Swimmers win events and break record

In their second-to-last meet before the 2008 district championships, Outlaw swimmers competed on Friday, January 18 against Cascade, Stayton and Mollala in a fast run competition in the community pool at Stayton.

In their first attempt to break the 400-yard freestyle relay record, the foursome of Brittany Baldessari, Tia Berg, Felicia Pledger and Courteney Satko shattered the old mark set in 1998 by Hilary Hedemark, Rachel Kemp, Leah Jensen and Meghan Timms. Their time of 4:40.27 was replaced with a new best time of 4:13.00.

Cascade's "A" team, with 2007 state champion in two events Crystal Kibby and freestyle expert Dayna Young, was the only relay that beat the Outlaws.

Brian Greaney easily defeated second seed Justin Curran in the 200-meter freestyle event. Greaney finished first with a time of 2:02.6.

Freshman Tia Berg added another first place finish to the results with her outstanding effort in the 200-meter individual medley. Her converted yard time of 2:37.0 is already very close to the top six finishers of last year's district finals.

In the freestyle sprint Courteney Satko raced to a first place, beating one of the standard freestyle rivals, Dayna Young. Satko's converted yard time of 27.2 was 0.14 seconds faster than Young's. Hilary Johnson was fifth in 29.9, and Chelsea Flanders was sixth in a time of 30.3 seconds.

Holden Sellentin won another first place for the Outlaws in his impressive race against Cascade's junior Artie Selander. Sellentin touched the pad in 26.6 seconds, 0.19 seconds ahead of the Cougar. Justin Duvenick finished fifth (27.5), and Allan Schaad sixth (27.6).

Brian Greaney easily won the 100-meter backstroke event.

On the girls' side top breaststroke swimmer for the Outlaws, Chelsea Flanders, won first place with a personal best by two seconds. Flanders swam an outstanding race against Cascade's Alyssa Brokaw. Chelsea's converted yard time of 1:22.9 is already very close to the sixth fastest time at Districts in 2007.

Felicia Pledger, two sport athlete who divides her time between competitive volleyball and swimming, consistently shows that she can be in the top. She finished second in the 100-meter freestyle, out-touched by Dayna Young in 0.16 seconds, and second in the 100-meter backstroke, beaten by Cascade's Crystal Kibby. Courteney Satko was third in the freestyle event.

The last top finish for the girls was the 200-meter freestyle relay with Baldessari, Berg, Pledger and Satko. The girls swam an outstanding race, and considering that Baldessari was under the weather with symptoms of the stomach flu, their final converted yard time of 1:52.0 was well in the top six at last year's districts.