![Reaching out. Christopher Lesh, student at Central Catholic High School, serves ice cream during the event on March 2, 2025, at the Portland waterfront. Central Catholic was just one of the schools that sent student volunteers out to cook, prepare, dish, and serve food. Interact club’s co-president Rachel Gerber, junior, plated the food during the event. “I like how direct the contact is,” Gerber said. “You’re there [and] you’re just doing something good. It’s simple, it’s easy, you can feel good about it.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/interact-1-edited-1200x744.jpg)
![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
The undefeated womens swim team concluded the end of their regular season on Jan. 30. Winning their last meet 88—82 against Oregon City, the womens team managed a 6—0 record heading into districts.
Danika Lambert, senior, has been swimming for the team for three years and is now a captain. She believes that this feat was an effort from both JV and varsity.
“A lot of people have been putting in the work. Even though I might not go to some practices, what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen based on results, even our JV swimmers have been putting up a lot of points and I think it’s been going great,” Lambert said. “One meet [against] Lakeridge, both teams didn’t have their main swimmers so it was basically up to our JV teams to put in the work, and they did it. They held onto that win, and here we are undefeated.”
The swim team is led by three coaches, including Tom Weltcheck, Kim Hay, and David Hay, who all coach both the womens and mens JV and varsity swim teams. Emi Uchishiba-Hall, junior, has been swimming the 100-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard butterfly for the team this season.
“The JV swimmers are more spirited than the varsity swimmers because a lot of the club swimmers don’t take high school meets seriously. It’s just a totally different thing than club meets, so it’s really hard to get into the racing mindset,” Uchishiba-Hall said. “But for JV swimmers, this is a real meet and this is something where they’re trying to improve their times, and they’re trying to get better themselves. So they definitely have more of that competitive drive than like a club swimmer would have at a high school meet.”
On Feb. 14, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., both swim teams headed to districts at Newberg where the top 18 individual swimmers across all races moved on to the state competition. For the relays, they must meet the required time to qualify.
“It just feels different. Honestly, I think for me it’s a little different for everyone else. It’s my last year, and I kind of wanted to leave on a good note,” Lambert said. “I think we could [win] as a team. I have a different point of view this time, but I think everyone, I think especially our coach, has a different point of view on it.”
The womens swim team ended up placing second at districts with 319 points, while the mens team finished fourth with 275 points.
