LODI – For the fourth time in four years, Ripon High’s Ty Wells will be going to the CIF State swimming championships as he helped his Indians win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III boys championship while the Ripon girls took second Saturday at Tokay High.
 “To end such a great season finishing like we did is just the icing on the cake for an awesome season,” Ripon coach Erik Zador said. “These are awesome kids and they have been phenomenal. I couldn’t be more proud and happy as a coach.
“This team has grown, especially with the multiple repeat championships in the Valley Oak League.”
Wells finished third in the 100-yard fly (49.87 seconds) and 100 breast (56.20) and was on the 10th place 400 free relay (3:19.16) with Lucas Esenwein, Noah Esenwein and Connor Self.
“I am one of the first Sac-Joaquin Section swimmers to go to state for all four years,” Wells said. “It’s been a wild ride with some interesting days of training but it has all been worth it.
“My coach told me my freshman year when I was deciding if I wanted to swim frosh-soph or varsity to swim varsity so I could achieve this goal and nobody could take it away from me.”
Lucas Esenwein posted a state consideration time with a seventh-place finish in the 50 free (21.56) and was 11th in the 100 free (48.10).
“I was a little tired from Friday’s races,” Esenwein said. “But I feel I did pretty well especially in the 50 free where I got consideration time for state. Overall I gave the best I had.
“Our team did really well. We kept progressing throughout the year and it feels great to be part of a program like that.”
Manteca’s Matt Trejo was seventh in the 100 fly (51.18).
“I didn’t do as well as I had hoped,” Trejo said. “But it’s a learning experience so next year I will be ready.”
In the frosh-soph 500 free Kai West was 12th (5:09.51) and Maika West was 15th (5:10.82)
Leading the Ripon girls was Mallory Brubaker who finished sixth in the 500 free with a state consideration time of 5:08.98. Needing a Top-3 finish to automatically qualify for the state championships, Brubaker was joined by Elizabeth Wenner, Chloe Winter, and Amber Scheid to finish fourth in the 400 free relay (3:40.05).
“It’s nice to have the consideration time,” Brubaker said. “But last year I was three seconds faster and I was half a second off from making state. There’s still a slim chance, so we’ll see what happens.
“Just to make it this far is a good feeling. It feels good to be here and swim and be here with my team – my family – and cheer everyone on.”
Brubaker, Wenner, Winter, and Scheid finished eighth in the 200 free relay (1:40.91) and Wenner finished 14th in the 50 free (24.85).
“It feels really good to be out here with my girls doing what we love,” Wenner said. “It’s the last high school meet for a lot of us.
“It’s good to leave it all out there and know we did the best we could.”
Sierra’s Meghan Tolman was eighth in the 100 breast (1:07.21).
“I dropped two seconds from Thursday so I think that is a really good accomplishment,” Tolman said. “I swim in honor of my brother Scott because he is the reason I started swimming so I just want to make him proud.”
Ripon placed 10th in the frosh-soph girls and was paced by Emma Ayers with 13th-place finishes in the 200 free (2:06.23)  and 500 free (5:37.27). Ayers was joined by Amy Bacay, Ashtyne Topie and Eleanor Tran to finish eighth in the 200 medley relay (1:56.95) and ninth in the 200 free relay (1:44.99).
The Ripon 400 free relay team of Madyson Valencia, Molly Burton, Kate Villegas, and Lauren McGowen finished 15th  (4:00.88)and Topie was ninth in the 50 free (24.87).
Ripon Christian’s Rylee Beidleman was first in the 50 free (24.59).