KELSO — The Prairie boys swimming had a near-perfect day at the 4A/3A District 4 championship meet on Saturday.
The Falcons did everything, except capture the 3A team title. That went to the host Kelso Hilanders.
Kelso only had one swimmer finish on the top step of the podium, but the Hilanders overall depth propelled them to the team title by just three points over Prairie 258-255.
But Prairie senior Vladyslav Danylyuk wasn’t too disappointed as Prairie swimmers won every event but three.
“We got we wanted to do accomplished,” Danylyuk said. “We were three points short of the district title. We just didn’t have the numbers in the lower places, but we won eight events out of 11 today.”
Danylyuk won the 100-yard freestyle (48.90 seconds) and 100 backstroke (54.15). Teammates Michael Oshkader won the 200 individual medley (2:08.11) and 500 freestyle (5:05.35), and Vladyslav Revutskyy took the 50 freestyle (23.39).
And Prairie swept all three relays, even though the Falcons weren’t at their fastest.
“The relays were fun,” Danylyuk said. “We didn’t stack our relays like 100 percent. Because the goal was to win all three, so we spread out a little bit. We didn’t get our four best swimmers in a couple of the relays. We spread them out to win all three, and we got it done.”
Owen Gallagher was Kelso’s lone district champion, winning the 200 freestyle (1:53.08). But the Hilanders had three runner-up finishes and many other podium finishes to tally up the team points.
Tally up the team points was something the Camas swim team did with ease in the 4A meet, easily earning the district team title with 442 points. Skyview was second at 268, followed by Union at 228.
“We did amazing,” Camas coach Kelly Dean said. “I’m so proud of these guys. I think we have 12 kids going to state, and I would say we had about 90 percent of our kids swim their personal-best times today.”
Aarnav Krishna earned a pair of district titles for Camas, taking the 100 butterfly (54.89) and 100 backstroke (55.09). Owen Yam (200 individual medley, 2:00.90), Alan Xie (50 free, 22.51) and Tenzin Kelsang (100 breaststroke, 59.14) also won district titles.
Both of Krishna’s wins came over teammates, as did victories by Yam and Kelsang.
“A lot of the times, we’re racing ourselves because we have a really strong team,” Dean said. “They’re racing their best friends, trying to see which one is going to get first. … I tell them all the time that we have the luxury of racing people every day in practice, and that makes us better.”
Union’s Owen Robertson positioned himself for a strong showing at next week’s state meet, winning the 200 freestyle (1:44.64) and 500 freestyle (4:56.03). His time in the 200 free was a season best.
But he was most excited about the Titans’ wins in the 200 free and 400 free relays.
“The (200 free relay) was one that we’ve have been struggling with for a while this season,” Robertson said. “It was kind of our last shot to get the state-qualifying time. There was only one allocation to state this year (for the district). So if you’re not first, you’re not going to state unless you make the state time. But we got first and we also got under the time, which is really good for us.”
In other events Saturday, Union’s Cullen Kahler earned a district title in the 100 freestyle (48.81), and Camas won the 200 medley relay (1:41.28).
