Chasing a three-peat and state records, the Bend High girls dominated as predicted at the Intermountain Conference swimming championships Saturday at Bend’s Juniper Swim & Fitness Center.

And the Bend High boys swim team surprised the field by winning its first conference title in seven years.

“It is so much fun,” said Bend junior Emma Bronson. “We weren’t expecting that win, we knew it was going to be close, but I think it is going to be fun having both of our teams winning districts.”

In total, the Bend girls scored 406.5 points. The next closest was Redmond, scoring 233 points. Summit (138) finished third, followed by Ridgeview (119.5), Caldera (78) and Mountain View (76). Lava Bears won all three relays and six of the eight individual events.

Bend senior Hadley Hayes, who is committed to swim at Cal Poly, won a pair of events, including the 500-yard freestyle in 5 minutes, 14 seconds, and the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.49, just shy of her state-title-winning time of 1:03.81 from last year.

Lava Bear junior Maddie Thornton, who is committed to swim at Georgia, won both her individual events. She swam a near identical time to her 2024 state-winning time in the 200 individual medley, finishing in 2:01.27. She swam a 54.35 in the 100 backstroke, ahead of former Lava Bear Elliyana Ferrin’s 54.91, a state record set at the 2017 state meet.

If Thornton swims under 54.91 at this Friday and Saturday’s state swimming championships at the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton, she will set the Class 5A record in the 100 backstroke. (Official state records must be set at the state meet.)

Bronson won both the 200 freestyle (1:53.13) and the 100 butterfly (54.59). If Bronson, who committed to swim at the University of Alabama this week, swims the same or faster than she did at districts, she will break her own 5A record in the butterfly that she set at the state meet last season.

“That is where I wanted to be today,” Bronson said. “I’m really excited for next weekend because the pool (at the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center) is pretty fast. And with the way our relays performed today, I think we can break records again.”

The all-time state record in the 200 individual medley relay that the Lava Bears set last year (1:41.91) is well within reach after the team of Thornton, Hayes, Bronson and freshman Rowan Long won the event in 1:44.32.

Bend also won the 200 freestyle relay (Thornton, sophomore Ayla Vodak, Rowan and Bronson) in 1:38.33 and the 400 freestyle relay (sophomore Rebekah Williams, freshman Ella McGonigal, Hayes and Vodak) in 3:50.07.

Summit junior Adeline Bennett was the only non-Lava Bear to win an event. Bennett won both the 50 freestyle (24.43) and 100 freestyle (52.67).

The race for the boys IMC team title was much closer and came down to the final two events.

When the final team points were announced, a loud roar came from where the Bend team was stationed. The Lava Bears finished with 273 points, just ahead of Summit’s 256. Caldera finished with 218 points, followed by Mountain View (159), Ridgeview (93) and Redmond (76).

Having already jumped into the pool with the girls team, first-year Bend swimming coach Alexandra Winslow then jumped in with the boys team to celebrate the program’s first IMC boys title since 2018.

The Lava Bears were powered by a group of talented freshmen. A trio of ninth graders swept the podium in the 200 IM, with Trevor Bagdanoff winning in 2:04.94. The second Lava Bear to win an individual event was freshman Marker Still, who won the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.76.

“I’m so proud of them,” Winslow said. “They work so hard. We have competitive boys on the team this year and we have enough to have all three relays. They want to win and they are super competitive. They really wanted this.”

Caldera senior Campbell McKean is record hunting. He already has all-time state records in two events. The senior who spent last summer swimming in the U.S. Olympic Trials and Pan Pacific Games is well within striking distance of adding another all-time record to his resume at the state meet.

Already with the all-time record in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke, set at last year’s state meet, McKean was just a tick under the all-time record in the 100 butterfly Saturday with a time of 48.33. Churchill’s Charley Page-Jones holds the record (47.63). McKean also won the 100 backstroke (50.46).

“I think in the 100 fly I definitely have a chance,” McKean said. “100 back is probably my weakest stroke, so I’m going to go out there to have fun and see what I can do. Hopefully I can go faster next week.”

One of the more entertaining races of the meet was the boys 200 freestyle, which pitted the Egeland brothers of Summit against each other. Just last week, older brother Landon had raved about how his younger brother Brecken had recently become a faster swimmer than him.

Perhaps it was a little bit of gamesmanship from the older brother because in the race, Landon narrowly beat out Brecken with a time of 1:41.25 to his younger brother’s 1:41.68.

“That was fun,” Landon Egeland said. “I saw him on that last 25 and we were both trying to see who could get their hand on the wall first. The same thing is going to happen next week.”

Brecken Egeland secured an individual IMC title in the 100 freestyle (47.25), while Landon Egeland also won the 500 freestyle (4:35.98).

The Egeland brothers, along with junior AJ Stuehling and senior Holden Short, were part of the winning 400 freestyle relay team (3:20.82). The Summit 200 medley relay team (Brecken Egeland, Short, sophomore Rafael Maloney and junior August Erber) won in 1:42.96.

Mountain View had a pair of wins on Saturday. Junior Logan Gose won the 50 freestyle (22.57), while also being part of the winning 200 freestyle relay team along with senior Jackton Hetrick, senior Tyle Rhodes and junior Thomas Hamblin (1:31.25).