Outlaws swimmers win meet in Albany pool

In their first competition with the rest of the 10 District 3 teams, the Outlaws measured their own strengths as well as those of their opponents in the non-scoring Albany Sprint Invitational on January 24.

Swimming in a shortened format, the Outlaws were allowed three entries per event and took full advantage of the opportunity to test the District Championship facility.

The girls' 200-yard medley relay "A" with Michelle Young, Tia Berg, Courteney Satko and Felicia Pledger led the Outlaws with a first-place finish in Event 1.

Event 2, the 200-yard medley relay of the boys went to Central with a foursome of determined seniors, followed by perennial powerhouse Sweet Home (+0.27 seconds), Philomath and Marist. Outlaws Holden Sellentin, Nick Luz, Justin Duvenick and Patrick Young bettered their time by 0.6 seconds from a week ago at the Bend meet.

Freshman Michelle Young won her heat in the 100-yard Individual Medley and finished third overall behind Marist's Mary Cummings, last year's fourth-place finisher in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke at State Championships, and Marist's Lauren Nelson. Nelson won the event 1/100th of a second ahead of her teammate.

Event 7, the 50-yard freestyle sprint went to the Outlaws. Felicia Pledger, coming of a lengthy illness, finished first ahead of 30 other freestylers. Junior varsity swimmer Dakota Bristow was 13th with a time drop of over one second.

No varsity swimmers were entered on the boys' side for the 50-yard sprint. Jake Miller and Joey Schlatter represented the Outlaws and they finished in 9th and 14th place. Miller recorded an impressive PR of 29.9 seconds (-2.3 seconds). Schlatter's time was an improvement from the meet in Bend by 0.3 seconds.

Zoey Wavrin was the top finisher of the Outlaws in the 50-yard butterfly event. She won her heat and places seventh overall with a PR of 35.2 seconds. On the boys' side, Justin Duvenick missed second place by a margin of 0.03 seconds.

Last year's silver medalist in the 100-yard butterfly at State Championships, Marist's Jacob Deines, won the event and his teammate Colton Hansen (28.78) beat out Duvenick (28.81) by a fingernail. Bryant Lasken finished 16th with a personal best.

Event 11 went to the Outlaws again when Courteney Satko exploded off the blocks and was never threatened during the 100-yard freestyle sprint. Her time of 59.57 was her best of the season. Holden Sellentin followed suit with a runner-up finish and a personal best by more than four seconds. Philomath's senior, Chris Leonard, won the event 1.7 seconds ahead of Sellentin. Patrick Young was sixth, also with a personal best.

Hillary Johnson was the top finisher for the Outlaws in the 50-yard backstroke event. She won her heat and finished with a PR (-1.75 seconds) in fifth place. Seth Flanders and Drew Herron battled it out in the same event, finishing sixth and seventh respectively with a differential of 0.03 seconds.

Tia Berg finished sixth as the top Outlaw contender in the 50-yard breaststroke and Nick Luz was 8th in the same event and distance.

Event 19 was the final win for the Outlaws when Satko, Johnson, Young and Pledger took on their competition in the 200-yard freestyle relay and finished 2.5 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Stayton. Satko had the fastest lead-off leg and started the Outlaws with a 26.8, followed by Johnson's PR of 29.2, Young's 26.9 and Pledger's 27.6.

Patrick Young led the boys' 200-yard freestyle relay with a 26.4, followed by Billy Sampson (27.7), Justin Duvenick (25.6) and anchor Holden Sellentin with a PR of 24.04 to an overall second place behind Central's senior foursome of Pryce, Wilson, Hill and Tolzmann.

The Outlaws travel to Mollala on Wednesday and to Sweet Home on Friday.