Philomath High School freshman Lucas Brandt broke a 41-year-old swim team record while winning the 200-yard individual medley Friday in a four-school meet at Sweet Home. Brandt swam the event, which includes the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, in 2:03.39.
The school record of 2:05.10 had been held by Rex Watkins, a PHS senior standout during the 1981-82 season. Competing back in the days when Paul Mariman was the swim coach, Watkins at one time held five school records. The 200 IM had been his last surviving school record until Brandt’s performance.
Brandt won the event by 19.26 seconds over the runner-up from Sweet Home.
Watkins went on to swim at the University of Oregon, has coached at school and club teams in the area and ran for governor in 2010. Today, he lives in Albany where he owns a property management business.
The Warriors boys and girls squads each finished second behind Sweet Home and ahead of Sisters and Kennedy in the team standings.
In addition to the record-breaking swim in the 200 IM, Brandt also took first place in the 100 breaststroke. He finished in 1:03.42, more than eight seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Philomath junior Emmitt Gaskey and sophomore Mason Stevens each had two top-three finishes in the individual events. Gaskey was second in the 100 backstroke (1:17.46) and third in the 200 freestyle (2:24.68) while Stevens was third in the 200 IM (2:38.96) and third in the 500 freestyle (7:04.32).
Sophomore Cameron McLennan settled for second in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.07. Senior Henry Katsikis was third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.65.
Two relays had runner-up finishes for the boys. Brandt, Katsikis, McLennan and Stevens swam a 1:56.00 in the 200 medley relay and to finish the meet, freshman Wyatt Coen, Gaskey, sophomore Blake Hauck and sophomore Evan Hernandez swam a 4:34.80 in the 400 freestyle relay.
The girls had a victory in the 100 backstroke with sophomore Logan Cook’s 1:20.72, edging sophomore teammate Jessica McLennan by three-tenths of a second.
Junior Kyah Weeber placed among the top three in two events with second in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.01) and third in the 100 butterfly (1:14.52). Junior Kateri Pindell was third in the 100 breaststroke (1:30.91).
The girls had two runner-up finishes in the relays. McLennan, Pindell, Weeber and senior Madison Juhl came in with a time of 2:19.90 in the 200 medley relay. And in the 400 freestyle relay, juniors Brooke McDaniel and Hanna McDaniel and sophomores Maggie King and Lucy King touched in 5:19.70.
The swim team will now step away from competition in preparation for the district meet Feb. 9-10 at Albany Community Pool.
