Just two meets into Philomath High’s swim season, Cameron McLennan finds himself putting up encouraging times in the pool. The sophomore has already bettered his times from last season in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly.
“Learning from freshman to sophomore year, the gap is so huge,” McLennan said after winning those two events in a three-school home meet Tuesday against Junction City and Crosshill Christian. “You come into your sophomore year thinking you know nothing and then you realize it clicks — last year, I got it all.”
Gallery: PHS swimming vs. Junction City, Crosshill Christian (Dec. 12, 2023)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s home swim meet against Junction City and Crosshill Christian on Tuesday.
In the season-opening meet, McLennan broke his PR in the 50 freestyle with a 26.55 and although he was a tad slower here in Week 2, his 27.25 was still good for first place. And in the 100 fly, McLennan knocked 1.57 seconds off his personal-best when he clocked in at 1:04.75.
“If you’re fortunate enough to be a freshman on varsity, you have people that not only you can look up to that teach you so much, but your team is so supportive,” McLennan said. “Learning as a team is something that we do great because if you mess up out there, we’re all cheering and it doesn’t matter.”
Junior Kyah Weeber finds herself in a similar situation with a strong start to the season. In Tuesday’s meet at Clemens Community Pool, Weeber won the 100 butterfly in 1:14.06 and the 500 freestyle in 6:28.94.
“I would say I’m ahead this season from last year,” Weeber said. “I put in some extra work during the summer (Philomath Dolphins) so I think it’s really showing and I’m super excited about that.”
Weeber had one of the afternoon’s most exciting wins when she touched 1.44 seconds ahead of Junction City’s Lily Jackson in the 500 freestyle.
“It’s sort of like cross-country, which I like, and you have to pace yourself,” Weeber said about competing in the 500. “I swam it a couple of times last year but my usual events are the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke.”
Weeber broke her previous best 500 freestyle time by 8 seconds.
Top swimmers typically go through the season with certain benchmarks in mind as part of a master plan of peaking at the right time. McLennan keeps track of times and works hard in practice but even when he’s not in the pool, he has swimming on his mind.
“My family’s all swimmers … my mom swam for Oregon State and she knows all about swimming,” McLennan said. “She will talk about it every night — ‘you’re going to be great today but here’s what you can do.’”
Juli (Ellingson) McLennan lettered with the Beavers in 1993-94.
Weeber, who has some bloodlines of her own in the sport, calls the 100 breaststroke her favorite.
“I’ve swam it ever since I was little and it’s always been one of my favorites,” she said. “My parents were both swimmers … my dad was a breaststroker.”
In the team results, Philomath’s boys won with 127 points to beat out Crosshill Christian’s 26 and Junction City’s 18.
Along with McLennan, the Warriors had another double winner out of the individual results with freshman Lucas Brandt’s victories in the 500 freestyle (5:05.93) and 100 backstroke (1:00.18).
Sophomore Mason Stevens in the 200 individual medley (2:53.22), senior Henry Katsikis in the 100 freestyle (1:01.18) and junior Ethan Aynes in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.53) also had wins.
Philomath took first in the 200 medley (2:00.00) and 400 freestyle (4:04.06) relays — although the team was the lone boys entry in the latter race. Brandt, McLennan and Katsikis swam on both of those relays along with Aynes on the 200 medley and Stevens on the 400 freestyle.
In the girls competition, Junction City was first with 95 points, Philomath came in second at 78 and Crosshill Christian third at 26.
Sophomore Jessica McLennan took first in the 100 backstroke (1:23.22) to give the Warriors three individual winners. Philomath won the 200 medley relay (2:20.06) with McLennan, Weeber, freshman Kate Burriel and senior Madison Juhl, and the 200 freestyle relay with Juhl, junior Kateri Pindell, sophomore Lucy King and Weeber.
Philomath will compete in its first away competition Saturday at the Blanchet Invitational at the Kroc Center in Salem.
