OAKDALE – The Ripon boys and girls varsity won the Valley Oak League swimming championships Saturday at Oakdale High and in doing so they nearly swept the relay races and set a new league record in the girls 400-yard freestyle relay.
Mallory Brubaker, Elizabeth Wenner, Amber Scheid and Chloe Winter set the new mark in the 400 free relay at 3:43.70, eclipsing the record set last year by Kimball of Tracy by better than a second. Noah Esenwein, Ty Wells, Maika West and Lucas Esenwein took the boys 400 free relay (3:25.18)
Scheid, Winter, Amy Bacay and Ashtyne Topie won the 200 medley relay (1:55.55)  In the 200 freestyle relay Topie, Brubaker, Elizabeth Wenner and Eleanor Tran won the girls (1:44.03) and Noah Esenwein, Wells, Conner Self and Lucas Esenwein won the boys with a new school record for the Indians at 1:31.94.
In addition to the relay wins, Wells won the 100 breast (1:01.65) and was second at 52.78 to Manteca’s Matthew Trejo in the 100 butterfly (52.71).
“Matthew Trejo is one of the hardest workers out there,” Wells said. “He’s my club teammate.”
“I knew he was going to come out and race me and I didn’t expect anything less from him. If anyone was going to beat me it was going to be him.”
Saturday was Wells’ last VOL meet as he will graduate and attend Arizona in the fall.
“This is kind of a bittersweet goodbye.” Wells said. “I’m sad that I won’t have another high school season but at the same time I am ready to move on to sections and college.”
Brubaker won the 500 freestyle (5:19.24).
“I think I am right about where I was last year,” Brubaker said. “And I am happy with that.”
Lucas Esenwein brought home the gold in the 50 freestyle (22.41) and 100 freestyle (49.47).
“I didn’t do as well today as I have in previous races,” Lucas Esenwein said of his 100 free. “I missed the first wall on the other side of the pool and sprinted to catch up.”
Weston Ranch’s Garrett Kmiec won the 100 back (58.47) and was second in the 50 freestyle (23.00)
 “It feels great,” Kmiec said. “I am really happy with my swim today because I hadn’t been doing so well.
“But I just suited up and I guess I was ready to race today.”
Sierra’s Nicholas Brink reached his goal in winning the 500 freestyle (5:03.69)
“My goal was to get under 5:05,” Brink said. “I got a 5:03.
“I want to get under 5 minutes for section.”
Winter won the 100 butterfly (1:02.20) and was second (2:22.05) to Sierra’s Megan Tolman in the 200 individual medley (2:15.75). Tolman also won the 100 breaststroke (1:07.53) in which Scheid was second (1:09.50).
Manteca’s Alyssa Trejo was second in the 500 freestyle (5:42.20).
“This felt pretty good,” Trejo said. A lot of training went into this.
“I improved my time.”