Records fall at Astoria Aquatic Center

Published 5:30 am Wednesday, February 18, 2026

District Championships a two-day event

Overflow parking lots, a closed pool (to the public) and standing-room-only inside. This meant the District Championships returned to the Astoria Aquatic Center once again.

The two-day event spanning Friday and Saturday was the last chance this season for Astoria and Seaside swimmers to show off their hard work. Parents, coaches and spectators crammed into the tight spaces of the center waiting to hear the call for swimmers to “take your mark” and the familiar report of the starting gun.

Astoria and Seaside were joined by Cowapa League rivals Tillamook, Scappoose and St. Helens. Other schools who made the trip were Valley Catholic, Taft, Rainier and Newport. Individual swimmers from Banks and Neah-Kah-Nie also traveled solo to participate in the meet.

The host team Astoria did well as they finished fourth place for the girls and third place for the boys. According to head coach Paul Gascoigne those results met his expectations.

“The season actually went better than expected, before it started,” Gascoigne said. “A lot of kids really stepped up; we had lots of improvement. New kids really came along(and) the existing swimmers really stepped up.

“Third place for the boys was better than I expected, so I can’t complain about that in the least,” Gascoigne said. “The girls did really well, but we are losing a lot of seniors so it’s going to hurt for next year. But I was very happy for our senior girls with how the meet went.”

The strong senior girl class will swim on as they qualified for state in both the individual events and team relays.

Lily Smith and Emery Young qualified for the individual events and as part of two relay teams alongside Ruby Smith and Zany Nolasco. Lili Smith swam a personal best of 26.72 in the 50-yard freestyle to qualify 11th out of 12 for next week’s event. She doubled back to finish second in the 100-yard freestyle and also qualified 11th.

Young, meanwhile, was the standout of the meet. The senior returned to the pool this year after a few years off and became one of the Fishermen’s top swimmers both individually and on the relay. Young finished second in the girls 100-yard butterfly in a school record time of 1:05.18. This time shocked the coaching staff and the swimmer herself.

“She came in with experience from when she was younger, but was just out of practice and had to make a couple tweaks,” Gascoigne said. “The school record is huge, but just the improvement she’s made in the last three weeks, her times have dropped from a 1:12 to 1:10 to a 1:09 to a 1:06 to a 1:05 in three weeks. … I wouldn’t have even guessed the school record would be in reach two weeks ago.”

In fact, the top four finishers from the girls 100-yard butterfly would have been on the boys podium last year, according to Gascoigne, which makes her second-place result even more impressive.

Young will be seeded fourth in the event at state.

The boys side saw strong performances from their sophomore class. Sam Reid, Toby Thomas, Roarke Struve and Konrad Struve and new kid on the block, Brody Giles, all had a great last meet.

Reid, Thomas, Giles and senior John Ero will be headed to state as part of the boys 200-yard freestyle relay.

Though there were lots of impressive swims none was better than Reid.

The sophomore was admitted to the hospital Wednesday with pneumonia. He was put on antibiotics and wasn’t close to 100%. Despite this he won both the boys 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke in personal best times and also swam his fastest ever relay split of 23:19 as the anchor for the boys 200-yard relay.

The overall girls champion was Newport with a total of 283 points. They were followed by Valley Catholic with 209, Tillamook with 174, Astoria was fourth with 160, Taft scored 140, Seaside had 110, St. Helens had 54, Scappoose finished with 46, Banks had 34 and Rainier had 22.

The boys’ crown was taken by a strong Tillamook team with 229. Newport finished 11 points back with 218 points, Astoria had 186, Taft 165, St. Helens 115, Scapppose 115, Valley Catholic 79, Seaside 66 and Neah-Kah-Nie 10.

Seaside sophomore qualifies

Versatile Seaside sophomore Ellie Smith also stamped her ticket to state after finishing fourth in the girls 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:09.88. Smith will enter as the 10th ranked qualifier for Friday’s prelims.

Smith was joined in the personal best department by Ella Crater, Kailani Vidal, Kayla Reckmann and Baylee Bishop. Stellan Mortensen clocked another personal best in the boys 100 yard butterfly. Just like Astoria most of Seaside’s swimmers ended the season with personal best times.

With both teams being very young, expect the Seagulls to take another step forward next season in both the Cowapa league and Districts.