Philomath High’s Lucas Brandt added two more individual wins to his freshman season, Cameron McLennan, Kyah Weeber and Jessica McLennan also had victories and two relays beat the competition in a home meet Tuesday afternoon at Clemens Community Pool.
The meet, which featured four schools that compete together in 4A/3A/2A/1A Special District 4, came down to Cascade and Philomath in both the boys and girls results. Combined, a swimmer or relay from one of those two schools won 16 of the 22 events.
The Cougars edged the Warriors in the boys’ competition by just three points over Philomath, 76-73. Marist Catholic finished third with 52 and Rainier was fourth with 7. For the girls, Cascade edged Philomath 64-58 in the team standings with Marist Catholic third (32), Kennedy fourth (28) and Rainier fifth (2).
Brandt’s wins came in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races. In the short sprint, Brandt beat out two Cascade swimmers with the win by 0.31 over the runner-up. The race wasn’t that close in the 100 with Brandt winning by a full 6 seconds.
Sophomore Cameron McLennan won a close one in the 100 butterfly over a Cascade swimmer by 0.38 of a second. The team’s other win came in the 400 freestyle relay with sophomore Mason Stevens, McLennan, senior Henry Katsikis and Brandt in 4:05.49.
Senior Marshall Morrison had a pair of runner-up finishes in the 200 freestyle (2:21.78) and the 500 freestyle (6:59.67). In the 200 free, the winner from Marist Catholic held off Morrison by less than a half-second. Junior Emmitt Gaskey had a runner-up finish in the 100 backstroke (1:20.34). The 200 medley relay of Gaskey, Katsikis, McLennan and Brandt finished second in the meet’s first event (2:00.46).
Third-place finishes for PHS included Gaskey in the 200 freestyle (2:32.47), freshman Wyatt Coen in the 200 individual medley (3:16.37), junior Ethan Aynes in the 100 breaststroke (1:22.19) and Philomath’s B team in the 200 medley relay with sophomore Evan Hernandez, Aynes, junior Alex Dye and Stevens.
Weeber, junior, won the 200 freestyle by 2.69 seconds over the runner-up with a time of 2:25.00. Sophomore Jessica McLennan’s victory in the 100 backstroke featured a time of 1:22.18 — more than 7 seconds faster than the runner-up.
Philomath beat Cascade by 15.44 seconds in a two-school showdown in the 400 freestyle relay in a time of 5:24.00. Freshman Emma Mecham, sophomore Abby Phelps, senior Madison Juhl and freshman Kate Burriel swam on the relay.
The Warriors had four second-place finishes with Weeber in the 100 freestyle (1:04.72), Burriel in the 200 individual medley (2:59.37), sophomore Logan Cook in the 100 backstroke (1:29.50) and the 200 medley relay with McLennan, junior Kateri Pindell, Weeber and Juhl (2:19.80).
Third-place finishes were turned in by Mecham in the 100 backstroke (1:30.34) and Pindell in the 100 breaststroke (1:30.28).
Philomath is scheduled to swim at home again at 3:45 p.m. Friday against Sweet Home and Rainier. The Warriors will head to the Stayton Christmas Invite on Dec. 28.
