West Salem’s Hannah Bodkin competes in the 100 Yard Breaststroke during the Greater Valley Conference District meet Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, at the McMinnville Aquatic Center.
Sprague’s Colby Evenson competes in the 500 Yard Freestyle during the Greater Valley Conference District meet Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, at the McMinnville Aquatic Center.
McMINNVILLE – Colby Evenson became a distance swimmer in a year.
The Sprague High School sophomore concentrated on shorter races for most of his years as a competitive swimmer and did pretty well at them.
Moving to the distance races may have made him elite.
Evenson won his 500 freestyle preliminary heat at the Greater Valley Conference district swimming meet Friday at McMinnville Aquatic Center in 4:57.61. He is the No. 1 seed in the event by 13 seconds faster than the No. 2 time of 5:10.86 by last year’s district champion Andrew Kauffman of West Salem.
“I was just trying to go under 5 and see what I could do, really because a few weeks ago I went 4:48 at the Washington Open,” said Evenson, also the No. 2 seed for the 200 IM. “Coming into this meet I wanted to give it my all and see what I could do, not tapered and shaved and all that stuff.”
Evenson made a change last summer by joining the Corvallis Aquatic Team for club swimming, even though it means a long commute each day for practices.
He said he doesn’t know if he’s gotten faster, but his eyes were opened when he started training for distance races.
“I got my first Senior Sectional cut, and it shocked the crap out of me,” said Evenson, who was second in the district in the 200 IM and 100 back as a freshman. “I’m used to doing the short stuff, and I thought I was going to get the cuts in there, but then I did something else and I got it.”
The finals of the GVC district meet take place starting at 2 p.m. Saturday. Event winners and others who have qualifying times advance to the OSAA Class 6A state swimming meet Feb. 19-20 at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham.
McNary sophomore Marissa Kuch is the No. 1 seed from the prelims by large margins in the 200 free and 100 free, but she has a bunch left.
She is the No. 1 seed by three seconds in the 200 free in 1:58.03 and by four seconds in the 100 free in 53.89. Her times in both events were slower than she swam in the prelims last year.
McNary’s Marissa Kuch competes 100 Yard Freestlye during the Greater Valley Conference District meet Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, at the McMinnville Aquatic Center.
Kuch said she hasn’t tapered yet, but she said she is planning to for next week’s state meet.
“Honestly, today it really didn’t,” Kuch said. “I just came in here, I’m like, okay, I’m going to swim, I’m going to get into finals seeded first and that was really it.”
South Salem sophomore Tyler Cook earned the No. 1 seed in the 200 free with a time of 1:50.20, three seconds faster than No. 2 seed Kauffman.
“I wanted to go pretty fast today, but I kind of saved some for tomorrow, too,” Cook said. “I’m hoping to break 1:50 tomorrow. I’ve been trying to for the last like year and a half. If I do then I’ll be pretty happy. I want to go around 1:49.”
Also for South Salem, junior Paul Lomax is the No. 1 seed in the 100 butterfly (53.62), junior Daisuke Fitial is the No. 1 seed in the 100 backstroke (53.88) and sophomore Anna Despain is the No. 1 seed in the 200 IM with a time of 2:15.67 and is the No. 1 seed in the 500 free in 5:19.87
West Salem junior Micah Masei is the No. 1 seed in the 50 free (22.22) and the 100 breast (1:00.80) and senior Ryan Wetzel is the No. 1 seed in the 100 freestyle (50.07).
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
South Salem’s Daisuke Fitial competes in the 100 Yard Backstroke during the Greater Valley Conference District meet Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, at the McMinnville Aquatic Center.