Senior Cody Soo claimed his first state title in the 100-yard freestyle Saturday, Feb. 22, beating Jacob Folsom of Sheridan in a tight race at Mt. Hood Community College.

Seeded second after the prelims to Folsom, Soo won in a time of 45.77 to nip Folsom (45.82) by five hundreds of second. The win, Soo’s first-ever title, avenged a third-place finish to Folsom in the 200-yard freestyle. Folsom finished at 1:39.07 to Soo’s 1:40.73. Jay Heymann of Lakeridge took second in 1:40.60.

Soo’s 17 points helped the Warriors to a 13th place finish at the state meet. Jesuit won the meet in convincing fashion with 128 points, while Lakeridge scored 68 and West Linn 44 to round out the top three.

A week prior at the district meet, Soo claimed two wins at the PIL district championship meet, helping his team to a fourth place finish Feb. 15 at Dishman pool.

Lincoln claimed the boys’ district title with 254 points over Grant with 224 points (Cleveland, 160), while Grant claimed the girls’ title with 327 points over Lincoln with 309. Cleveland’s girls also placed fourth with 130 points.

Soo won the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.47) and the 100-yard freestyle (47.13), and also helped anchor the 200-yard freestyle relay to a second place finish, qualifying the team for state. Sophomores Jack Martinson, Calvin Thompson and Owen Mills will compete on the relay, with sophomores Luke Schamber, Samuel Erickson and seniors William Knipe and Anthony Phan listed as alternates.

Capping a highly-successful career at Cleveland, Soo had hoped to medal at state. He was seeded fourth in the 200 free and third in the 100 free. The top swimmer in each event was Jakob Folsom of Sherwood, who holds times of 1:40.78, and 46.66 in the events respectively. Soo rose to the challenge and captured a title.

While the girls did not qualify for state, the top performers were senior Lily Armstrong (fifth, 200-yard free), senior Gemma Dallas (sixth, 100-yard fly), and junior Avery Kyle (fifth, 100-yard free).