The  traditional photo op at  the covered bridge behind Sweet Home High School

In their first scheduled meet of the season, a complete Sisters High School swim team made a splash at the traditional Sweet Home Relay Meet December 5. Eighteen swimmers competed against strong and experienced competition from the Sweet Home Huskies, Stayton, Junction City and Marist and came home with several first and second place finishes.

Starting with the girls’ 200-yard Medley Relay, Andie Lesowske led the Outlaws in the backstroke leg, followed by freshman Jessie Swaner in a powerful breaststroke segment, veteran swimmer Kate Canja in an incredible 32.6 second butterfly and a good freestyle finish by Rachel Pilliod.

Their combined time of 2:29.4 barely missed third place but marks a six second improvement over last year’s medley relay time at the beginning of the season.

On the boys’ side the Outlaws rocked the pool at Sweet Home High School when they dismissed their competition and established an incredible starting point for a very competitive medley relay team. Casey Meudt exploded off the wall in the backstroke and clocked a 31.4 second leg, four seconds faster than last year at the same time. Morgan Mansker, still not up to speed due to a soccer related knee injury, kept the lead over Marist and finished in 36.4 seconds and a four second drop from his previous relay time. Justin Hedemark expanded the lead over Marist and Sweet Home with a butterfly segment of 26.6 and Kyle Whipps brought the freestyle home in 25.9, better than last year’s District Championship finish. The final time of 2:00.39 put the Outlaws in first place and 14 seconds ahead of runner-up Marist. The time of 2:00.39 is also a new Sisters High School record and replaces the old mark of 2:02.37 which was set by Kevin Carlsmith, Scott Schreiner, Justin Hedemark and Lee Pyke in 2002-03. 

The girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay with legs of 50-100-200- and 50 yards  was contested  by newcomer Jillian McConville, Katlyn Diener, Kate Canja and novice Aubyn Geser. Though new to competitive swimming, McConville and Geser put out good sprints to frame their team mates’ longer segments and contributed with good starts to a third place finish behind Sweet Home and Marist.

Brandon Kinzie sent the Outlaws off with a 31.3 second sprint, followed by Kyle Whipps in 1:04 for the 100 yard freestyle segment, Justin Hedemark in 2:12 for the 200 yards and anchor  Casey Meudt in 29.5. Their combined effort showed good season opening times and put them into a solid second place.

Only the girls were entered in the next event, the 4x100 Medley relay, in which each swimmer must compete in one length of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Kate Canja and Jessie Swaner set promising first marks with times of 1:22.5 and 1:24.1 respectively and a reliable performance in all four strokes.

Rikki Glick led the pack In the 200 yard freestyle relay , followed by Måren Burck, Kalyn Brink and Bree White. The girls finished third behind Sweet Home and Junction City while the boys achieved a second place behind freestyle powerhouse Sweet Home. Swimming on the boys’ relay were Casey Pyke, Nathan Teeny, Morgan Mansker and Brandon Kinzie.

The Outlaws did not feature teams for the 200 yards butterfly relay.

Another victory for the boys came in the next event, the 200 yard backstroke relay. Justin Hedemark led the group with a 29.3, followed by first year swimmer Brandon Kinzie and great segments by resident backstrokers Casey Pyke and Casey Meudt. The Outlaws clocked a 2:10.55 for their first place finish. Sweet Home and Stayton followed with times of 2:16.39 and 2:30.75 respectively. The girls were disqualified in this event for an illegal turn.

The second to last event showed stellar performances by both girls’ and boys’ teams. However, both were narrowly defeated by Junction City and Sweet Home. Swimming her fourth event of the day,  Kate Canja dove off the blocks first, setting a fast pace for the Outlaws. Kalyn Brink, Bree White and Jessie Swaner followed suit but were outtouched at the finish. The girls garnered second place with a time of 2:56.43 to Junction City’s 2:56.31

On the boys’ side Hedemark, Mansker, Whipps and Meudt swam very consistent 36 high or 37 low races but succumbed in the end to Sweet Home by 1.3 seconds. Junction City, Marist and Stayton were disqualified in this event. The breaststroke is considered the technically most difficult stroke.

Finishing the first meet of the 2003-04 season, both girls and boys had their stamina tested in the last event of the evening, the 4x100 freestyle. “Occasionally it is good to eat some humble pie”, coach Hedemark commented. “We definitely have some distance training to do.”