Outlaw is state champ

Hilary Hedemark stroked to two individual Class 3A titles at the Oregon High School Swimming Championships at the Osborne Aquatic Center in Corvallis, February 20-21.

Hedemark also set a new state record, qualifying for the finals in the 200-yard individual medley with a new high school record of 2:13.88.

She finished first overall with a time of 2:13.97 taking down Valley Catholic Melissa Beenen's record of 2:17.79.

During prelims in her second individual event, Hedemark came within .03 seconds of breaking Seaside swimmer Shara Ford's 100-yard backstroke record of 1:01.08 which she established last year at the state championships.

Hedemark's time of 1:01.11 qualified her as the lead going into finals. Pursued to the finish by Marist competitor and 100-yard butterfly runner up Kristin Quirke, Hedemark finished in 1:01.13, landing another gold medal for the Outlaws.

The relay team of Hilary Hedemark, Meghann Timms, Rachel Kemp and Shanna Timms, seeded seventh in the preliminaries, ousted the Baker medley relay team with a personal-record performance by each member.

Hilary Hedemark led off with a personal best of 28.8 in the backstroke, followed by Meghann Timms with a 37.7 in the breaststroke, Rachel Kemp had a 30.6 second 50-yard butterfly leg and Shanna Timms as anchor, swam for a 29.9 second time in the freestyle.

All four girls had to perform at a personal record level to achieve a 2:07.05 and qualify for finals the next day.

They finished sixth overall, two positions better than last year's state result in the same event.