Outlaws swimmers win Bend meet

In their second competition of the season, the Outlaws competed exceptionally well against 5A Mountain View and Bend High School.

In this three-way meet, Sisters scored 220 points against Mountain View's 199 and the breakdown showed Sisters with 254 points against Bend's 78. The meet included varsity and junior varsity swimmers from all three teams and scoring included the top six placements in each event.

The girls' medley relay team "A" with Michelle Young, Tia Berg, Courteney Satko and Fe Pledger swam to a second place with a best time of 2:07.2 in a valiant race against Mountain View's flagship medley relay with 2008 State Champion in the 100-yard backstroke and Junior National swimmer, Kristyn Deckard.

Event 2, the boys' medley relay, was quite the victory for the Outlaws, as they battled second-place finisher, the Mountain View "A" team with seniors Robert Turner and Jake Parades, to the very end. Freshman Tyler Baldessari showed that his swimming future is bright and veteran relay team members Holden Sellentin, Justin Duvenick and Nick Luz showed their usual racing skills with time drops of more than three seconds.

Holden Sellentin won the 200-yard freestyle and freshman Michelle Young followed suit in the 200-yard Individual Medley with a best time of 2:37.3. In the same event, Tyler Baldessari, in a lap-by-lap battle with Mt. View senior Robert Turner, was out-touched by a mere 0.35 seconds. Baldessari's time of 2:26.61 was a season best by almost seven seconds.

Even though the girls' 50-yard freestyle event went to Mt. View's Kristyn Deckard, Fe Pledger, Courteney Satko and Hillary Johnson followed with outstanding swims for second, third and fourth places respectively.

Outlaw Patrick Young won the same event ahead of Billy Sampson, Drew Herron, Nick Luz and their Mt. View and Bend High School competition. All of the boys enjoyed significant time drops in this freestyle sprint.

Courteney Satko added another first-place finish with her impressive 100-yard freestyle in a season best of 1:01.8. Hillary Johnson was third and Jordyn Valdez fourth. On the boys' side, Patrick Young showed off his freestyle sprinting skills with a win and a best time of 58.8, followed by Justin Duvenick in a time of 1:01. Duvenick also finished second in the 100-yard butterfly with a PR of 1:08.3.

Seeded five seconds behind leader Mt. View, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Patrick Young, Baldessari, Duvenick and Sellentin raced to win their second relay of the evening and prevailed in style. All four swimmers had seven seconds of collective time drops to win in a time of 1:43.8. The girls added valuable points to the team win with a second place in the same event. Michelle Young, Johnson, Satko and Pledger finished in a time of 1:51.7 to Mt. View's 1:50.2.

Event 17 and 18, the 100-yard backstroke, went to the Outlaws on the boys' side with a battle between Holden Sellentin and Tyler Baldessari. Baldessari eventually out-touched Sellentin by 0.2 seconds. Mt. View and Bend finished in third, forth and fifth place. And on the girls' side, Michelle Young, in spite of a good race and a two-second time drop, succumbed to Mt. View's Kristen Fredericks by one hundredth of a second.

Nick Luz and Drew Herron went one-two in the 100-yard breaststroke and Tia Berg recorded a commendable time drop of three seconds for a runner-up placement in the same event.

And finally, to clinch the team victory, both 4x100-yard freestyle relays went to the Outlaws. Jordyn Valdez, Peggy Barrett, Tia Berg and Zoey Wavrin won for the girls and Seth Flanders, Bryant Lasken, Nick Luz and Billy Sampson finished first for the boys.

The Outlaws travel to South Albany Aquatic Center on January 24 for the Albany Sprint Invitational.