Camas swim team leaves competition in its wake

KELSO — Being defending state champions didn’t spare the Camas boys swim team from the pre-district-meet butterflies.

Headed into this weekend’s District 4 & 5 swim championships at Kelso High School, the Papermakers saw that Hanford might give them a run for the district title.

Once Friday’s preliminaries started, Camas left those nerves behind.

Once Saturday’s finals ended, Camas left no doubt.

Camas won seven of 11 events on Saturday to easily win the district title, more than 100 points clear of Hanford.

Mark Kim, a West Point-bound senior, dominated the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle. He’ll defend his state titles in both events next week at Federal Way.

Kim also anchored the 200 free relay, which beat its own meet record set Friday, and the 400 free relay.

Eric Wu captured the district title in the 200 individual medley and Christopher Xia won the 50 free.

And despite any illness or injuries that may have muddied the waters this season, Camas showed Saturday it remains the team to beat next week at state.

“Going into it was kind of scary,” Kim said. “But after Friday we had some really good placings. A lot of people stepped up today too. … We’ve had our ups and downs, maybe a few more downs than ups with injuries and sickness. But in the end, this meet showed us we can really do well.”

The 200 free relay was a focal point for Camas. Friday, the team of Kim, Wu, Xia and Jaden Kim set a meet and pool record of 1 minute, 28.28 seconds.

Saturday, the team shaved more than a second off the record, finishing in 1:27.01.

“This meet specifically, we really wanted to push ourselves and see what we could do so we can pave our way to state,” Wu said. “The atmosphere is going to be amazing. I think our team is definitely going to persevere and go for another title.”

For Mark Kim, winning a team title next week is goal No. 1.

“Everyone swims and everyone contributes,” he said. “I would rather lose my individual placings if it meant the team getting first place. All the guys come to practice every day. We swim for each other. It’s really cool to see them all happy and getting first place.”

One day after setting a meet record in the 100 backstroke, Finn McClone of Camas qualified for state by finishing second. David Peddie reached state in the 200 IM.

Union’s Val Tikhomirov won the 100 breaststroke title. Nick Wahlman qualified for state in the 200 IM and breaststroke. Pierce Ammentorp reached state in the 100 free and Tony Kajino qualified in the 100 backstroke. The 200 IM and 400 free relay teams also qualified for the Titans, which finished third as a team.

Battle Ground had its 200 medley relay and 200 free relay teams qualify for state, as well as Marcello Lombardi in the 50 free. Dan Carpenter was named district coach of the year.

4A District 4 & 5 Championships

At Kelso High School

Team scores – Camas 323.5, Hanford 206.5, Union 171, Richland 157, Battle Ground 154, Walla Walla 136, Skyview 67, Chiawana 30, Pasco 26, Heritage 22.

Top three to state

200 medley relay – 1, Camas (Finn McClone, Austin Fogle, Jaden Kim, Eric Wu) 1:38.48; 2, Battle Ground ( Alex Curran, Sam Anderson, Marcello Lombardi, Seth Colpitts) 1:40.37; 3, Union (Tom Kajino, Nick Wahlman, Val Tikhomirov, Pierce Ammentorp) 1:40.38.

200 free – 1, Mark Kim (C) 1:42.75; 2, Skyler Younkin (Han) 1:44.41; 3, John Markillie (Han) 1:45.01.

200 IM – 1, Eric Wu (C) 1:54.33; 2, Nick Wahlman (U) 2:02.21; 3, David Peddie (C) 2:08.24.

50 free – 1, Christopher Xia (C) 21.84; 2, Marcello Lombardi (BG) 22.08; 3, Zander Norris (WW) 22.22.

100 butterfly – 1, Skyler Younkin (Han) 49.51; 2, Jaden Kim (C) 50:46; 3, 3, Eric Wu (C) 50.80.

100 free – 1, Luke Elmenhurst (WW) 48.28; 2, Christopher Xia (C) 48.45; 3, Pierce Ammentorp (U) 49.11.

500 free – 1, Mark Kim (C) 4:44.79; 2, John Markille (Han) 4:47.82; 3, Jack Elliott (Han) 5:00.23.

200 free relay – 1, Camas (Eric Wu, Jaden Kim, Christopher Xia, Mark Kim) 1:27.01; 2, Battle Ground (Marcello Lombardi, Seth Colpitts, Alex Curran, Sam Anderson) 1:29.97; 3, Hanford 1:31.48.

100 backstroke – Addison Pollick (R) 54.32; 2, Finn McClone (C) 55.50; Tony Kajino (U) 55.74.

100 breaststroke – 1, Val Tikhomirov (U) 59.11; 2, Nick Wahlman (U) 1:00.90; 3, Conor McShane (R) 1:01.25.

400 free relay – 1, Camas (Christopher Xia, Luke Bales, Jaden Kim, Mark Kim) 3:15.59; 2, Union (Val Tikhomirov, Nick Solovey, Cody Le, Pierce Ammentorp) 3:26.63; 3, Hanford 3:27.04.