Redmond will be well-represented at this weekend’s Class 5A Swimming State Championships in Gresham.

The Panther boys team will send three relay teams and three individual swimmers to compete in five events. Junior Loryn Trail, meanwhile, will take part in two races, reaching state for the third time in as many years.

Ridgeview is sending two junior boys to state, with Ben Hucke competing in the 100-yard freestyle and Daniel Maggiora in the 100 backstroke.

The Panthers state representation is the most since fourth-year coach Denise Maich has been there, and the most since Ridgeview opened, taking away many swimmers, Maich said.

“For having a split school, and getting back to the numbers you were getting to state before the split is pretty nice,” she said.

Overall, the Redmond boys finished fourth in the five-team Feb. 10-11 Intermountain Conference district championships in Bend with 285 points, while Ridgeview was fifth with 180 points. Summit finished first overall with 440 points.

Redmond was also fourth at the district meet on the girls side, with 186 points, while Ridgeview was fifth with 97 points. Victorious Bend had 518 points.

The Redmond boys were led by senior Nicky Tsai at the district meet. Tsai won the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.71 seconds, which was the third-best time overall at 5A district meets around the state. Tsai finished second in the 100 butterfly at 53.08, which also qualified him third at state.

Tsai admits to holding back some at the district meet, but said top swimmers from other districts might have been doing the same. But they will all go full speed at state, where there will be 12 entries in each preliminary event Friday, with the top six making Saturday’s finals.

“It makes me simultaneously feel optimistic, but also cautious,” Tsai said Monday. “I compete against them at club meets, so I know what they’re capable of.”

Junior Blake Noble also qualified in two events, qualifying seventh at state in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:05.49 and 11th in the 200 individual medley at 2:13.27.

Noble will be joined by his brother, junior Logan Noble in the 100 breaststroke. Logan qualified 11th with a time of 1:08.17.

Like Tsai, the Noble brothers reached state in the 2014-15 season, but took the 2015-16 season off from school swimming. They say they look forward to seeing a wider variety of competition, which is more like what they see in club swimming.

“It’s cool to see how your competition is advancing and how the teams in the Valley are doing,” Blake said.

Tsai and the Noble brothers will be part of the 200 medley relay team that qualified sixth at state with a time of 1:46.61, being joined by senior Shayne Bidwell.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Blake Noble, junior Alex Smith, Bidwell and sophomore Augie Tobish qualified 12th for state with a time of 1:38.41.

Qualifying eighth was the Redmond boys 400 freestyle relay team of Tsai, Smith, Tobish and Logan Noble, which had a time of 3:31.67.

Maich said she could make changes to the relay teams, if needed, to help swimmers prepare for other races.

Ridgeview’s Hucke returns to state, where he was part of two relay teams that earned top six finishes in 2016. This year, he qualified 10th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 51.52 seconds.

Maggiora qualified ninth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 58.26 seconds.

Hucke wants to cut a half second off his personal best time, while Maggiora wants to take a full second off his best.

“Whatever that gets me place-wise, overall, I’m OK with,” Hucke said.

This will be Hucke’s first time competing at state solo and the first time he will compete there without his brother, former Ridgeview star Owen Hucke.

“He’s been there before, he just knew what to do,” Hucke said. “I always had him to tell me what to do and what not to do, so this year will be a little different. This year, one of my good friends is going with me, so it won’t necessarily replace (Owen), but it will definitely be helpful.”

Many swimmers had to wait until the Oregon School Activities Association released the final statewide results the evening of Feb. 11, the day after the district meet, before the time comparisons were complete and they know if they’d made it to Gresham.

“I was really hoping I was going to make it, so, when I saw it, I was really excited,” Maggiora said. “Every day of practice really starts to pay off.”

Ridgeview coach Jeff Vallie was pleased with how his team finished at the district meet.

“Our district meet is probably the fastest district meet in the state, it’s not uncommon for kids to finish fourth or fifth in IMC and still make state,” he said. “I was real pleased, they trained hard.”

Trail will, once again, be the only Redmond girls representative. But, after missing several meets earlier this year with a knee injury, she could be ready for another strong finish.

Trail finished second at the district meet in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.19, which qualified her fifth at state.

Trail finished sixth at the district meet in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:02.73. That was good enough to qualify ninth at state because of the competitiveness of the IMC.

Trail finished fifth last season at state in both the 100 backstroke and butterfly, singlehandedly giving Redmond a ninth-place overall finish in the 12-team meet.

This year, Trail said she is working to be relaxed at the state meet.

“It’s easy to get stressed, but I’ve got to be more mentally prepared there and be relaxed,” she said.

Maich plans to bring some other Redmond girls team members to state, so Trail won’t have to prepare by herself.

Trail is pleased to at least have boys team members there this year, after being the Panthers only representative at state in 2016. She tries to give them advice.

“Shayne will be, like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so nervous,’” she said. “I say, don’t be nervous, it’s just another meet, just another swim.”

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman