performance,” Osborne said. “Just a cheer.”
The cheer was not the only thing in Shorecrest’s (6-1 Wesco South, 8-1) favor during this showdown that was the stiffest competition either team had faced at the 3A level this season. The Scots depth proved to be too much for Oak Harbor (5-0 Wesco North, 5-2 overall) despite sparkling performances from brother duo Jacob and Josh Jepsen, who both posted 3A state qualifying times.
For Shorecrest coach Bill Murray his team’s success has been a culmination of nearly eight years of program building.
“This is probably the all around best team I’ve coached at Shorecrest,” Murray said. “Carter is our only state (qualified) swimmer so far, so really our success has been from the amount of other talented kids we have.”
When he started as the Scots coach, the program boasted all of eight kids on the roster. Thursday his top three teams in the just a single event, the 200-yard free relay — four swimmers more than the entire 2004 roster — beat all of Oak Harbor’s entries in the event. Shorecrest has serious depth.
“Most of that has been the kids themselves in the program talking it up and pulling other kids in from off-season sports, saying this is a great way to get fit,” Murray said.
What’s even more amazing is that Shorecrest has zero swimmers, who are in the pool all year with club teams.
“It definitely is a unique situation,” Murray said. “We’ve gotten really lucky with an athletic group of kids.”
Osborne, who reached the state meet in 2011 as a sophomore, leads the way and he took two first places and two seconds Thursday including relays, posting individual 3A state qualifying times in the 200 free (1 minute 50.75 seconds) and 100 yard back (57.49).
Another pleasant surprise that adds to Schorcrest’s depth has been Aaron Moss, who was already a competitive swimmer, but picked up diving two months ago and broke the six-dive school record with 231.65 points Thursday.
“He’s a national level gymnast and he has just taken to the board,” Murray said.
Moss’ emergence has only added to the Scots depth.
“I knew it was going to be close against Shorecrest and I was worried about their depth, which did get us in the end,” Oak Harbor coach Amy Merkley said. “They have a lot of good swimmers.”
“I’ve got the Jepsens,” she added with a smile.
Either senior Jacob or junior Josh Jepsen (or both in two relays) finished atop six of the meet’s 11 events. The only reason the brothers didn’t win more events is they had to rest between swims. The brothers are the biggest reason behind Oak Harbor’s success, though the Wildcats are not without other contributors. Caley Powers, who is still recovering from a broken leg suffered during the soccer season, captured the 100 fly in 58.19.
Merkley watches in awe as the soft-spoken brothers lead her team by example.
“They are just hard workers, disciplined,” Merkley said. “They really persevere. They put in a lot of hours between handling the club requirements and the high school requirements. Some kids decided not to do that any more because it’s too much.
“They live at the pool.”
Jacob posted the first state-qualifying time of the day in the 200 free (1:49.05) and Josh notched the second in the 200-yard IM (2:04.03), which Jacob had previously qualified for earlier in the season.
On a lark Jacob decided to swim the 500 free and posted a state time of 4:54.81, which was 45 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer.
“I just kind of swam that,” Jacob said casually referring to an event that he normally doesn’t compete in.
Then Josh posted a state time in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.71), which was his season-best.
Both brothers have goals of making the final eight at the state meet and Merkley thinks if they keep getting better they can reach their goal.
“They are incredible, amazing athletes,” the Wildcats coach said, “very humble but determined.”
Both teams are likely to butt heads again in the 3A district meet, but before then Shorecrest faces possibly the best 3A team in the area — Shorewood — in a dual on Jan. 28.
At Shoreline Pool
w200 medley relay—Oak Harbor (Jacob Jepsen, Josh Jepsen, Caley Powers, Kevin Levy) 1:46.66; 200 freestyle—Jacob Jepsen (OH) 1:49.05; 200 individual medley—Josh Jepsen (OH) 2:04.03; 50 freestyle—Michael Doquilo (SC) 24.12; Diving—Aaron Moss (SC) 231.65; 100 butterfly—Powers (OH) 58.19; 100 freestyle—Russel Groves (SC) 52.83; 500 freestyle—Jacob Jepsen (OH) 4:54.81; 200 freestyle relay—Shorecrest (Axel Wickstrom, Doquilo, Groves, Carter Osborne) 1:37.66; 100 backstroke—Osborne (SC) 57.49; 100 breaststroke—Josh Jepsen (OH) 1:03.71; 400 freestyle relay—Oak Harbor (Jacob Jepsen, Powers, Kevin Levy, Josh Jepsen) 3:32.93. Records—Oak Harbor 5-2 overall. Shorecrest 8-1.
