West Salem junior Micah Masei swims the boys 200 medley relay at the OSAA Swimming State Championships at Mount Hood Community College on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
GRESHAM – Micah Masei rose to the competition.
The West Salem High School junior continued his ascension in the state by placing second in the 50 freestyle in the OSAA Class 6A state swimming meet Saturday at Mt. Hood Community College.
Coming into the finals of the event seeded fourth, he swam the distance in 21.38 seconds to finish behind only Lincoln senior Sid Farber’s 20.66.
“It’s basically just competition,” Masei said. “Everyone wants to race each other, beat each other out. In the 50 you’re basically edging each other out. It was a really intense race in itself because it’s so quick, and it’s like over so fast.”
Masei swam the opening 50-meter leg of the 200 free relay in 21.34 in Friday’s preliminaries, but Saturday’s performance was his personal record for a standalone race.
“I’m happy with that,” Masei said. “I went in fourth so I’m happy with a second-place finish and I raced all I could, so that’s what matters.”
Also at the 6A state meet, McNary sophomore Marissa Kuch placed fifth in the 100 freestyle in 52.31.
South Salem’s team of Christian Richey, Paul Lomax, Bryan Kelly and Tyler Cook placed sixth in the 200 free relay in 1:44.30.
Class 5A
Dallas junior Jolie-Rae Ford placed sixth in the 200 and 500 freestyle races.
She finished the 200 free in 2:01.47 and the 500 free in 5:28.91.
Ford placed fourth in the state meet in the 500 free as a sophomore and placing at the state meet in two events was a step forward for a school not often represented at the state level in swimming.
“It’s pretty cool,” Ford said. “It hasn’t happened a lot for Dallas so it’s exciting for the whole town. It’s a cute little town. Everyone’s excited when one person’s excited, so that’s fun.”
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