Swimming

Led by five departing seniors, 19 of Taft High’s 22 participants took Thursday’s “Last Chance” home swim meet to heart by posting their season-best times in preparation for next weekend's District championships.

On the surface, Taft High’s Sam Cortes has been a fixture in local swimming circles for nearly a decade now. Dive deeper and you’ll learn much more about the personable teenager who is earning the distinction of being among the school’s most dominating freshmen athletes ever.

Taft High senior Joram Hoff won two events, and senior Lydia Prins, junior Hunter Lundstedt and freshman Sam Cortes one each Saturday to lead the Tigers to third-place finishes at the Blanchet Invitational swim meet in Salem.

With cheese as bait, Taft High’s boys swimmers took home the biggest blocks Saturday by beating the host squad off the blocks, into the...

The Taft boys defeated Seaside and Astoria in head-to-head competition, and the girls downed Astoria but fell to Seaside on Wednesday in high school...

The Taft High girls placed first and the boys second Thursday in the Taft Invitational swim meet at the Lincoln City Community Center pool.

Freshman Sam Cortes won the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard individual medley, while junior Micah McLeish won the 200-yard freestyle Saturday to lead the Taft High boys to third place at the Clemens Invitational swim meet in Philomath.

Freshman Sam Cortes, junior Sammy Halferty and senior Joram Hoff won two events each to narrowly lead Taft High to the boys and girls team titles Thursday in a dual meet with Seaside at the Lincoln City Community Center pool.

The Taft High boys 200- and 400-yard breaststroke teams led the way with victories Thursday at the Rhonda Relays, a non-scoring swim meet in Philomath.

Several underclassmen gave themselves and their teammates a big boost in confidence moving forward Saturday as the Taft High swim team won the boys competition and placed second in the girls at the Andrew Nygaard Invitational in Astoria.