Outlaws swimmers test 5A and 6A waters

In their first 25-meter competition of the season, the Outlaws faced stiff competition from Redmond, Bend, Mt. View, Henley, Madras and Lebanon.

On January 9, JV and Varsity swimmers participated in the 2010 Redmond High School (RHS) Jay Rowan Invitational. The meet honors the late Jay Rowan, former RHS swimmer who led the Panthers to several state championship appearances.

The Outlaws varsity squad was neither intimidated by the 25-meter facility nor by the huge number of competitors. Freshman Katie Stewart led Sisters with a first-place in the 200-meter individual medley, beating Mountain View's medley specialist, Kaitlyn Deckard, by more than two seconds.

The girls 200-meter medley relay was also a success for the foursome of Michelle Young, Tia Berg, Katie Stewart and Courteney Satko who swam to a second-place finish among 13 relays. The converted time of the Outlaws, 2:06.8, brings the girls within 2.8 seconds of their 2009 state championship time.

The boys "A" 200-meter medley relay added a good third-place finish behind Redmond and Bend. Tyler Baldessari led with a 31.8 -second backstroke leg, followed by Nick Luz in the breaststroke (34.2), Justin Duvenick in the butterfly (28.5) and anchor Holden Sellentin in the freestyle (23.7).

Their total converted yard time of 1:58.8 brings the boys to within two seconds of the fifth-place time at the 2009 state championship prelims.

"If the boys want to represent Sisters on the podium at state championships this year, they have to drop at least half a second per swimmer," said Coach Isolde Hedemark.

The Outlaws added four more second-place finishes in the relays to their overall success. The girls "A" 200-meter freestyle team, with Young (27.2), Berg (29.2), Stewart (28.4) and Satko (26.5), kept Henley and nine other relays at bay. Their combined time of 1:51.3 is about three seconds off last year's finish at state championships.

"With intense training, we should be there at district championship time," Coach Hedemark said.

Anchor Holden Sellentin swam the fastest leg (23.9) in the "A" 200-meter freestyle relay. Baldessari started (26.3), followed by Jake Miller (26.5), Justin Duvenick (25.3) and Sellentin. Their combined time of 1:41.9 would have put them in ninth place at state last year. A time of 1:37 could possibly be a state finals and medals spot.

Both "B" relays finished in fourth place. Hillary Johnson, Karah Herr, Peggy Barrett and Sam Williamson swam good segments, with JV swimmer Williamson anchoring with the fastest split.

Lasken, Flanders, Sampson and Luz won their heat in the 200-meter freestyle relay. Seth Flanders swam the fastest leg in a time of 26.8 seconds.

The last runner-up finish by both the girls and boys was the 400-meter freestyle relay. The girls finished in a nail-biter race 0.13 seconds ahead of Bend's "A" team. Young (1:04.6) battled Bend's senior Kylee Manning (1:02.4), followed by Hillary Johnson (1:08.6) against Bend's Jennifer Tornay (1:02.2) before Katie Stewart started to catch up with an impressive time of 1:03.7 and Outlaw senior Courteney Satko showed her anchor expertise and out-touched the Bend team at the wall.

Satko's time of 59.0 is just one second shy of her 2009 state prelim time of 58.01 in the 100-yard freestyle. The Outlaws' combined time of 4:17.3 would have qualified for last year's state championships as well.

The boys were only beaten by a very strong Bend relay in the same event. Holden Sellentin again anchored the relay with the fastest time of 55.4 seconds. Baldessari (57.9), Flanders (1:01.3) and Duvenick (58.5) made up the rest of the 400-meter freestyle relay.

In individual events, the Outlaws were right in the mix of all other 5A schools and the 6A Redmond host. Holden Sellentin swam a solid 2:04.6 in the 200-meter freestyle and Tyler Baldessari was third (2:26.4) in the 200-meter individual medley. The sixth-fastest time at last year's District Championships was 2:24.17.

Hillary Johnson added another fourth-place in the 50-meter freestyle, Seth Flanders in the 100-meter freestyle, freshman Tyler Berg in the 400-meter freestyle and Michelle Young in the 100-meter backstroke.

The next meet takes Sisters to Stayton on January 13.