West Salem’s Andrew Kauffman competes in the 200 yard freestyle in the West Salem vs. South Salem swim meet at the Kroc Community Center in Keizer on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.
The Saxons had been looking forward to this for a long time.
South Salem High School’s boys and girls swimming teams used a combination of depth and some big wins in key races to sweep rival West Salem in a Greater Valley Conference dual meet Tuesday at the Kroc Center.
“We weren’t sure how we were going to do against West,” said South Salem junior Paul Lomax. “We thought about this meet over and over. We’ve had countless talks about West Salem High School. We knew they were going to come in and be fast. They were going to have placers in state. They were going to be unbelievable.
“To beat them today, it’s a good feeling. It’s what we came here to do. What really did us today was the second and third-place finishings.”
South Salem’s boys defeated West Salem 97-73.
Lomax’s improvement was necessary for South Salem to remain among the top teams in the conference.
Even when he didn’t win Tuesday, he was pretty good.
South Salem’s Paul Lomax competes in the 100 yard butterfly in the West Salem vs. South Salem swim meet at the Kroc Community Center in Keizer on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.
Lomax led the first half of the 200 individual medley, but West Salem junior Micah Masei came back in the second half of the race to win in 2:06.67 with Lomax in second at 2:09.48.
Lomax came back to convincingly win the 100 fly in 57.20.
“He was kind of that outside, really trying to get in, and just has completely stepped up his game,” South Salem coach Eric Richey said. “He’s swimming club, swimming year round now. That has been a big key in trying to replace two amazing, amazing swimmers.”
South Salem’s boys won the 400 free relay, sophomore Tyler Cook won the 100 free relay in 51.99 and junior Daisuke Fitial won the 100 back in 57.73.
West Salem’s biggest race win was the best race in the meet.
West Salem senior Andrew Kauffman was the district champion in the 500 free, but he got the race of his life against Fitial.
Kauffman led the first 250 yards, but Fitial came on strong and took the lead. With four lengths of the pool left, Kauffman decided that he wasn’t tired, passed Fitial and won in 5:03.93, .40 seconds in front of Fitial.
“We definitely push each other,” said Kauffman, who also won the 200 free. “If he wasn’t in there I would have tried my best, but it would not have been that fast, and the end wouldn’t have been that fast. He definitely made me go faster. I think I made him go faster, too.”
Swimmers cheer on their teammates while keeping track of laps completed in the West Salem vs. South Salem swim meet at the Kroc Community Center in Keizer on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.
South Salem’s girls, who placed fourth in the district last year, won by a convincing 99-71 margin against West Salem.
The Saxons won the 200 medley and 400 free relays, sophomore Anna Despain won the 100 butterfly in 1:01.82 and the 100 back in 1:02.23, junior Joanna Zuckerman won the 200 IM in 2:22.58 and freshman Victoria Privalova won the 50 free in 26.73.
“I think we’ve grown a lot together as a team this year,” Despain said. “We’ve gained some freshman that are strong and fast. I kind of figure that our relays would get stronger together, and our team has just become closer and we cheer each other on and we’ve become good friends.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler