KELSO – The Camas boys swimming team had a plan to make it a record-breaking day at the 4A district championship meet on Saturday.
Then the Papermakers followed through with that plan.
Sophomore Mark Kim broke two meet records and a 43-year-old pool record and the Papermakers capped the day with a record-breaking effort in the 400 free relay to take the 4A team title.
The Papermakers easily outdistanced Mountain View 403-245 to take the team title. Union was third at 217.
Kim got the record day going by bettering his own meet record in the 200 free, winning in 1 minute, 44.93 seconds. Then he set his sights on the pool record in the 500 free.
Kim said he put everything he had into getting that mark, and he got it with room to spare.
His winning time of 4:37.63 was 10 seconds better than his own meet record and four seconds better than the pool mark set in 1973.
“It felt really good,” Kim said. “I had a friend counting for me. I told him to pace me, so that was helpful.”
Kim was part of the 400 free relay – along with Luke Albert, Christopher Xia and Tom Utas — that won in 3:19.97, breaking the meet and pool record as the Papermakers won all three relays.
Other winners for Camas included Eric Wu in the 200 medley relay (1:57.07) and 100 breaststroke (1:01.49) and Finn McClone in the 100 backstroke (55.11).
Maksim Dolbinin of Heritage also was dual winner, taking the 50 free (21.64) and 100 free (47.83). Dolbinin set the district meet record in the 100 free despite entering the final as the No. 4 qualifier in prelims.
“I took it kind of easy (in prelims),” Dolbinin said. “But then after my swim, everyone was going 50, 51. And I was like ‘Oh no. What if I don’t make it in the top 6? But I ended up seeded fourth, so it was fine.”
Andrew Chang of Union was the other district champion, winning the 100 butterfly (53.61).
In the 3A meet, Josh Bottelberghe and Sam Walker of Columbia River was the lone Clark County entrants to qualify for state. Bottelberghe wonthe 200 free (1:47.40) and 100 breaststroke (58.93). Walker was second in the 500 free, but finished in a state-qualifying time of 4:55.84.
Even with the wins, Bottelberghe’s thoughts were on his teammates.
“My relays performed awesome,” he said. “I love my team. We get along well. You really bond when you swim with someone in morning practice every morning, and everyone is working hard.”
