Campbell McKean Crushes Oregon High School Records in 100 Breast (53.36), 200 IM (1:44.54)

OSAA 5A State Championships

• Feb. 16-17, 2024
• Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center
  • Beaverton, Oregon
• Results
• 6A Recap

Boys Team Scores

1. West Albany – 76
2. Crescent Valley – 57
3. Summit – 53
4. Caldera – 30
5. Canby – 19

West Albany senior Conner Dickerson defended his Oregon 5A state titles in the 50 freestyle (21.51) and 100 free (47.14) to lead the Bulldogs to their first team title in program history on Saturday.

Dickerson is a two-sport star, having won MVP honors in water polo last fall with a four-goal performance for West Albany in the state title match. He posted a personal-best 21.38 in the 50 free prelims and shaved a tenth of a second off his previous-best 100 free time from last year’s title. Dickerson also led off the victorious 200 free relay (1:28.32) in 21.51 and anchored the triumphant 200 medley relay (1:39.60) with 21.02 free split.

Dickerson’s showing was impressive, but the individual star of the meet was undoubtedly Caldera junior Campbell McKean. The USC commit crushed the OSAA records in the 100 breast (53.36) and 200 IM (1:44.54) to go along with freestyle relay splits of 19.74 and 43.73.

McKean took more than two seconds off the previous OSAA records in both the 100 breast (55.40) and 200 IM (1:46.91) that were set by Brian Frazier (2016) and current Northwestern freshman Diego Nosack (2023), respectively. He shaved more than half a second off his previous best in the 100 breast (53.87 from December) while coming just a few tenths shy of his lifetime best in the 200 IM (1:44.23 from December).

Last year, McKean became the first Caldera boy in school history to capture a state crown with his victories in the 200 IM (1:52.44) and 100 back (51.01). He is currently ranked as the No. 14 recruit in SwimSwam’s “way-too-early” rankings for the class of 2025.

Parkrose senior Thomas Olsen culminated his high school career by pulling off three-peats in both distance freestyle events. The fellow USC commit swept the 200 free (1:39.65) and 500 free (4:28.21), slightly slower than his winning times from last year (1:39.14/4:26.52). Back in 2022, Olsen’s victories in the 200 free (1:41.38) and 500 free (4:36.73) marked Parkrose’s first swimming titles in 45 years, carrying his Broncos to their first podium finish since 1976.

Summit sophomore Brecken Egeland dropped big time in the 100 fly (52.48) to earn his first state title. He shaved almost two seconds off his previous-best 54.33 from November and more than four seconds off his time from last year’s meet (56.57). Egeland added a 49.73 leadoff for Summit’s 400 free relay (3:15.04) that closed the meet with a 1st-place finish.

Wilsonville senior Max Buchwald also earned an individual title in the 100 back (53.60), dropping a couple tenths off his previous best (53.82) from last year’s 3rd-place effort.

Girls Recap

Team Scores

1. Bend – 119
2. Canby – 48
3. Redmond – 33
4. West Albany – 30
5. Summit – 25

The Bend girls dominated the 5A meet with 119 points, surpassing their previous scoring record of 105 points in 2018 en route to their second state title in a row.

Bend kicked off the meet with a massive OSAA record in the 200 medley relay (1:41.91), more than two seconds faster than the seven-year-old standard of 1:44.23 set by Jesuit in 2017. All four of the relay record-breakers — sophomore Maddie Thornton (25.49 back, faster than all but one of the boys’ relay leadoffs), junior Hadley Hayes (29.36 breast), sophomore Emma Bronson (24.67 fly), and junior Kamryn Meskill (22.39 free) — also won individual titles for the Lava Bears in an incredible display of depth. The scariest part for opponents is that they should all be returning next season.

“That was the highlight today, for sure,” Meskill said of the 200 medley relay record. “We knew we could do it.”

Meskill established a new 5A record in the 50 free (22.89) sneaking under the old mark of 22.96 posted by current Georgia freshman Helena Jones in 2022. A UNC commit, Meskill has been slightly faster in the 50 free before at 22.84 in December. She brought home another individual title in the 100 free (50.75), within a second of her personal-best 49.86 from December, and also contributed a 23.31 anchor on Bend’s victorious 200 free relay (1:38.43). Meskill has now captured back-to-back 5A crowns since transferring from Caldera after her freshman year.

Thornton turned heads by capturing state crowns in the 200 IM (2:01.16) and 100 back (54.94), just missing the 5A record (54.91 by Bend’s Elliyana Ferrin 2017) in the latter event. She still has two more years to chase that standard. Thornton owns lifetime bests of 2:01.01 in the 200 IM from November and 54.72 in the 100 back from last month. She added a 50.83 leadoff on Bend’s winning 400 free relay (3:39.07), a tenth off her best time from last month.

Bronson dipped under 56 seconds in the 100 fly for the first time en route to the title in 55.47. Hayes clinched the 100 breast crown in 1:03.81, breaking the 1:04 barrier for the first time.

Runner-up Canby (48 points) boasted the other two individual champions in the distance freestyle events. Canby senior Kali Mull placed 1st in the 200 free (1:53.66), dropping almost a second off her previous-best 1:54.56 from December. She is slated to continue her career at Cal State East Bay this fall.

Mull’s teammate, Canby freshman Quincy Taliaferro, improved her lifetime best by more than six seconds on her way to the 500 free victory. She reached the wall in 5:07.13, demolishing her previous-best 5:13.71 from last month.