In his last season, Kellen Dickman is finally getting his opportunity to compete at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.

Dickman won two Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 championships on Sunday at Washingtonville High School, and his win in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.34 is sending him to Ithaca College on March 5 for the state championships.

Dickman was happy with his time in the 100-yard butterfly. He also won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:02.64.

“Now that I definitely made states, it’s kind of like utter relief going into sections,” Dickman said. “Now I can focus on more of the swims itself, instead of trying to qualify at the last minute.”

He’s almost there in the breaststroke, as he missed the state qualifying time of 1:01.20 by more than a second. He will need to drop a second off his season-best 1:02.19 to qualify.

“My 100 breast was a good swim, but it wasn’t really what I was hoping for,” Dickman said. “I know what I need to work on, and I know what I can do at the sections. So, hopefully, I’ll come out with two more wins there.”

Pine Bush’s Tomek Oakes, a sophomore, also won two events, climbing to the top of the mountain, after spending the last three years chasing the top swimmers.

He got the Bushmen, who finished second overall, off to a good start, with a victory in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 2:04.71, about 4 seconds off the state qualifying time.

He also won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.32, less than 2 seconds off the state mark.

“It feels great,” Oakes said. “My 100, I barely won that, to be honest. My best buddy was next to me. You’re best buddies out of the water, but when you go into the water it’s race mode.”

It was a good day, not only for Oakes, but for the Bushmen as a whole as they finished second place with 463 points, 32 points behind the first-place Washingtonville Wizards.

The Bushmen led meet by one point after Oakes’ win in the 100-yard freestyle, but the Wizards took control of the meet after the 500-yard freestyle.

“That’s just motivation for next time,” Oakes said. “I feel like everyone did their job that they had to do. A bunch of new guys made sections, a bunch of new guys who never swam before right out of middle school, they did amazing today.”

The Bushmen entered the day in fifth place after Kaeden Fisher finished fourth in diving with an 11-dive score of 424.15 on Thursday. He was slightly less than 26 points short of qualifying for states.

The Bushmen also finished second in all three relays and placed their second team in the top 8 in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays.They nudged the Vikings in both relays by fractions of a second.

“It was nerve-wracking,” Dickman said. “They touched us in the end, but it was a good race. Hats off to them on their part, but it was just a hard race.”

Team results: 1. Washingtonville - 495; 2. Pine Bush - 463; 3. Warwick - 326; 4. Minisink Valley - 308; 5. Valley Central - 254; 6. Goshen - 209; 7. Middletown - 153; 8. S.S. Seward - 9.
200-yard medley relay: 2. Pine Bush (Joshua Gallagher, Dominic Licardi, Blaze Devlin, Andrew Donaldson) - 1:50.30; 9. Pine Bush (Liam Blackwell, Daniel Hufcut, Jackson Schultz, Jack Vuksanovich) - 1:58.68.
200-yard freestyle: 2. Charles Hufcut (PB) - 1:52.75; 5. Thomas Grabinski (VC) - 1:55.53; 12. Jayden McCord (PB) - 2:06.66; 13. Noah Storaska (VC) - 2:10.49; 14. Patrick Primavera (VC) - 2:12.19.