Camas Boy’s Swimming Wins 3A District Title

The Camas High School Boy’s Swim Team made waves at Saturday’s 3A District Championship game winning the meet and breaking some records along the way.

The swimmers competed in 11 events against several other schools, including Hudson’s Bay, Columbia River, Mountain View, Kelso, Ft. Vancouver, and Prairie, and won enough points overall for their efforts to capture the District title for their second consecutive year.

District team results are as follows: Camas 409, Mountain View 248, Columbia River 230, Kelso 114, Hudson’s Bay 82, Fort Vancouver 54, and Prairie 32.

During Districts two new CHS school records were set in the 200 Medley Relay and by Jake Yraceburu in the 100 Breastroke.  Kelso High School Pool Records were also set by Senior Nick Kabel in 50 Free, the 200 Free Relay and the 200 Medley relay.

“It feels so good to win the last one!” said Co-Captain and Senior, Ian Ulmer. “Everything was awesome, and the number of people who made state cuts really surprised me.”

Kelso High School Pool

Camas High Boy’s Swimming is No. 1!

Swimmers who take the top two spots in every Finals event, or who have previously qualified for state times, will travel to Federal Way next week to compete in the high school State swim meet.

Swimmers are allowed to only compete in four events and only up to three relays. Relays are four-member races. The meet lasted a little less than three hours.

“The meet went perfectly according to plan,” said Kabel. “Swimmer placement was spot on, and the 200 free was great!”

Here’s how Camas did, by event.

200 Yard Medley Relay: Camas placed second with a time of 1:41.00. The relay team consisted of Junior Jake Yraceburu, Ian Ulmer, Freshman Lucas Ulmer, and Freshman John Utas. These four swimmers made state cut.

200 Yard Freestyle: Camas Junior Seth Albert secured placement at state with a second place finish and a time of 1:57.17. Fellow Camas swimmers Max Urbanek placed third, 1:59.65, and Nick Panebianco placed fourth, 2:01.97.

200 Yard Individual Medley (IM): Prairie High School swimmer Jaron Hamlik, who practices daily with the CHS swimmers, placed first. Freshman Kasey Calwell placed second, 2:01.99, and both will compete at state. Lucas Ulmer placed third, 2:02.95, and Ian Ulmer placed fifth, 2:10.10. Jeffery Lee, 2:20.11; Nicholas Burton, 2:32.64; and XinYang Chen, 2.33.45.

50 Yard Freestyle: Kabel handily won this event with a time of :22.32, and broke a pool record. Utas placed third, :22.92,  and Yraceburu placed sixth, :23.17. Other times include: Trent Harimoto, :23.87, Alastair Graham, :24.37, and Joey Stitzel, :24.53.

100 Yard Butterfly: Kabel placed third with a time of :55.67 and Trent Harimoto placed fourth, at :56.70.

100 Yard Freestyle: Utas placed fifth, :51.28, and Co-captain Alastair Graham placed sixth, :53.53. Joey Stitzel, :54:13, and Alec Geenty, :55.74.

500 Yard Freestyle: Max Urbanek placed fifth, 5:19.74, and Nick Panebianco placed sixth, 5:19.62. Other times include: Seth Albert, 5:36.06; Austin Alling, 6:15.32; and Xiangyang Yan, 6:26.38.

200 Yard Freestyle Relay: Camas won this event with Kabel, Harimoto, Calwell and Utas setting a pool record of 1:32.02. These boys are state-bound!

100 Yard Backstroke: Hamlik won this event; Lucas Ulmer placed third but already had a state qualifying time at Thursday’s races; and Freshman CHS swimmer Nick Langer placed fifth, at 1:03.46. Other finishes include: Jeffery Lee, 1:04.42 and Nick Burton, at 1:12.11.

100 Yard Breaststroke: CHS swimmers snagged the top four spots in this event. Yraceburu won the event with a time of 1:01.02; Calwell, second with a time of  1:03.10; Ian Ulmer, third with a time of 1:06.91; and Joey Wunderlich placed fourth with a time of 1:10.02.

400 Yard Freestyle Relay: CHS swimmers Harimoto, Ian Ulmer, Lucas Ulmer and Calwell made state cut with a second place finish, and a time of 3:24.33.

The seniors faced their last District competition of their high school careers and have enjoyed their experience. The team is losing several top competitors, but they are also confident of the team’s future.

“Kasey [Calwell] is an incredible swimmer,” said Ian. “With the times he posted today, I’m pretty sure that over the rest of his high school swimming career, he will continue to improve in all of his events.”

He is also impressed with his brother, Lucas, as well as Utas, Langer, Urbanek and Freshman Ryan Gunther, who competed in his first season of swimming.

“This year we are definitely losing many solid senior swimmers,” said Urbanek. “But I think we have an incredibly strong freshmen team. Kasey is a great breaststroker, Lucas is a really good backstroke and butterfly swimmer, and John Utas is a super fast freestyle sprinter, and me being a distance swimmer, we have some strong freshmen in every event. Along with the freshmen there are many juniors and sophomores this year that are fast and I’m looking forward to some relays in the following years. I really hope that my senior year I can be a part of that fast relay.”

The team has been working hard for months, with many practicing twice daily. It’s a major commitment.

The following is a list of all CHS swimmers who qualified for Districts:

• Seth Albert
• Austin Alling
• Nick Burton
• Kasey Calwell
• Jake Charters
• Xinyang Chen
• Alec Geenty
• Alastair Graham
• Ryan Gunther
• Trent Harimoto
• Nick Kabel
• Nick Langer
• Jefferey Lee
• Nick Panebianco
• Joey Stitzel
• Ian Ulmer
• Lucas Ulmer
• Max Urbanek
• John Utas
• Joey Wunderlich
• Xiangyang Yan
• Jake Yraceburu

“As much as I like to complain about how long and hard the race (500 Yard Freestyle) can be, I actually like the longer races, said Urbanek. “There is a lot more strategy to the longer races because you have to pace yourself and spread your energy throughout a longer distance. Training for distance races often includes just lots of distance and stamina work in the pool.”

State-bound swimmers will continue to practice, said Coach Mike Bemis, who is assisted daily by Leslie Dahlen.  The swimmers are grateful for their commitment to coaching and making the team better.

Co-Captains Ian Ulmer, Nick Kabel and Alastair Graham savor victory.