Nearly half of the state meet records fell at the Idaho State High School Championships this weekend, including 7 of 11 records on the girls side.
Boise High School ran away with both boys and girls wins in the team competition.
Girls Meet
The state record book was almost entirely rewritten in the girls meet, with Boise breaking 5 state records itself.
Junior Abbey Erwin was part of four of those records, winning two individual events and two relays. She kicked off the meet with a tough 200 medley relay/200 free double, winning back-to-back races. She swam fly on the medley, joining Taylor Anderson, Sammie Eyolfson and Sydney Walker to go 1:47.23 – that smashed almost four full seconds off the standing record of 1:51.21 Boise set in 2014.
One event later, Erwin would break her own 200 free record, going 1:50.00. Her old mark was a 1:51.94 from back in 2013. Erwin broke another two-year-old record in the 500 free, going 4:50.56 (her old record was 4:53.12) and finally led off the 400 free relay for Boise. Her leg was 52.07, and the team continued with Maggie Erwin, Walker and Anderson to go 3:34.93 to shatter the three-year-old state record by almost four seconds.
Boise had no trouble winning the one relay Erwin wasn’t a part of, either. Annie Bartolome, Maggie Erwin, Isabel Swafford and Eyolfson went 1:40.70 there, led by a 24.49 from the sophomore Swafford, breaking the state mark.
Outside of Boise High, two more records fell. Wood River senior Maddie Johnson went 56.75 to break her own record in the 100 fly, and Rocky Mountain sophomore Charity Pittard took down the 100 back mark in 56.80. Also under the old record was Boise’s Anderson, who went 57.74.
Sandpoint High School sophomore Payton Bokowy swept the sprint freestyles, taking the 50 free in 24.00 and the 100 in 52.23.
Coeur d’Alene High took second as a team, getting shares of two state titles from senior Nicole Rozier. Rozier won the 200 IM in 2:04.09, just missing her own state record from 2014. Then, in one of the night’s most dramatic finishes, Rozier tied Idaho Falls sophomore Andrea Perttula for the 100 breast title in 1:06.41. Just hundredths back from making things a three-way state title tie was Coeur d’Alen junior Micah Hudlet at 1:06.43.
Top 5 Teams
- Boise – 399
- Coeur d’Alene – 202.5
- Rocky Mountain – 188
- Wood River – 135
- Idaho Falls – 128.5
Boys Meet
Boise also won the boys meet, taking three events in all. Sophomore Luke Yost had a hand in all three, and like Erwin, pulled the tough 200 medley relay/200 free double to start the meet.
Yost anchored the winning medley, joining with Gage Dewsbury, Kade Wagers and Michael Chang to go 1:37.95 – that’s only about a second off the state record. Yost would follow that with a 1:44.02 win in the 200 that saw him come from behind late to pass Meridian’s Andrew Clifford for the win, 1:44.02 to 1:44.23.
Boise would also win the 400 free relay to close the night. Yost anchored in a quick 46.77, with Dewsbury, Caleb Elliott and Chang joining him to go 3:14.64. 7 of the 8 legs on those winning relays were manned by sophomores, so if Boise can replace breaststroker Wagers, they should be in line to make runs at repeat titles next year.
The individual star of the boys meet was Hillcrest High’s senior Roger Woods, who broke two state records in sweeping the sprints. Woods went 20.83 to tie the state 50 free record, then lowered his own 100 free mark with a 45.73.
The other state record went to Mountain View’s 200 free relay, which went 1:28.79 to take about half a second off the mark. Senior Koller Lange had the best split at 21.76, and was joined by Jackson Cunningham, Sebastian Chao and Jay van Buren on the podium.
Cunningham came back in the very next event to win the 100 back, going 53.25.
The other double individual winners joining Woods was Rocky Mountain senior Brandon Palmatier. He won the 100 fly in 50.10 and the 500 free in 4:39.72, swimming another brutal double in this meet.
Other wins went to Moscow High’s Cy Jager in the 200 IM (1:55.20) and Centennial’s Mirza Ljubijankic in the 100 breast (58.72).
Top 5 Teams
- Boise – 280
- Coeur d’Alene – 228
- Hillcrest – 206
- Mountain View – 197
- Capital – 183
… and the home of the “BRAVES”