THE DALLES — The Dalles High School boys finished second at the 2026 OSAA Special District 1 swimming championships this past weekend and its two district champion relay teams are the top seeds entering this weekend’s 4A/3A/2A/1A state championships.
Molalla won the boys title with 224 points and The Dalles scored 189 in the meet held in La Grande.
The Dalles’ boys 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay are each the top seeds heading into state. The state finals are Feb. 20-21 at Tualatin Hills Aquatics Center in Beaverton.
The shorter free relay edged Molalla by a second in the district final. Rhett Loughmiller, Maverick Varland, Sawyer Dray and Everest Lenardson swam 1:35.37 seconds to Molalla’s 1:36.26. Molalla is seeded second at state behind The Dalles.
In the longer free relay, The Dalles (with the same four swimmers as the shorter race) edged Molalla, 3:32.28 to 3:33.15. Those two teams are seeded No. 1 and 2 entering the 4A/3A/2A/1A state meet, as well. Lenardson is the lone senior on the Riverhawks’ state qualifying relays; the other three swimmers are juniors.
Loughmiller won two individual championships for The Dalles. He came close to dipping under the 1-minute mark in the 100-yard backstroke with his winning time of 1:00.6. Earlier in the meet, the junior won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:57.58. Loughmiller finished 11th in the 200 free and 100 back at state in 2025. He is seeded fourth in the backstroke and seventh in the freestyle at state.
Lenardson also qualified for state in two events; he was second in the 100-yard freestyle, edging teammate Dray, who was third, 52.57 to 53.29. Lenardson also qualified in the 200-yard individual medley with his third-place finish (2:16.42). He was fifth at state in the 200 IM a season ago and ninth in the 100 free.
Dray qualified for state as an individual with his runner-up finish in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.64 seconds.
The Dalles had numerous other district placers: Varland was fifth in the 500 freestyle in 5:56.25 and seventh in the 200 freestyle (2:09.55); Jack Dewey was 11th in the 200 freestyle (2:26.24); Creighton Clack was 10th and Cruz Peral was 11th in the 50 freestyle (27.11 and 27.21); Clack added an eighth-place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:20.14), and Peral added a 10th-place finish in the 100 freestyle (1:03.95); and Dante Kim was 10th in the 100 backstroke (1:23.86) and 11th in the 500 freestyle (7:43.52).
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