Philomath High’s boys and girls swim teams swept the final home meet of the season Wednesday at Clemens Community Pool, a performance that included 11 victories among individuals and relays.
Warriors sophomore Lucas Brandt went with a sprint and a marathon for his two individual events and won both. Brandt took first in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.40 seconds to beat out Joseph Souza of Sisters, who came in at 23.85. Brandt’s winning time in the 500 freestyle was 5:03.53. Teammate Wyatt Coen, also a sophomore, was second at 6:44.78.
Philomath’s boys had two other individual wins with senior Alex Dye in the 100 freestyle and junior Cameron McLennan in the 100 butterfly. In one of the most exciting races of the meet, Dye swam the 100 free in 1:00.55 to barely beat out senior teammate Emmitt Gaskey’s 1:00.59. McLennan was unchallenged by two other entries while winning the 100 fly in 1:01.31.
The 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays were both winners for the boys. Junior Mason Stevens, Brandt, McLennan and Dye covered the 200 medley relay in 1:51.76 for a win of more than 10 seconds. Swimming on the 200 freestyle relay were Brandt, McLennan, Stevens and Dye, who won by over 12 seconds in 1:46.50.
In addition to the Gaskey and Coen runner-up finishes, others settling for second in their races were junior Ike Avery in the 200 individual medley (2:51.66) and junior Evan Hernandez in the 100 backstroke (1:17.76).
Senior Kyah Weeber had a pair of individual wins with first-place performances in the 100 butterfly in 1:12.88 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:21.25. The latter race included senior Hanna McDaniel in the runner-up position in 1:26.53.
PHS sophomore Kate Burriel won the 500 freestyle in 6:57.86.
Two relays also won for the Warrior girls. The 200 medley relay with junior Kathleen Donovan, senior Kateri Pindell, Weeber and sophomore Emma Mecham were first with a time of 2:13.14, which was just under 12 seconds faster than the second-place team. The 200 freestyle relay with Burriel, Pindell, Mecham and Weeber won in 2:00.75, a little more than a second ahead of the runner-up.
In addition to the 100 breaststroke, McDaniel also had a second-place showing in the 200 IM in 3:03.41. Mecham was second in the 100 freestyle (1:08.50) and Donovan was second in the 100 backstroke (1:15.72).
In the team standings, the PHS boys racked up 100 points even to outdistance runner-up Blanchet Catholic’s 80. The Warrior girls won by 17 points with 82 to Blanchet’s 65. Sisters and Kennedy were third and fourth, respectively, for both the boys and girls.
Philomath recognized its seniors during the meet — Dye, Gaskey and Ethan Aynes for the boys and Brooke and Hanna McDaniel, Pindell and Weeber for the girls (Natalee Barton was also a senior but was recognized at a home meet last week).
The swim teams are scheduled to compete Saturday at the Blanchet Invitational.
