Swimmers face tough competition

In their second meet of the season, the Outlaws competed against some of the strongest teams in the state. Summit and Redmond demonstrated how club swimming and double workouts Monday through Friday shape results.

State champion Summit High School brought their top swimmers and 6A Redmond High School showed off impressive depth and skill under the new leadership of Head Coach Kelsey Holmberg.

Redmond finished first in both the girls and boys events, and the battle between Madras and Sisters mirrored last week's results. The White Buffaloes beat the Outlaw boys' team and SHS girls beat Madras 72 to 39.

Michelle Young won the 100-yard backstroke (1:10.04) ahead of Redmond's Rita Cohen (1:11.98) and Outlaws freshman Codie Lagao (1:12.36). The 200-yard freestyle relay team was also quite competitive, with strong performances by Lagao, Samantha Williamson, Katie Stewart and Young, who had to give up a first-place finish to Redmond by 0.29 seconds.

The boys 200-yard freestyle relay with Jake Miller, Seth Flanders, Tyler Berg and Tyler Baldessari also finished in second place behind Redmond.

"Both girls and boys relays have to drop around six seconds to place in the top at districts this year," Coach Isolde Hedemark commented.

The Outlaws added two more second-place finishes to their accomplishments when Young, Stewart, Berg and Lagao finished the 400-yard freestyle relay in a time of 4:29.63 and the foursome of Baldessari, Brennan Miller, Jake Miller and Berg kept Redmond at bay.

The medley relay with Young, Berg, Stewart and Lagao finished third (2:10.88), well behind Redmond and Summit. The Outlaws' time is significantly slower than their 2010 district title time, 2:02.97.

Baldessari, Flanders, Miller and Berg had to settle for fourth place in the same event. Their time of 2:01.69 would not have made it into championship finals at districts last year.

On the JV side, the Outlaws recorded several top finishes. Morgan Duvenick finished first in the 100-yard freestyle followed by Cierra Tigard in the 50-yard butterfly and JT Harris in the 50-yard backstroke. The Outlaws travel to Sweet Home on December 16.