Outlaw swimmers win first competition in Stayton meet

The combined girls and boys Sisters High School swim team cruised to an overall first-place finish in a five-way meet at Stayton, Friday, December 5.

Setting the pace with a well swum medley relay, the foursome of Fe Pledger (backstroke 32.0), Tia Berg (breaststroke 39.2), Michelle Young (butterfly 29.6) and anchor, Courteney Satko (freestyle 27.1) kept their competition from Stayton, Cascade, Blanchet and Jefferson at bay and finished with a respectable first time of 2:07.9 (converted yard time). Valuable points toward the team score were earned by the fifth-place finish of the "B" relay with Hillary Johnson, Kathleen Greaney, Zoee Wavrin and Jordyn Valdez.

The boys followed suit and garnered the top two spots in the same event, with the Stayton Eagles in distant third. Holden Sellentin led the "A" relay with a good leg in the backstroke (30.2), followed by Drew Herron in the breaststroke (37.8), Tyler Baldessari in the butterfly (31.1) and Justin Duvenick in the freestyle (26.0). Their final time of 2:05.1 is a fine first attempt but certainly needs to be improved upon by every member of the foursome if they want to be competitive at Districts in February.

The "B" relay with Seth Flanders, Nick Luz, Billy Samson and Bryant Lasken were second, with a top time being achieved by Bryant Lasken who shaved off 0.5 seconds from his 2008 District time in the 50 freestyle.

Tia Berg and Hillary Johnson represented the Outlaws in the 200-meter freestyle event and finished second and fouth respectively. Bryant Lasken was fourth in the same race.

Freshmen Tyler Baldessari and Michelle Young gave everyone notice that they will be a force to be reckoned with when the season progresses. Both finished first in the Individual medley. Justin Duvenick was third.

Fe Pledger continued with the winning streak and finished first in the 50-meter freestyle event, ahead of top seed Jessie Wallace from Stayton. Pledger's converted yard time of 26.9 is an excellent starting time for the season. On the boys' side it was senior Patrick Young with the best time (26.8) to give Sisters a third place behind Cascade's Artie Selander and Stayton's Chris Purdy.

One of the most exciting races was undoubtedly the 100-meter butterfly battle between juniors Holden Sellentin and Justin Duvenick. Both swam a very competitive race for three lengths of the distance when a lack of stamina took its toll on both athletes. Duvenick managed to edge out leader Sellentin by two strokes at the touch pads. Inspite of the lackluster finish, their times were comparable with the top 10 at 2008 District Championships.

The girls "A" team added another first-place with their 200-meter freestyle relay, keeping top seed, the Stayton Eagles, and eleven other freestyle relays behind. Courteney Satko led the Outlaws with a decent 27.6 second leg, followed by Tia Berg (30.1), freshman Michelle Young (27.4) and anchor Fe Pledger (26.8). Their time of 1:51.9 was already 0.2 seconds faster than last year's relay time with Brittany Baldessari and Chelsea Flanders. First-place finisher in this event at last year's District Championships was Cascade with a time of 1:48.3. It is well within the Outlaws' reach to get there by the end of the season.

On the boys' side, the "A" relay battled in another nail biter for first place, only to give it up at the very end by a mere half second. Justin Duvenick led the group with an explosive start (26.8), followed by Drew Herron (31.7), Tyler Baldessari (27.6) and Holden Sellentin with a PR of 24.7, but they could not catch the Stayton Eagles this time.

The Outlaws took the next event, the 100-meter backstroke in stride, when Fe Pledger set the example with a victory and a slightly faster time than a year ago at the same time. Hillary Johnson finished second with a PR of 1:21.9.

Holden Sellentin and Tyler Baldessari took the girls' finishes to heart and accomplished the same with outstanding times for the start of the season. Sellentin's first place (PR 1:05.9) was already better than his finish at Districts last year and Baldessari's second place (1:08.2) puts him close to the top six finishers at the 2008 Championships.

Another first-place finish was in sight when Courteney Satko swam a perfect race in the 100-meter breaststroke, until Blanchet's Nikole Ottolia, sister of last year's State Champion, Andy Ottolia, came from behind and barely outtouched Satko by 0.14 seconds. Michelle Young was third.

Top finishers in the boys' breaststroke event were Nick Luz (3rd) and Drew Herron (4th). And, in the last relay of the meet, the boys pulled out another second-place when Bryant Lasken, Billy Sampson, Seth Flanders and Patrick Young swam several personal record times. Seth Flanders took eight seconds off his best time from last year's season and touched the pad in a time of 1:01.8.

The Outlaws travel to Sweet Home on December 18 for their next competition against Marist, Philomath and Sweet Home.