The South Eugene swim team had a very successful district meet over the Valentine’s day weekend. Both the girls and boys team won the 2026 Southwest Conference District swimming championships in dominant fashion, with the boys team scoring 577 points, and the girls team scoring 551 points. Last year, South Eugene swimmers faced complications when the Sheldon swimming head coach, and other coaching staff from around the district, shared concerns about uniform logos and sizing on their swim suits, leading to disqualifications of some of the Team Eugene Aquatics swimmers on South. Logos were slightly larger than permitted, and some uniforms had two logos on swim suits, leading to many key performers being disqualified and unable to compete at state. However, South Eugene was still able to secure a narrow victory. This year, the boys team won by 187 points ahead of Sheldon, and the girls team also secured a 231 point victory ahead of the Irish. South Eugene senior and co-captain Reena Zhao says that many swimmers on the team participate in club swimming, and despite many underclassmen mostly attending only school practices, the team was able to perform strongly at conference. Zhao is excited to be one of the many swimmers to represent South Eugene at state, and believes the relay team is looking to perform strongly at state. Tim Trojan, South Eugene senior, praises fans for their support at conference championships. “It was really amazing, I think this was definitely one of the best districts we’ve had in a long time”, Trojan states. South Eugene has historically been strong in swimming in the past decades, but the last four years have been especially strong. Trojan also broke the school record in the 100 fly, which had stood for nearly  50 years. He also believes that the South Eugene swim team is the deepest yet, with over 18 seniors including both teams. He states that because of how large the senior class is, the last four years have been amazing getting to know each other better and continue to improve as they grew together. Despite many upperclassmen on both the boys and girls teams, underclassmen displayed strong talent at the conference championships, many of whom scored points towards South Eugene’s dominant win. Trojan is excited to compete at the highest level at state, and reflects that the boys team is generally the strongest during the championship season. He wants to help the South swim team carry the same torch that the South Eugene women’s water polo team had lit when they had won state earlier this fall. Last year, the boys team placed 5th at state, scoring 41 points overall. South Eugene is currently ranked 2nd this year in both the boys and girls teams. Trojan believes that a state championship is possible, and it would be a huge achievement and honor to end his four years at South with a state victory. Trojan will compete in the 100 fly and 50 free. The OSAA 6A State Championships will be held on February 20th-21st at the Beaverton, Oregon. 

* Since the day of writing, South Eugene competed in the OSAA 6A State Championship where the boys team placed 2nd for the first time in almost two decades. The girls team placed 15th after illness took out many swimmers in finals along with an unfortunate disqualification in a key relay. Following Trojan’s new record three more school records were set at state including the boys 200 Medley Relay, boys 400 Free Relay, and the boys 100 Breaststroke by senior Burke Sherman.

Article by Yosuke Shibata