2009 a Historic Year

 

A recap of the year really begins with the SWOHS Classic. This meet is a preview of the district meet except that WHS was competing with both D I and D II schools. The Girls finished 12th and the boys finished 4th (125 schools). Celia Oberholzer was champion and broke the WHS 100 back record. The Boys 200 medley relay team (Fisher, Proffitt, Murphy, Dunbar) were champions and broke the WHS record. They beat both Moeller who was2nd, and St X who was 3rd. To have 4 swimmers who can compete with the big schools that have such great depth, is really special. WHS owned the league meet. Both the Boys and the Girls were champs. The Girls had 5 individual champions and 2 relay champions. Bryn Dunbar was Female Athlete of the year. The Boys also had 5 individual Champs and 3 relay champions. Michael Murphy was Male Athlete of the Year. The Boys set 3 new League records. Michael Murphy set one in the 200 free, Jonathan Proffitt tied the 100 breast record and the medley relay team (Fischer, Proffitt, Murphy and Dunbar) set the third. Sectionals saw both Girls and Boys bring home the Championship. The Girls had 3 individual and 1 relay champions, while the boys had 4 Individual and 3 relay winners. The girls went into districts with 4 #1 seeds while the Boys had 5. Districts turned out to be the meet of the century for both teams, who were both Champions. The girls rewrote the record book with 6 new WHS records (including a district record for the medley relay). Bryn Dunbar had 4 (2 indiv. 2 relay) and Celia Oberhozer had 3 (1 indiv 2 relay). They also had 1 indiv and 1 relay district champions and sent 9 to state. Both the Girls and the Boys Medley relays set district records. The Boys had 2 Individual and 3 relay district champions and since this was the 1st year of boys D II, they own 7 District records. Two were WHS records as well, 100 fly by Michael Murphy and the medley relay (Fischer, Proffitt, Murphy and Dunbar). The Boys qualified 8 to state. At state 16 of the 17 Qualifiers scored and WHS had 2 state Champions. The Girls finished 3rd and the Boys finished 2nd. If you combine the Girls and Boys scores, WHS finished 2nd with 320, behind New Albany which had a combined score of 381, and ahead of third place Sanduski Perkins with 220. This is further proof of the fact that WHS was very strong this year. (When the 2003 "Fab Five" Boys finished 3rd, the Girls finished 28th ) In order to appreciate the magnitude of the accomplishment of becoming State Champion at WHS, you need to understand how frequently it has happened. I queried Jim Barre and Rich Roebuck, and the only previous state champion they knew of since 1990, was Michelle Reynolds. The girls teams were split into two divisions for the first time in 2000. In 2001 Michelle Reynolds was State Champion in the 100 fly. Her record still stands. The boys have been div I till this year and there has never been a State Champion since 1990. Not even in the 2001 –2003 era of the "fab five" when WHS finished third at state in D I!!! So we all need to appreciate how lucky we are to have such great talent on the WHS team. This Girls team set 6 new records this year (3 indiv and 3 relay), which is more than has happened since at least 2000 (the oldest data I have). This would suggest that the 09 team is the strongest for at least a decade. Bryn Dunbar has 2 indivual and 3 relay records this year. Celia Oberholzer has 1 individual and 2 relay records. Since the individual record was set when she won the State Championships, this was a historical year for her. The boys have 3 studs (which may turn into 5 or 6 next year) and the freshmen have stepped up extremely well. They also went on a record binge this year, and have established 4 new WHS records and 3 league records. Jonathan Proffitt established a new record in the 100 breast while winning the state Championship. This feat, to my knowledge, has never before been accomplished by a member of the WHS Boys Team. Further, his time would have won the DI championship this year as well. Michael Murphy and Jonathan Proffitt are beating Fab Five records, which indicates how strong they are. I’m sure this is the strongest team since 03 and they will be stronger next year. While WHS had strength at the top, they also had great depth. This is best illustrated by the fact that at the league meet, 17 Girls and 22 Boys scored points. Amazing!! It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have observed and been a small part of this great team.

2009 State Qualifiers

Missing: Swimmer Mariah Akinbi and Divers Katrina Buckner, Abby Markowitz and Cameron Merten .