A year ago Evan Wilson battled through pneumonia to place 16th in the 200 individual medley at the 4A state swimming and diving championships.

On Saturday, Wilson showed what he can do on a big stage when healthy.

The Oak Harbor junior finished fourth in the 500 freestyle with a personal best 4:45.63 and 11th in the 200 IM with a season-best 2:00.35.

“He had good swims,” OHHS head coach Erika Miller said. “He said he felt like he was going really fast out there.”

Wilson’s 500 free time placed him 16 seconds behind first place finisher, Carl Jones of Walla Walla. It’s a significant time difference, but Miller said Wilson already has his eyes on next year’s state meet when he and Jones will both be seniors.

“Evan was like ‘next year I’ll be there with him,’” she said.

Wilson’s 200 IM time wasn’t a personal record, but it was his fastest race outside of club competition. The mark was over six seconds faster than his 16th place finish as a sophomore.

The Wildcats’ other individual competitors, freshman John Hu and junior Cameron Spence just missed moving out of Friday’s prelims into Saturday’s finals. A 16th place or higher finish was needed in the prelims to move on — both OHHS swimmers finished in 17th.

Hu swam to a 57.97 in the 100 backstroke, just fourth-hundreths of a second behind the next fastest finisher.

Spence swam to a 55.38 in the 100 butterfly, five-hundreths of a second behind the 16th place finisher.

Both state prelim times were slower than their final district times.

“If they would have done what they did at districts they would have made it,” Miller said. “I think they were a little tired, they also said they were a little nervous.”

Along with the 21 individual points from Wilson’s top finishes, two of Oak Harbor’s three relays also earned team points, providing the team 29 total points and a 25th place finish.

The 200 medley relay of Hu, Wilson, Spence and senior Brian Hall grabbed 15th with a time of 1:45.55. The 400 free relay, composed of the same members, finished 15th with a mark of 3:23.19.

Western Conference North rival Snohomish won the 4A meet with 242 points. Miller said she was pleased to see a fellow WesCo North team succeed.

“It was nice to see one of our WesCo schools win it all,” she said. “Our guys really got behind them.”

League rival Lake Stevens also finished ahead of Oak Harbor in 19th place with 37 points. Miller was pleased, however, to finish ahead of Marsyville-Pilchuck, who beat OHHS in the regular season and district meet. The Tomahawks finished the state meet in 39th place with just 14 points.

•Note: Oak Harbor junior Evan Wilson and senior Brian Hall were invited to represent Washington state in a Down Under Swim in Australia. Top high school swimmers from each state were invited to take part in the event this summer.