On Friday and Saturday, the state’s top high school swimmers will meet at the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton to see who is the fastest and which team has the best swimmers in the return of the OSAA State Swimming Championships after a year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among eight Central Oregon programs in the three different classifications, there will be 56 local swimmers competing in individual events and in 17 relays during the two-day affair.

Summit will have 20 racers in the 22 individual and relay races, the most of any 6A Central Oregon team, while 5A Redmond will have 23 swimmers.

The 5A state finals are scheduled for 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, and the 6A state finals are set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

While only sending six individuals to state, Mountain View has several swimmers that could find themselves at the top of the podium after their races.

Junior Diggory Dillingham, a state champion swimmer in Iowa and North Carolina before moving to Bend, has the state’s fastest time in the 50-yard freestyle and is not far off from the fastest time in the 100 freestyle. Sophomore Lexi Williams will be in the hunt for both the 200 and 50 freestyle titles, while freshman Christian Carleton is less than a second away from the top time in the 100 breaststroke.

But it could have been more Cougars headed to state.

Due to a misinterpretation of the alternate rules for relay teams, two of Mountain View’s first-place finishing relay teams at the Mountain Valley Conference championships — the boys 200 individual medley relay of Alexander Stiles, Christian Carleton, Jacob Townsend and Dillingham, and the boys 200 freestyle relay of Tedy Roll, Calvin Schwarz, Carleton and Dillingham — were ineligible to qualify for state.

Mountain View coach Annie Warzecha thought that she could make a substitution to the relay team from the pool deck, but she later learned that alternates to the relay teams needed to be submitted earlier and the late substitutions were not allowed by the referees.

“Those boys were the obvious winners and worked hard for that,” Warzecha said. “Jacob and Tedy really stepped up and weren’t expected to race in those relays. I didn’t think we would win because of who was missing. It was a tremendous accomplishment.”

The state swim meet could be a breakout moment for first-year swimmers. From Summit’s Landon Egeland in the 200 and 500 freestyle, to Mountain View’s Christian Carleton in the 100 breaststroke, to Caldera’s Campbell McKean (100 back, 200 IM) and Kamryn Meskill (50 and 100 freestyle), this week could be the start of several decorated high school swimming careers.

But one team’s freshman and sophomore class has shouldered much of the scoring load this season and will continue to do so at state — the Redmond girls team.

“Our youngest team and biggest team that we have taken to state in the 10 years that I have been coaching,” said Redmond swim coach Denise Maich.

The Panthers nearly won the Intermountain Conference before losing to Hood River Valley by a slim three-point margin last weekend. Maich said she expects her youthful team to finish somewhere between third and fifth.

The Panthers could very well win both the 200 IM relay and 200 freestyle relay. Their 12-person relay team (four being alternates) includes nine freshmen and three sophomores.

“I don’t think they are going to take first or second, but they do have a shot for the top four at least,” Maich said. “None of these girls have experienced going to a high school state meet. Some of them have just gone to go watch their siblings.”

It would not be a surprise if the Konop siblings post high placings Friday night in the 5A meet. Older brother Ryan Konop won the 50 freestyle as a sophomore at the last state meet and is certainly in contention to claim the title in the 50 and 100 freestyle, while younger sister Molly Konop has some of 5A’s best times in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke.

A major change to this year’s state meet is that there are no preliminary races. The first time they step onto the blocks, competitors will be swimming for a state title. There will be no practice runs or chances to make adjustments between races.

“They have one shot,” Maich said. “They don’t have time to think about how to improve. It is one and done and that is all they have.”

There will be a limited number of spectators allowed at the Oregon swimming state championships this weekend, restrictions put in place through a collaboration between the Oregon School Activities Association and the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District.

Every school participating in the state meet will receive the equivalent of one ticket per participant. If schools do not take all of their available tickets, only then will there be a chance that general admission tickets become available.

Masks will be required for anyone attending the state meet.

This is the latest change to the swimming state championships, which are taking place on Friday and Saturday at the Tualatin Hills Swim Center. The Class 5A meet will take place Friday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., the 6A meet will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the 4A/3A/2A/1A competition is scheduled for Saturday from 4:45 to 9 p.m.

In January, the OSAA announced that the swimming state championship will be changed from a prelims and finals format to a timed format, and the number of alternates allowed for relay teams will move from four to two. These changes were made to accommodate COVID-19 mitigation rules put in place by the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District.

—Oregonian