West Salem senior Ryan Wetzel swims the first leg of the boys 400 free relay at the OSAA Swimming State Championships at Mount Hood Community College on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
West Salem junior Micah Masei swims the boys 100 breaststroke at the OSAA Swimming State Championships at Mount Hood Community College on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
West Salem senior Andrew Kauffman swims the boys 200 free relay at the OSAA Swimming State Championships at Mount Hood Community College on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
West Salem sophomore Victor Werner-Bustamante swims the second leg of the boys 400 free relay at the OSAA Swimming State Championships at Mount Hood Community College on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
GRESHAM – The Titans set a new standard.
West Salem High School’s relay team of Micah Masei, Victor Werner-Bustamante, Andrew Kauffman and Ryan Wetzel won the OSAA Class 6A state championship Saturday night at Mt. Hood Community College in the 200 free relay in a time of 1:27.05.
It was the first time in West Salem school history that a relay team had won a state championship.
“It just feels awesome,” said senior Andrew Kauffman. “All of that work over the season, all of us gave 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time and it was just 100 percent of the team. The whole season, that’s really what it was.
“It just feels (great) to get all that back with this state championship. All that work, we’re getting that back by winning that.”
The Titans led the whole race, but it was close.
West Salem’s Micah Masei places second in state
Masei slipped on his dive into the pool on the first leg of the race, but still kept West Salem in the lead after the first leg with a split of 21.91.
Werner-Bustamante gave Kauffman a slight lead in front of McMinnville for the third leg, and Wetzel started the anchor leg with a lead of nearly half a second.
Wetzel held off a hard-charging anchor leg of Reilly Goddard of Jesuit, which finished second in 1:27.32.
“This is probably one of the most amazing races I’ve ever had, the most amazing moments I’ve ever had it in my swimming career,” Wetzel said.
“It’s the first time West has done this in a relay, and the fact that we did this well, first and second, is fantastic. It’s astounding. It’s amazing.”
Even after all that, the same West Salem group finished strong by placing second in the 400 free relay in 3:12.99.
Salem Academy girls take home first team trophy
“I’ve been priming for them all season long because I knew it was going to be close and I knew we could set records and stuff and so I made sure they were all ready for it,” West Salem coach Dan Evans said.
Masei also placed second in the 50 free (21.38) and fourth in the 100 breaststroke (58.21).
“I’m happy with that,” Masei said of his placing in the 50 free. “I went in fourth so I’m happy with a second-place finish and I raced all I could, so that’s what matters.”
West Salem placed fifth in the team race with 88 points. Jesuit won the 6A state team race with 239 points.
McNary sophomore Marissa Kuch kept alive her streak of years placing in the state meet by finishing fifth in the 100 free in 52.31.
West Salem breaks relay school record in prelims
“I feel pretty good with it,” said Kuch, who placed sixth in the event as a freshman. “I just wanted to keep my placement. I went into it fifth and I just wanted to stay fifth, and I was able to finish that, and I succeeded.”
Kuch didn’t make the A-final through Friday’s preliminaries and placed second in Saturday’s B final.
But had she made the A-final and swam the time she did Saturday she would have placed fifth.
That she’s already had a large measure of success in high school swimming has made an impact.
“I love high school swimming,” she said. “It’s just super fun, and it’s just filled with a lot of support and energy, and that’s my favorite thing about it.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler