Lebanon’s swimmers came close to pulling off a complete sweep of South Albany Tuesday, Jan. 20, placing first in all but four of 22 events against the Red Hawks.
“The coaching staff is pretty proud of how hard the students raced,” Coach Joe Andrews said. “We had a significant number of best times or near best times. Several races came down to the wire, with our students showing their drive to win.”
The Warrior boys are 5-1 in MWC competition, while the girls are 4-2.
Grant Basting won two events for the boys, the 200 Freestyle (2:05.09) and the 100 Butterfly (1:02.15, a .79-second PR), while Samuel Bloedel won the 200 Individual Medley (2:42.44, 9.93-sec. PR), Boston Borgmann the 50 Free (24.28), Alex Kolling the 500 Free (6:15.42, 6.36-sec. PR), and Michael Kluttz the 100 Breaststroke (1:16.58).
Double winners for the girls were Molly Basting in the 100 Butterfly (1:20.09, .12-sec.PR) and the 100 Breaststroke (1:26.41), and Orianna Buczko in the 100 Freestyle (1:00.81, .73-sec. PR) and the 200 IM (2:30.67, 3.15-sec. PR), while Allison Bergmann won the 200 Free (2:43.35), Brooklyn Davis the 500 Free (6:47.45, 15.36-sec. PR), Anouk Ricketts the 50 Free (32.16) and Abigail Settle the 100 Back (1:22.78) for the Warriors.
Lebanon won both the boys and girls 200 and 400 freestyle relays, Bergmann, Molly Basting, Ricketts and Buczko combining to swim 2:02.59 in the 200, and Buczko, Davis, Walsh and Bergmann winning the girls 400 in 4:42.14.
For the boys, Kolling, Kluttz, Samual Williamson and Jack Johnson swam 1:49.72 to win the 200, while Grant Basting, Borgmann, Bloedel and Kolling finished first in the 400 in 4:01.29.
The boys also won the 200 Medley Relay, Johnson, Kluttz, Basting and Bormann clocking 1:56.02.
Others who PR’d for Lebanon in individual events included Hailey Gutierrez (23.99 seconds), Johnson (2.70) and WIlliamson (8.52) in the 200 Free; Kolling (5.59) in the 200 IM; Walsh (.03), Rylie Noonchester (1.33) and Kluttz (.11) in the 50 Free; Ericka Stevens (3.25), Daniel Tyler (2.19), and Yago Ruano Perez (7.51) in the 100 Free; Paul Bloedel (21.10) in the 500 Free; Noonchester (.56) in the 50 Back; Williamson (.70) and Carson Kolling (12.97) in the 100 Back, and Perez in the 100 Breast (2.38).
“The students’ hard work is showing and this momentum will be huge going into the championship season in three weeks,” Andrews said. “It has been a bonus to win the last three dual meets as we enter the home stretch.”
He noted that relay spots are still up for grabs, with seven girls in contention for four spots and eight boys for the same spots.
“This is a tough spot to be in, but a very good one from a team standpoint,” Andrews noted.
Up next for Lebanon are West Albany on Tuesday of this week, with Crescent Valley visiting on Feb. 3.
“Both of those teams will be in contention for the district championships (along with Silverton) next month,” Andrews said last week.
“In the dual-meet format, our team will have to perform very well to win the next two meets.The championship meet format will help our team perform better than we may show in a dual meet.
“With only two more opportunities to race before the championships, we will be very deliberate on what we swim to prepare, even if it impedes our scores in the dual meet.”
