Boys break school record in pool

Having barely squeaked into the 12 qualifying slots in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays at state championships, the Outlaws boys made their move during preliminaries at State Swimming Championships at Mt. Hood Community College on February 19.

Seeded 10th for prelims, Holden Sellentin and Tyler Baldessari swam the only individual Outlaws boys qualifying events, the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke respectively. Sellentin shaved 0.25 seconds off and ended up 7th overall with a time of 23.68.

Colin Eaton, a sophomore from Portland Lutheran, set a new 4A state record in a blistering time of 21.27, followed by Sweet Home's Kieran Schaefer (22.58) in second place. Bronze went to North Bend's Matt Johnson (22.76) with the rest of medal positions in the 23-plus-second range.

Tyler Baldessari tied for 10th place (1:02.03) with Dylan Christensen from North Marion. Isaac Hewitt from Corbett won the event with a new state record and All American time of 51.86.

In their first of two attempts to improve upon their district relay times and 12th seeds in prelims, the foursome of Jake Miller (24.68), Billy Sampson (25.40), Justin Duvenick (25.24) and Holden Sellentin (23.62) were successful and tied for seventh place with Astoria in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:38.94.

A swim-off between the Outlaws and the Fishermen put Astoria in seventh and the Outlaws in eighth place. Only the top six finishers advanced to finals the next day.

The North Bend Bulldogs, with James Verger (24.01), Will Winfield (23.81), Matt Johnson (22.31) and Kevin Waller (21.82) won this prelim relay in an incredible time of 1:31.95, putting them into first position for finals.

Even though the Outlaws also came up short to swim for medals in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the squad with Jake Miller (56.46), Justin Duvenick (55.19), Tyler Baldessari (55.80) and Holden Sellentin (52.44) broke the Sisters High School record with a massive time drop from 3:43.95 to 3:39.89, into ninth place overall.

Sweet Home, with Jayce Calhoon, Michael Simmons, Zach Pearce and Kieran Schaefer advanced to finals in the top spot and won the event with a new state record of 3:18.59.

Sweet Home successfully defended its men's team title with 83 points, ahead of North Bend (55), Cottage Grove (47) and Junction City (22).