Story by Ryan Yambra

Photos by Lauren Ogard

In 2010, the Grant’s boys swimming team won the state championship. In 2011, the team took second place. This year, expectations remained high with ninth-year coach Laura Tyrrell entering her last season and a supporting senior class.

Senior captain Will Tyrrell summed up the team’s goal this year. “We knew that we had some tough competition with Sunset and McMinnville at State, but our main goal in the preseason was that we wanted to go undefeated in the regular season,” Tyrrell said. “We wanted to win districts and all of our swim meets during the season.”

And they did. This year, the boys went undefeated in their league, tying only Clackamas on Jan. 12. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t face any obstacles. What was supposed to be a perfect season was hampered by injuries.

Sophomore, Julian Smith, and junior, Keenan Grobart, both suffered shoulder injuries from the excessive force of swimming and lifting, though it didn’t stop the returners from working hard.

During the first meet against West Linn, the team came out strong. Grant beat the Lions 95-74, setting the stage for a dominant season.

“I knew going into the meet what we needed to do to win,” said Laura Tyrrell. “In the case of West Linn, their top swimmer wasn’t at that meet. One individual isn’t going to make the difference between winning and losing but it certainly made the gap larger.”

The boys next faced Lakeridge. Grant won by 10 points – a relatively narrow margin of victory. But the team took something else from the win.

“We were pretty comfortable entering the season,” said senior Austin Macy, the other captain for the team. “Having that close of a win made us realize that we had to work for it. That meet against Lakeridge showed us that we have a lot of good opponents.”

Midway through the season, the boys were caught off guard. It was a meet against Clackamas, an undervalued opponent. Due to scheduling conflicts, fewer Grant swimmers were available. In the end, Grant tied Clackamas 85-85 in an underwhelming performance.

“Clackamas was an interesting one,” said senior Henry Fellows. “We were winning events, but we weren’t having the second-, third- and fourth-place finishes needed to rack up points.”

At this point in the season, Grant swimmers had a choice. They had the option to lay down and finish the season uninspired or push forward.

“I think it helped us,” Macy said. “It made me realize that we had to work harder and put more effort in. We just got stronger.”

They put in extra time in practice and many swimmers focused on improving individual times.

Grant dominated a shorthanded Canby team, winning the meet 104-65. It was a good warm-up to the next meet against Lake Oswego, a team that many thought they would have to beat in order to win Districts.

Lake Oswego “had a lot of fast swimmers and a lot of good head-to-head racers,” Tyrrell said. “We crushed them. Every close race we won and there was a lot of excitement about that.”

The score was 93-77. The meet was also a learning experience for some of the younger swimmers. Since some Grant swimmers were finishing up to 20 seconds ahead of Lake Oswego, the non-club athletes were given some extra support.

Grant finished the regular season with an 87-80 win over Oregon City, ending the season undefeated.

This year, Grant’s swimming program left the Portland Interscholastic League, where their only formidable opponent was Lincoln, and instead joined the Three Rivers District to face tougher competition.

“I don’t think that leaving the PIL was a bad thing,” Macy said. “It’s important to compete against teams that are going to make you exert yourself more. More challenging competition makes better athletes.”

“We were really confident going into districts,” Laura Tyrrell said. “Because the sport is based on time, you have a good idea of where you’re going to end up.”

Just before districts, Grant ran the numbers and found that they were likely going to win. But Lake Oswego, fresh off its loss against Grant in the regular season, wasn’t going to make it easy.

Grant won the district meet in convincing fashion, setting up a showdown at the state meet with powers Sunset and McMinnville.

“We knew that we weren’t going to have a chance at Sunset or McMinnville,” said Tyrrell. “It felt like we were going to get third. We felt kind of disappointed about that.”

The final score was Sunset 213; McMinnville 189.5; and Grant 116.

Even though the team finished lower than it did in 2010 and 2011, Laura Tyrrell feels this year was better than last.

“I look at the season as a whole as being very successful,” she said. “The culture of the team, the change from last year, the higher levels of attendance. It seems that the overall commitment to the team as a whole made it stand out as a more successful season than last year.”

Junior Adam Penrose was also happy with the chemistry of the team.

“I would say we got closer every year than the last,” Penrose said. “This year there was a greater bond between the club swimmers and the high school swimmers.”

This season marks the end of Laura Tyrrell’s tenure as coach. She leaves the team with a mixture of proven swimmers and some up-and-coming talent. And Smith and Grobart are both poised to become team captains during their senior year.

But next year, there will still be a slight dropoff.

“Next year we’re going to be losing all of our seniors,” Smith said. “They all played big roles on the team as leaders and teammates and a lot of those guys are irreplaceable.”