Swimmers finish second in Sweet Home

In their last meet before district championships, both girls and boys squads faced two of their toughest teams to beat.

Sweet Home's Cougars easily won the men's events with 152 points to the Outlaws' 85 points, and Stayton's Eagles edged out Sisters High School by 20. Several disqualifications for the Outlaws contributed to the point differential.

However, many personal records were set in relay and individual events. The girls medley "A" relay with Katie Stewart (backstroke), Tia Berg (breaststroke), Michelle Young (butterfly) and Samantha Williamson (freestyle) battled to a first-place over Sweet Home's top foursome. The Outlaws' final time of 2:07.12 was a best this season.

Michelle Young added another first-place in the 100-yard butterfly race (1:06.00) just 0.20 seconds ahead of second-place Sweet Home.

Samantha Williamson edged out Stayton's Emma Englehart for a first-place in the 100-yard freestyle.

Katie Stewart, Tia Berg, and Codie Lagao added valuable team points with their second-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley (2:29.2), 50-yard freestyle (29.69) and 100-yard backstroke (1:15.01) respectively. Geneieve MacKenzie was third in the 50-yard freestyle with 30.4 seconds.

The girls also added a second-place in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:53.1) with Katie Stewart (28.3), Tia Berg (29.7), Sam Williamson (28.3) and anchor Michelle Young (26.8), being out-touched by Stayton's "A" relay by 0.43 seconds. The Outlaws' "B" team with Geneieve MacKenzie, Marcie Calavan, Cierra Tigard and Codie Lagao finished a respectable second.

The last event of the evening, the 400-yard freestyle relay, went to Sweet Home as well. Stewart led off with a time of 1:04.7, followed by Tia Berg (1:05.6), Sam Williamson (1:02.1) and Michelle Young (1:00). Their combined time of 4:12.3 was about two seconds faster than Stayton's "A" team.

On the boys side, the most exciting relay was the 200-yard freestyle, when Tyler Baldessari, Tyler Berg, Seth Flanders and Jake Miller held the freestyle powerhouse of Sweet Home at bay by a mere 0.37 seconds.

Baldessari led with a 25.28 seconds, followed by Tyler Berg (25.4), Seth Flanders (25.5) and Jake Miller (25.2) for a combined time of 1:41.38, just 0.37 seconds ahead of freestyle expert Sweet Home.

The boys added a second-place in the 200-yard medley relay and posted a best time in the process. Tyler Baldessari led in the backstroke (28.6), followed by his brother Ian (breaststroke 34.6). Jake Miller swam the butterfly and Tyler Berg was outstanding anchor (25.8) in the freestyle for an overall best time of 1:58.84.

The boys earned another second place in the 400-yard freestyle relay, when two JV swimmers (JT Harris, 1:01.8 and Austin Williams, 1:07.0) helped two varsity swimmers (Tyler Berg, 57.2 and Jake Miller, 58.2) to a decent finish behind the Sweet Home "A" team but well ahead of the Sweet Home "B" squad.

Individually, top finishes for the Outlaws boys included Tyler Baldessari's second-place in the 50-yard freestyle (24.92) and his second-place in the 100-yard backstroke (PR 1:01.58). Tyler Berg added another second-place with his PR performance in the 500-yard freestyle (5:45.81).

Some good third-place finishes were earned by Jake Miller in the 50-yard freestyle (25.08), Seth Flanders in the 100-yard freestyle (1:00.09), Brennan Miller in the 100-yard backstroke (PR 1:07.45) and Ian Baldessari in the 100-yard breaststroke (PR 1:16.42).

The Outlaws travel to district championships in Albany on February 11-12.