Canby’s Kali Mull and Quincy Taliaferro entered rarified air on Saturday, Feb. 17, at the OSAA 5A swimming state championships at the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center, as the two became just the second and third individuals in program history to reign atop the state.
Their performances bolstered Canby as the team totaled 48 points to finish second behind Bend.
“Our goal was to get a person in every event, which we did, and then see how many we could get back for the second day. And then see how well we could do,” Canby head coach Eric Laitinen said. “I didn’t really have a team expectation. I was hoping to get top five actually. And then when it started unfolding, it looked like it was going to be better than that.”
Mull’s state title came in the 200-yard freestyle as she clocked in at 1 minute, 53.66 seconds, edging Summit’s Adeline Bennet by 0.67, while Taliaferro swam her way to a four-second victory in the 500 free in a time of 5:07.13.
“It feels kind of surreal because it’s definitely been a goal all four years,” Mull said. “The last 50 (yards) was really hard but what was going through my mind the whole time was how hard I worked up to this point.”