GRESHAM — South Salem High School’s boys swimming team brought four swimmers to the OSAA Class 6A state swimming meet.
Those four swimmers left the state meet with something South Salem has been chasing for a long time:
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The South Salem boy’s team accepts their fourth place team trophy during the OSAA Class 6A Swimming State Championships at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017.
A state meet trophy.
South Salem’s quartet of seniors Daisuke Fitial and Paul Lomax and juniors Christian Richey and Tyler Cook pulled off an improbable feat in placing fourth Saturday at Mt. Hood Community College to earn the program’s first state tournament trophy since 2001.
“The thing with this group is nobody expected this to come out of this group,” Lomax said. “Two years ago we had such a strong presence with almost 10 guys at the state meet, and we got sixth, I think.
“To do this with four people unbelievable, and we’ve grown so much. We honestly weren’t so great our freshman year, but we’ve learned so much from our past South Salem High School swimmers.”
What made it possible for South Salem to place so high was its performance in Friday’s preliminaries.
The team had to have all four of their swimmers – and their two relays – to place high enough and earn enough points to make a state tournament trophy possible.
“I feel like swimming is a really overlooked sport, so to come and do what we did with only four swimmers, I feel like it really means a lot for South Salem,” Cook said.
“We’re not this big school like Jesuit, and we’re coming out here and getting fourth place. I feel like it really just means a lot for our school.”
Jesuit won the team championship with 246 points, Sunset was second with 113 points, McMinnville was third with 104 and South Salem finished with 100 for fourth place.
MORE SWIMMING: Silverton relay team earns first state meet medal for boys | Salem Academy sophomore places third in state
The relay teams earned big points.
South Salem’s 200 medley relay team of Daisuke Fitial, Paul Lomax, Christian Richey and Tyler Cook placed third in a time of 1:38.87 and 400 relay team of Fitial, Richey, Lomax and Cook placed sixth with 3:17.94.
The 400 relay came last, and the swimmers were spent after.
“It was our last race so we had to stay mentally really tough,” Fitial said. “Since it was our last race of our whole high school career, we had to put our heads down and went for it.”
Fitial had a couple big individual performances.
He placed second in the 100 backstroke (52.03) and fourth in the 200 IM (1:58.26).
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West Salem’s Micah Masei, right, shakes hands with Wilson’s Evan Carlson after they placed second and first, respectively, in the 50 yard freestyle during the OSAA Class 6A Swimming State Championships at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017.
“That time is awesome and he’s now the fastest ever at South,” South Salem coach Eric Richey said.
Cook placed third in the 100 free (48.02) and fifth in the 50 free (21.94). Lomax placed sixth in the 100 butterfly (52.71).
All of the four team members at the meet contributed greatly to the team.
“It’s awesome,” Christian Richey said. “There’s no one else I’d rather do it with than these guys. It’s a good reflection on how our entire team did as a whole, all 70 swimmers. And that’s a cool thing to be a part of, to represent a huge team.”
West Salem senior Micah Masei placed second in the 50 free in 20.99 and fourth in the 100 breaststroke in 57.59.
Sprague junior Colby Evenson placed fifth in the 200 IM in 1:59.65 and sixth in the 500 freestyle in 4:54.86.
Sprague’s 200 free relay team of Ian Shultz, John Salgado, Parker Greene and Colby Evenson placed sixth in 1:30.75.
Sprague freshman Alexis Smith placed fifth in the 100 freestyle in 54.94.
West Salem senior Hannah Bodkin placed third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.92.
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler
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South Salem’s Daisuke Fitial competes in the 200 yard individual medley during the OSAA Class 6A Swimming State Championships at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017.