Aberdeen boys take third overall at district swimming meet

By The Daily World • February 11, 2017 11:30 pm

LONGVIEW — Senior Robby Lewis put together one of his best swims of his high school career on Saturday afternoon as Aberdeen boys swimming team took third place overall at the District IV 2A championship meet at Dick Mealy Pool at Mark Morris High School.

Lewis, along with sophomore diver Kai Kawashima and the 200-yard medley relay team, will move on to next weekend’s state 2A championship meet at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. The Bobcats also received two wild-card entries to the state meet on Sunday.

“The team started the season with just four swimmers with more than one year of experience and to finish with a third-place finish in district is a tremendous accomplishment,” AHS head coach Angela Durr said. “Robby’s swim in the fly was one of his best and the medley relay started the day off right for us. Everyone swam well. It was a tremendous day overall.”

Lewis punctuated his final career district meet by hitting a personal-best 100-yard butterfly swim to finish second at 56.44 to clinch an automatic state berth by time and place. He also finished third overall in the 200 individual medley and was granted a wild-card entry into the event at state.

Lewis started the day with Kawashima, Sage Bridges and Conner Gates in the 200 medley relay and out-touched Mark Morris at the finish to earn a state berth with a second-place finish at 1:52.56. Gates, in the freestyle anchor leg, got his hand to the wall before Mark Morris’ Kodee Soetamin at the finish.

Kawashima is the Bobcats’ lone district champion, winning the 2A district diving meet on Wednesday.

Sophomore Trevor Mullin took third overall in the 100 breaststroke at 1:16.04 for Aberdeen’s other top-three finish.

Lewis, Kawashima, Bridges and Gates also competed in the 200 freestyle relay, taking fourth, but was fast enough to gain a wild-card entry into the state meet.

Here is the rundown of Aberdeen’s finalists on Saturday:

Team: Mark Morris 308, Columbia River 234, Aberdeen 186.

200 MR — 2. Aberdeen (Lewis, Kawashima, Bridges, Gates), 1:52.56. 200 Free — 10. Stephen Shaw, 2:43.75. 200 IM — 3. Robby Lewis, 2:14.23. 50 Free — 4. Conner Gates, 25.36. 9. Anthony Churlin, 29.24. 10. Brice Kola, 29.62. 11. Ryan Curry, 30.49. Diving — 1. Kai Kawashima, 299.05. 100 Fly — 2. Robby Lewis, 56.44. 6. Sage Bridges, 1:02.25. 100 Free — 11. Sage Bridges, 1:02.68. 500 Free — 8. Jared Durr, 6:17.35. 10. Aaron Dyer, 7:13.14. 200 FR — 4. Aberdeen (Gates, Kawashima, Bridges, Lewis), 1:41.51. 100 Back — 8. Conner Gates, 1:08.58. 100 Breast — 3. Trevor Mullin, 1:16.04. 6. Kai Kawashima, 1:17.07. 8. Brice Kola, 1:25.83. 11. Gabriel Baquero, 1:46.57. 400 FR — 4. Aberdeen (Tanner Williams, Churlin, Jordan Rounsivill, Durr), 4:26.34.