All-Region boys swimming: Kasey Calwell

The two fastest swims of his high school career earned Kasey Calwell a pair of championships and Class 4A swimmer of the meet honors at the state championships.

Josh Bottelberghe,fr., Columbia River

Jake Breuer, jr., Skyview

Mark Kim, fr., Camas

Dylan Osborne, sr., Hockinson

Lucas Ulmer, sr., Camas

Chris Xue, sr., Mountain View

But when he gathers with friends 10 years from now to reminisce about establishing a new standard for the swimming program at Camas High School, Calwell said his lasting memory will be of learning the Papermakers finished second as a team.

“My most vivid memory will probably be on the (pool) deck at the end of the meet, we thought we were fourth. We didn’t realize we were actually second,” Calwell said. “The fact that we were second shocked us, really.”

Led by Calwell’s wins in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 breaststroke, Camas actually scored more points in the pool than any other team at the 4A state championships. He capped his high school career with personal best times of 1 minute, 51.51 seconds in the 200 IM and 56.53 in the 100 breaststroke.

Those efforts make Calwell the clear choice as The Columbian All-Region Boys Swimmer of the Year.

The foundation for Calwell’s fantastic finish was a sub-par summer swimming for the Columbia River Swim Team. That, along with lofty goals for the Camas team, pushed him to step up his training. During the high school season, he trained nine times a week for a total of about 20 hours per between club and high school practices.

By the time championship season arrived, Calwell knew he was ready.

“I knew that I’d put a ton of work in. I just was feeling so good in the water I knew that there would be a lot of great (time) drops,” Calwell said.

There was pressure to perform for his teammates and community — incentive that Calwell said makes high school swimming different from club meets. But he said he was actually more calm for this state meet than any other because his college future was secured.

Calwell will swim at the University of California in Santa Barbara. That will be the next stop on a journey that began as a youth swimmer in Detroit and Columbus, Ohio, before arriving in Camas for his high school years.

“High school meets are very emotional. It’s hard to, but you have to treat it like a club meet. Even though you’ve got all of this emotional energy, you’ve got to focus and keep very calm.

Everyone did a very good job with that.”

In addition to Calwell’s individual titles, fellow senior Lucas Ullmer won the 100 butterfly title. Mark Kim placed fifth in the 500 freestyle. And Calwell swam on two of the three Camas relay teams that each placed fourth at state.

Only diving points — Clark County high schools don’t participate in diving — pushed Newport of Bellevue to the team championship ahead of Camas.

“Pretty crazy,” Calwell said. “Everybody swam pretty much perfectly. Everyone set best times. We had eight school records.

“We came together and accomplished something very special.”