The Philomath High School boys and girls swim teams opened their season Wednesday with a home tri-meet against Taft and Crosshill Christian. The Warriors easily won the girls’ portion of the meet and the boys were edged out by Taft.
Philomath junior Kyah Weeber had a perfect afternoon with two first-place performances in individual events and legs on two winning relays. Weeber won the 200-yard individual medley by 38.31 seconds over the runner-up with a time of 2:39.85 and the 100 breaststroke by nearly 10 seconds in 1:05.56.
Senior Madison Juhl was a first-place finisher in the 50 freestyle (31.36 seconds) and she took runner-up in the 100 freestyle (1:12.34) behind a talented Kori Reed of Crosshill Christian, who won two events. Freshman Kate Burriel won the 100 butterfly (1:22.59).
Other individual runner-up finishes for PHS included junior Achillies Gaskill in the 100 backstroke (1:31.00) and junior Kateri Pindell in the 100 breaststroke (1:31.50).
Philomath won the 200 medley relay with sophomore Jessica McLennan, junior Hanna McDaniel, Weeber and Juhl (2:19.80) and the 200 freestyle relay with senior Ginevra Lauzzana, Weeber, Pindell and Juhl (2:15.28). The Warriors also had a runner-up relay in the 200 free with sophomore Lucy King, junior Natalie Barton, sophomore Elizabeth Dye and sophomore Maggie King (2:25.62).
Philomath finished with 82 points to Taft’s 50 and Crosshill Christian’s 41 in the team standings.
For the boys, the Warriors had some winning performances as well with sophomore Cameron McLennan and freshman Lucas Brandt in individual events along with a couple of relays.
McLennan had personal-best times to win both the 50 freestyle (26.55) and 100 butterfly (1:06.32). McLennan edged senior teammate Henry Katsikis by 0.24 of a second in the short sprint.
Brandt, competing in his first high school meet although he has experience at the club level, won the 200 individual medley (2:09.18) and 100 breaststroke (1:05.56) by considerable margins. He touched in the 200 IM nearly 20 seconds ahead of the runner-up and was the winner by about 18-1/2 seconds in the 100 breaststroke.
In addition to his second in the 50 free, Katsikis was also the runner-up in the 100 free (1:00.78). Other second-place performances included senior Marshall Morrison in the 200 freestyle (2:24.13, PR) and junior Emmitt Gaskey in the 100 backstroke (1:18.50). Several other swimmers had PR times.
Philomath’s 200 medley relay won in 1:58.25 with Gaskey, Brandt, McLennan and Katsikis. The 200 freestyle relay was also a winner in 2:00.84 with sophomore Mason Stevens, sophomore Evan Hernandez, sophomore Blake Hauck and junior Alexander Dye. The 400 relay swam a 4:08.78 in the 400 freestyle relay for second place with McLennan, Gasket, Morrison and Brandt.
Taft won the team battle with 106 points to Philomath’s 93 and Crosshill Christian’s 7.
Westside Christian, which had appeared as a participant in the meet on the schedule, did not swim.
Philomath is scheduled to host another home meet Tuesday, Dec. 12 with Junction City, Crosshill Christian and Rainier scheduled to visit. The start time is listed as 3:45 p.m.
