No shortage of record times in the pool for Camas

KELSO — The Camas Papermakers dominated the 4A district boys swimming meet, winning 10 of 12 finals Saturday, and set 18 district meet or pool record-times over the two-day event.

Senior Tom Utas won two individual events in his specialties — the 50 and 100 freestyles in record fashion, nonetheless — and the runner-up in each race was a swimmer he describes as his idol: Heritage’s Maksim Dolbinin.

Utas doesn’t have many chances to race Dolbinin, the defending Class 4A state champion in the 50 free and when he does, Utas calls it a special event.

It was Saturday.

“It’s a blessing,” he said. “He inspires me. … We try to help each other because we share the same events.”

The two are friends, and became so as members of the Columbia River Swim team. Next weekend at the King County Aquatic Center for the Class 4A state swimming championships will be their final high school races together.

They can only hope it’ll be the same scene everyone saw inside Kelso High’s Gaither Pool during Saturday’s district meet: the duo being 1-2 atop the podium for not one, but two races.

While Dolbinin was hoping for better times Saturday — “I wish it was a little faster,” he candidly admitted — he knows if it wasn’t for Utas, his times might not be where they are now.

“We push each other,” Dolbinin said.

The pair were the only swimmers Saturday to clock in sub-48-second times in the 100 free; Utas went 47.58 seconds with Dolbinin two-tenths behind (47.78). In the 50 free, Utas clocked a 21.31 edging Dolbinin (21.57).

Camas dominated the 4A District meet by 113 points over runner-up Hanford (254 team points), which featured the 4A Greater St. Helens League and Richland, Hanford and Walla Walla from the Mid-Columbia Conference.

The Papermakers won every event they had entries in; they don’t offer diving, and Hanford’s Skyler Younkin’s 100 butterfly time of 50.70 set a district and pool record.

Not only did Camas rack up the victories, but the records, too.

Eric Wu followed up his record-breaking performance in Friday’s 100 breastroke preliminaries by breaking his own meet record in the 200 IM (1:53.97) Saturday. His 100 breastroke time (58.29) Friday broke a 12-year mark by Timberline’s David Blasco (58.91).

What junior Mark Kim, the defending 4A state champion in the 200 and 500 freestyles who won both events Saturday in addition being part of the team’s winning 200 and 400 free relays, saw this weekend from his teammates has him excited for what could be in store for state after the team’s fourth-place team finish in 2016.

“I don’t think any of us could have predicted what we could do (at districts),” said Kim, who set a meet and pool record with his winning 200 free time (1:42.20). “It just shows a lot about what we can do.

“We’re really hoping to be state champs this year.”

4A District
At Kelso
Team scores (top 4): 1. Camas 367; 2. Hanford 254; 3. Richland 182; 4. Walla Walla 123
State qualifiers
200 medley relay: 1. Camas (Fin McClone, Eric Wu, Christopher Xia, Tom Utas), 1:37.85; 2. Hanford (Brady Myers, Jack Elliott, Skyler Younkin, Owen McKinstry), 1:42.00)
200 free: 1. Mark Kim (Camas), 1:42.20; 2. John Markillie (Hanford), 1:45.90; 3 Luke Elmenhurst (Walla Walla), 1:46.71; 4. Cole Westendorf (Richland), 1:47.41; 5. Skyler Younkin (Hanford), 1:48.04; 6. Jeff Fadlovich (Camas), 1:48.35; 7. Jaden Kim (Camas), 1:49.98
200 IM: 1. Eric Wu (Camas), 1:53.97; 2. Andrew Chang (Union), 2:01.08
50 free: 1. Tom Utas (Camas), 21.31; 2. Maksim Dolbinin (Heritage), 21.57; 3. Brady Myers (Hanford), 22.16
100 butterfly: 1. Skyler Younkin (Hanford), 50.70; 2. Jaden Kim (Camas), 51.99; 3. Brady Myers (Hanford), 52.57; 4. Andrew Chang (Union), 52.85; 5. Jeff Kern (Richland), 53.62
100 free: 1. Tom Utas (Camas), 47.58; 2. Maksim Dolbinin (Heritage), 47.78
500 free: 1. Mark Kim (Camas), 4:39.93; 2. John Markillie (Hanford), 4:45.90; 3. Cole Westendorf (Richland), 4:53.80
200 free relay: 1. Camas (Eric Wu, Jaden Kim, Tom Utas, Mark Kim), 1:28.33; 2. Hanford (Matt Brink, Ben Douglas, Brady Myers, John Markillie), 1:31.31
100 back: 1. Finn McClone (Camas), 54.96; 2. Jeff Fadlovich (Camas), 55.23
100 breast: 1. Eric Wu (Camas), 58.66; 2. Val Tikhomirov (Union), 59.29; 3. Kai Johnson (Skyview), 1:00.91
400 free relay: 1. Camas (Finn McClone, Jaden Kim, Christopher Xia, Mark Kim), 3:15.81), Hanford (Matt Brink, Skyler Younkin, Jack Elliott, John Markillie)