Girls win swim meet and break Sisters High School record

In their second-to-last meet before District Championships, the foursome of Courteney Satko, Hillary Johnson, Felicia Pledger and Michelle Young finished the competition against Sweet Home and Stayton with a decisive win in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the process, the girls replaced the previous Sisters High School record (4:13.0) set by Brittany Baldessari, Tia Berg, Courteney Satko and Felicia Pledger with a time of 4:12.04. The Sweet Home "A" team was second with a time of 4:36.85.

The Outlaw girls won the competition in spite of two unfilled events.

The Outlaw boys, without two of their top swimmers, barely missed a second-place finish in their last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay when the Sweet Home "B" team out-touched them by a mere 0.6 seconds. Justin Duvenick opened with a good time of 1:01, followed by Billy Sampson (PR 1:05.8), Seth Flanders (PR 1:05.5) and Patrick Young (PR 58.3). Sweet Home's "A" team won convincingly with a time of 3:45.09.

The top Outlaw medley relay team with Michelle Young, Courteney Satko, Tia Berg and Felicia Pledger started the competition with a win in event one. Sisters finished with a time of 2:06.7, ahead of Stayton's and Sweet Home's relays. The Outlaws "B" relay with Johnson, Kathleen Greaney, Wavrin and Valdez were fourth.

The boys' 200-yard medley relay team tried again to catch up with one of the Huskies' top combos and in spite of a valiant effort the Outlaws were 0.4 seconds short to get into third place.

Top Outlaw finishers in the 200-yard freestyle were Peggy Barrett, Justin Duvenick and Drew Herron. All three collected valuable points for the team.

Events 5 and 6, the 200-yard Individual Medley went to the Outlaws on both the girls' and the boys' side. Michelle Young and Tia Berg were second and third, while Seth Flanders and Billy Sampson finished third and fourth in the competition.

Courteney Satko and Felicia Pledger went one and two in the short freestyle sprint, followed by Stayton's top 50-yard freestyler, Jessie Wallace. Hillary Johnson came in fourth with a PR of 28.98. Satko's time of 26.56 was her silver medal finish time at last year's District Championships and was the 6th fastest in the state.

Patrick Young (25.85), at the moment the Outlaws' fastest freestyle sprinter, could not penetrate the Sweet Home and Stayton phalanx. The Huskies' Kieran Schaefer, last year's state silver medal winner in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle won the event in 23.53 seconds, followed by Stayton's Chris Purdy (25.06) and Sweet Home's Mike Pearce (25.56).

The Outlaws reversed the outcome in the next event, the 100-yard freestyle. Courteney Satko (58.73) easily won this sprint ahead of two Stayton swimmers and Sweet Home's senior, Faith Helfrich. Hillary Johnson was fifth.

Fe Pledger continued with a win in the 100-yard backstroke event with a best time (1:10.3) for the season. Jordyn Valdez finished fifth. Patrick Young competed in the same event and was defeated only by Jayce Calhoon, last year's District and State Champion in the 100-yard backstroke.

Tia Berg (1:22.7) came within a second and a half of winning the 100-yard breaststroke. Sweet Home's Samantha Webb kept a more powerful glide to touch the wall just ahead of Berg. Peggy Barrett was fifth and Nick Luz and Drew Herron battled it out to finish within half of a second of each other.

Justin Duvenick and Nick Luz were the only Outlaws competing in the 100-yard butterfly and they finished third and fifth respectively.

On the girls' side, the 200-yard freestyle relay went to Stayton who put up their "A" combination very successfully. The Eagles won with a time of 1.56.65. The Outlaws' "B" relay with Jordyn Valdez, Peggy Barrett, Tia Berg and Zoey Wavrin kept Sweet Home and Stayton "B" at bay and finished with a time of 2:06.98. Sisters "C" relay with Kathleen Greaney, Chloe Stein, Clare Greaney and Dakota Bristow was 5th. The boys' "B" relay with Bryant Lasken (27.8), Nick Luz (PR 27.5), Jake Miller (28.3) and Allan Schaad (27.3) raced an exceptional 200-yard freestyle relay which put them into fourth place behind Sweet Home and Stayton.

The Outlaws travel to Stayton on Tuesday, February 3 for their last competition before District Championships in Albany, February 13 and 14.