Swimmers splash into the new year

The Sisters High School swim teams broke into 2019 with solid performances at the Clemens Invitational, hosted by Philomath High School on Saturday, January 5.

The girls team was slightly short-handed during the Christmas break and competed only in individual events.

Laura Clem got things started for the team in the first individual event of the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 2:36.01, followed by Meredith Mandal's second-place finish in the 200 individual medley (2:28.03).

Brooke Robillard picked up a second-place of her own in the 50-yard freestyle (27.8) while Mandal came within a whisker of winning the 100-yard freestyle, clocking 1:01.59, just .03 behind the winner.

Clem came back with a fourth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 6:57.61 and Cambrie Leaver took sixth in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:25.87. Robillard placed third in very competitive 100-yard breast stroke in a time of 1:17.82.

Sisters tallied 150 total points to finish seventh among the eight teams competing in the meet. Salem Academy out-dueled the host Warriors 424 to 375 for the team title.

For the boys, Sam Mayes picked up third place in the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 24.53 and a very close fourth in the 100-yard 1:00.01. George Bates clocked 1:16.59 100-yard breast stroke.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Aaron Johnson, George Bates, Austin Heuberger and Mayes took fifth place with a time of 1:52.23 and in the 200-yard medley relay Felix Leahy, Heuberger, Mayes and Bates took sixth place in 2:14.09.

The boys team placed fifth with 125 points. Salem Academy dominated the competition, piling up 492 points to take the top spot.

Coach Bryn Singleton said, "The kids that could come swam really well, especially considering that we have to take quite a bit of time off during the holiday break due to lack of pool space."

She looks forward to the second half of the season which means getting back to some hard work as a full team.

"Next week, we'll start back to regular practice and the season will go fast from here on as we prepare for districts in February," she said. "Everyone is starting to figure out which races they'd like to swim at districts and we'll start focusing on each swimmer's individual races, as well as finalizing relay teams. It will be an exciting six weeks to come!"

The team returns to competition for a dual meet at Madras on Saturday,

January 12.