Ross wins first district swimming titles for Washougal

Isaiah Ross became the first district swimming champion for Washougal High School Saturday, at the Dick Mealy Memorial Pool in Longview.

The freshman touched the wall two-tenths of a second before Max Mann, of Toutle Lake, in the 200-meter individual medley. Ross completed his backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle laps in 2 minutes, 4.67 seconds.

“We were head-to-head the whole time,” Ross said. “I guess I didn’t want him to win. I wanted it more than he did.”

Ross lapped the competition in the 500 freestyle, and won with a meet record time of 5:02.75. Spencer Curry came in second place for Mark Morris in 5:20.54. Matthew Risley took third for Woodland in 5:34.96.

“I felt strong in that race,” Ross said. “It gets me a higher seed at state.”

Ross will race in the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle at the 2A state meet Friday, at the King County Aquatic Center, in Federal Way. He is the first swimmer from Washougal to compete at this meet, and he hopes to earn a lane in Saturday’s championship races.

“I’m going to give it my all,” Ross said. “I want them to see what Washougal is all about.”

Daniel Brown might get the opportunity to join Ross at state in the 50 freestyle. He finished in fifth place at districts with a time of 25.39 seconds. Brown also earned seventh place in the 100 backstroke (1:07.91).

“I put a lot of effort into those races,” he said. “It’s pretty awesome to represent Washougal here. It’s just us, so we have to put in extra effort and set markers for the next people who want to swim.”

Landon Schmid claimed eighth place in the 200 individual medley (2:28.94) and 11th place in the 100 backstroke (1:11.88) for Washougal.