Washington 4A Boys State Championships
- February 15-17, 2024
- King County Aquatic Center
- Federal Way, Washington
- Full Results
- Results also on Meet Mobile: “2024 4A Boys State Swim/Dive Champs”
WIAA has three levels of boys’ high school swimming: 4A, the biggest schools, 3A, the middle-sized schools, and 1A/2A, the smallest schools. You can find the 3A meet recap here.
Final Scores (Top 5):
- Skyline – 285 points
- Newport – 276 points
- Issaquah – 173 points
- Tahoma – 161 points
- Lake Stevens – 140 points
The Washington 4A Boys State Championships turned out to be a two team race, with Skyline and Newport battling to the very end. Newport, the defending champions, gave Skyline all they could handle through the whole meet, but ultimately fell short of their title defense by 9 points.
Skyline ended the competition with over 100 points more than they scored a year ago, successfully edging out Newport 285-276. Skyline was 3rd overall last year, and 4th in 2022, but did win the meet back in 2020 (there was no meet held in 2021 due to COVID-19).
The 200 medley relay opened the meet, and it was a fairly comfortable win for Skyline. The foursome of Terry Lee (23.82), Charles Lee (25.68), Tyler Lewis (22.56), and Daniel Lazar (21.79) teamed up to win by just under a second in 1:33.85. Eastlake touched the wall for 2nd place, while Newport out-touched Issaquah by 0.03 for 3rd.
While Skyline did claim victory in the medley relay, depth is what earned them the title in the end. Similar to what happened at the 3A meet, Skyline’s numerous top eight finishes is what ultimately built up their points. Senior Charles Lee was one of the highlights, placing 2nd in the 200 IM and 3rd in the 100 breast. His teammate and fellow senior, Matthew Dillon, was 3rd in the 200 free and 2nd in the 500 free.
Redmond junior Jaiden Sreenivasan used a strong closing 100 to win the 200 freestyle, finishing in a best time of 1:40.20. Trailing at the 100 turn, Sreenivasan clocked 25.55 and 26.02 on the final two 50s to propel himself to a two second victory. Union’s Owen Robertson stopped the clock in 1:42.42 to 2nd holding off Skyline’s Dillon. Notably, the defending champion in the event, Union senior Sam Empey (1:39.43), did not compete at this meet. Empey was won the 100 fly last year.
Sreenivasan built upon his 200 free performance later in the session, winning the 500 by over three seconds. He hit the touchpad in 4:35.47, taking 0.14 off his entry time and 1.68 off his prelim effort.
Hanford’s Herky Wright showcased his versatility en route to winning the 200 IM state title, finishing in 1:52.07. He opened with a strong 24.42 butterfly split, before posting 27.54, 33.19, and 26.92 on the final three legs. The backstroke split was the real separator for him, as it gave him a lead that he would never relinquish.
Lake Stevens junior Camden Blevins-Mohr and Issaquah sophomore Aaron Bell had a great showdown in the 50 freestyle, with Blevins-Mohr getting the touch in 20.89. Bell touched in 20.96 for 2nd, the only other sub-21 performance in the field. Bell was notably faster in prelims, where he clocked 20.85 to qualify 1st for the final. Curtis senior Tolu Young, who clocked 19.73 to win last year, did not feature at this year’s meet.
Blevins-Mohr would win the 100 fly about 30 minutes later, touching in 49.07 to Tanner Wilson’s 49.16. Blevins-Mohr took the race out in a swift 22.71 to Wilson’s 22.95, and was able to hold on at the finish. Wilson is a senior at Sumner, and went on to win the 100 breast (55.63) state title later in the day.
Blevins-Mohr would take to the pool one more time, helping Lake Stevens secure the 200 free relay state title. He swam the opening leg of the relay, clocking 21.43 before handing off to Coren Coe (21.83), Sebastian Erickson (22.15), and Samuel Lamb (22.11). Their final time of 1:26.52 undercut their 1:26.76 prelim marker, and was enough to clear the field by over a full second.
The men’s 100 back was taken by freshman Owen Stauffer of Issaquah. He entered the meet with the 8th fastest entry time, dropped a few tenths in prelims (51.95) to qualify 7th, then popped a time of 50.59 to win out of lane one in the final. He took the race out very strongly, tearing through the first 50 in 24.22 before holding on for victory. Stauffer narrowly missed his best time of 50.58 from December.
Three other swimmers dipped under 51 seconds in the race, with Terry Lee (50.83), Herky Wright (50.97), and Will Spencer (50.98) all in contention heading into the final lap.
Defending champions Newport ended the meet with an exclamation point, posting 3:10.29 on the way to 400 free relay victory. The quartet of William Ho (48.49), Max Li (47.90), Axel Brown-Ruegg (47.27), and Nathan Xu (46.63) comprised the relay, touching out Issaquah at the finish by less than half a second.
Other Event Winners:
- Wenatchee’s Aiden Grigsby clocked 46.08 en route to claiming the 100 free state title.
- Moses Lake swimmer Danny Thurman posted the fastest 50 free (28.44) and 50 back (36.92) times of the adaptive category.
- Defending champion Corwin Lindeman of Mount Rainier posted a score of 449.10 in 1m diving, winning by 78.3 points.
