Rose City Roundup: Skye Schwartz wins title for Lincoln swim; Boys wrestling district results

No beating around the bush up top here for this week’s Rose City Roundup. It was a jam-packed weekend of state swimming, district boys wrestling and the small school basketball brackets being set.

We’ve got Lincoln girls swimming showing out at state, McDaniel and Grant rocking the PIL boys wrestling district meet, and Portland Christian boys and girls basketball making state.

Read it all down below!

Lincoln girls swimming highlights locals at state

For Lincoln High School junior Skye Schwartz, being down after the first 50 yards is nothing new.

Admittedly, Schwartz said she’s more of a back-half swimmer in her 100 yard breaststroke event.

So when she found herself trailing Lakeridge’s Helena Huettemeyer after the first lap Saturday, Feb. 21 inside the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center, the Cardinal did what she does best and pushed it into high gear.

Schwartz ultimately took over in the final 50, winning the race with a time of 1 minute, 3.08 seconds, to beat out Huettemeyer who touched at 1:03.77.

Her win plus her help in the relay events led to Lincoln taking home a fourth-place trophy on the girls side, the Cardinals second consecutive year of placing in the top four at state.

“I’m more of a back-half swimmer, so I guess when I start I usually kind of expect to see a person ahead of me after the first turn,” Schwartz said. “Kind of expected and I feel like I just trusted my training and focused on the back half.”

Schwartz began her evening swimming the breast portion of the 200 IM relay for the Cardinals where they finished in third with a time of 1:48.35. Lakeridge won the race in 1:46.71.

The junior swam the opening leg of the 200 freestyler relay as well and helped Lincoln take second place in 1:38.62. Jesuit won the race in 1:37.93.

After that, Schwartz found her groove in the 100 breast and finished the night swimming third in the 400 freestyle relay, helping Lincoln take fourth in 3:38.59. Jesuit won the race in a time of 3:33.22.

“This season has been really good actually,” Schwartz said. “I haven’t hit my best time yet from last season, but I hit very consistent 1:03s (in the breast), so it’s been a good season I’d say.”

Schwartz was from alone on the podium as the Cardinals got contributions throughout the evening.

Junior Eloise Rush took sixth in the 200 IM and freshman Cece Ku took fifth in the 100 butterfly. Those two plus Schwartz and freshman Layla Stevens made up the third-place 200 IM relay team. Freshman Stella Hargreaves swapped in for Stevens for the 200 and 400 freestyle relay squads.

Add it all up and Lincoln finished with 49 points to beat out West Linn in fifth with 37 points. Jesuit won with 121.5 points.

“I love our Lincoln team,” Schwartz said. “A lot of our swimmers are also on my club team, so it’s really nice to be able to work with people I know and that I’m comfortable with.”

With state title No. 1 under her belt in her second state championship appearance, the sky is the limit for Skye.

Up next for her is to try and make that first 50 as strong as the second 50 so she can be back next year atop the podium once more.

“I definitely want to improve on my first lap for sure, that’s where I can improve my race,” Schwartz said. “I want to work on that and still focus on the back half and see where that can get me.”

More swim results

Schwartz wasn’t alone atop the podium for Portland city schools as earlier in the day a Riverdale swimmer was able to win an individual gold medal.

Junior Sam Borus took first in the 4A/3A/2A/1A girls 100 fly with a time of 58.18, besting the competition by two seconds. She also took third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:00.30.

After that, there were a lot of close calls for Portland schools throughout the day.

Riverdale freshman Wyatt Kalbaugh took second in the 4A/3A/2A/1A boys 500 free with a time of 5:04.59, falling just short of Phoenix’s Quin Davis time of 5:04.05. Kalbaugh also took fourth in the boys 200 IM with a time of 2:09.06.

Up at 6A, Grant freshman Clara Penny took second in the girls 500 free with a time of 5:08.81, falling three seconds short of Jesuit’s Stela Sufuentes in first at 5:05.26.

Jefferson’s lone swimmer was freshman Ayana Winter, and she took second in the girls 100 backstroke with a time of 56.62. Oregon City’s Rowan Schmidt won in 55.48 seconds.

David Douglas junior Ariya Abdullah entered the girls 50 free as the two-time defending champion, but left this year in third place with a time of 23.52. Newberg’s Sydney McDonald won with a time of 23.41.

Head here to see the full results from the 6A state swim meet.

Boys wrestling district results

Class 6A and 5A boys wrestling districts also finished up on Saturday and the city of Portland will have at least 51 boys representing at state next week inside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Starting with the PIL, McDaniel took home the team crown once again, this time in a close race with Grant. The Mountain Lions finished with 376 points to the Generals’ 324 in second place.

Roosevelt took third with 216.5 points, Cleveland took fourth with 172.5, Ida B. Wells took fifth with 170.5, Franklin took sixth with 148, Jefferson took seventh with 66.5, Lincoln took eighth with 65 and Benson finished in ninth with 48.

All nine schools will be sending at least one wrestler to state, and more could be chosen as fourth place finishers are put into a pool for three at-large bids.

For now, Grant leads with 12 grapplers heading to state, followed by McDaniel with 10, Roosevelt with six, Cleveland and Wells with four, Franklin and Jefferson with two, and Lincoln and Benson with one.

McDaniel and Grant finished with the most district champs, putting four atop the podium. Winners for McDaniel include: Griffin Farr at 106, Gildardo Perez Jussa at 113, Lucas McCall-Petke at 215 and Jasiah Clay at 285.

The winners for Grant include: August Tenkhoff at 138, Joaquin Alomia at 165, Judah Barnett at 175 and Cole Thomas at 190.

Cleveland was up next with three individual winners, which includes: Eli Borrayo at 120, Stewart Bromwell at 132 and Ben Suzuki at 150.

The rest of the winners were scattered between three schools. Roosevelt had Connor Hutcheson win at 144, Wells had Shae Morrison win at 126 and Jefferson had Titus Rodela win at 157.

The PIL isn’t alone as David Douglas took fourth in the Mt. Hood Conference meet and is sending at least seven wrestlers to state. The Scots scored 217 points while Sandy won the meet with 362.5 points.

Leading the way for the Scots was their lone winner in Ayden McNabb at 285.

Parkrose will also put on for Portland in 5A after the Broncos qualified two wrestlers for state. Asher Priestly made it at 165 and Brian Jimenez Cano qualified at 190.

Here’s a full list of the qualifiers down below.

106: Griffin Farr (McDaniel), Sebastian Brooks (McDaniel), Thomas Melville (Grant), Vinson Ashe (David Douglas)

113: Gildardo Perez Jussa (McDaniel), Gaius Vickery (Benson), Noah Marchello (Grant), Milo Jimenez-Buerkle (David Douglas)

120: Eli Borrayo (Cleveland), Isaac Honl (Jefferson), Sanzharbek Akbarov (Franklin)

126: Shae Morrison (Wells), Mateo Mazariegos (Roosevelt), Josh Turcios (Roosevelt), Jeremiah Pilat (David Douglas)

132: Stewart Bromwell (Cleveland), Sadam Hussain Rezai (McDaniel), Kollyn McIntosh (McDaniel)

138: August Tenkhoff (Grant), Michael Haragakiza (McDaniel), Cassius Lesperance (Grant), Amaziah Brown (David Douglas)

144: Connor Hutcheson (Roosevelt), Ford Morris (McDaniel), Walker Gwaltney (Wells), Tyler Hockett (David Douglas)

150: Ben Suzuki (Cleveland), Jasper Adamson (Grant), Roman Tubay (Wells)

157: Titus Rodela (Jefferson), Spencer Thompson (Roosevelt), Isaiah Sweat (Grant)

165: Joaquin Alomia (Grant), Nolan Johnston (Cleveland), Travis Lobdell (Grant), Asher Priestly (Parkrose)

175: Judah Barnett (Grant), Lucius Coon (Wells), Christian Taylor (McDaniel)

190: Cole Thomas (Grant), Mekhi Gardner (Roosevelt), Neven Josipovic (Lincoln), Rafael Castillo (David Douglas), Brian Jimenez Cano (Parkrose)

215: Lucas McCall-Petke (McDaniel), Geovoney Burks (Roosevelt), Dereon Peters (Jefferson)

285: Jasiah Clay (McDaniel), Jeffrey Smith (Franklin), Deckard Hale (Grant), Ayden McNabb (David Douglas)

Portland Christian boys and girls hoops make state; DLSNC falls short

The rankings for Class 3A, 2A and 1A were frozen Saturday night and with it came the state tournament brackets.

For the Portland Christian boys, they earned the No. 2 seed as the only unbeaten team in the state, boys or girls across all classifications, after a 26-0 season and the Northwest League title.

The Royals will host No. 15 Toledo on Friday, Feb. 27 with a trip to Pendleton for the quarterfinals on the line. Time is still TBD.

The PC boys have finished second at the state tournament for the past two years, and this time they're hoping to walk away with the title and the program's first since 2010.

This year, the boys won’t be alone as the girls pulled off the upset of Clatskanie in the Northwest League third place game 65-57, earning an automatic bid to the postseason.

The ladies will hit the road to play No. 3 Western Christian on Saturday, Feb. 28 with a time still to be determined. It’s the girls first appearance since making the 2020 2A state tournament.

Meanwhile, a streak of 13 consecutive years making the 3A state tournament has come to an end for the De La Salle North Catholic boys basketball team.

The Knights took fourth in the Lewis & Clark League and with a 12-13 record, they finished No. 19 in the final rankings, three spots behind Lakeview/Paisley for the final at-large spot.

DLSNC has made state every year since 2012 and made the quarterfinals/final site all 13 of those years as well.

Of course, the end comes with some controversy. During the L&C third place game at Oregon Episcopal, it appeared the Knights had won the game 41-40 when the Aardvarks missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer with only .3 seconds left.

However, a technical foul was called while the Knights were celebrating their apparent victory, sending OES to the line for two, which it hit both to win 42-41.

With a win, the Knights would have placed third and earned an automatic bid to the postseason. Instead, DLSNC’s season comes to a close.