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During their last
meet before District Championships, the Outlaws faced their top
rivals Sweet Home, Philomath, Cascade, Marist and Blanchet during
the Pre-District Sprint Invitational at the South Albany High
School pool, January 27.
Severely reduced
ranks in both the girls’ and boys’ teams battled individually and
in relays to top places and personal bests.
Brian
Greaney and
Felicia Pledger
swam to first and second place finishes in
the 100 yard freestyles with times of 55.2 and 58.2 seconds
respectively. Pledger
dropped a second off her best time this season and was edged out
only by Blanchet’s Marie Miner.
Greaney kept Sweet Home’s
Jonathan Lemar at bay with a 1.5 second lead.
Both swimmers
repeated their outstanding races in two more sprints.
Pledger
finished 0.5 seconds behind Cascade’s Crystal Kibby in the 50
yards freestyle race and Greaney
won the 50 yards backstroke ahead of freshman Kieran Schaefer of
Sweet Home.
Due to the absence
of key swimmers, some of the boys’ and girls’ relays were
restructured or had to be eliminated from the competition. The
remaining swims brought out the best in most athletes and bode
well for District Championships on February 9 & 10, 2007.
Event 1, the
restructured “B” relay in the 200 yards medley put the Outlaws
just outside of the top 12 by 0.7 seconds.
Felicia Pledger
was first with an explosive start in the backstroke, followed by
Kathleen Greaney
in the breast,
Jamie Kemp
in the butterfly and Sarah King,
as anchor, with an 8 second time drop and personal best of 41.0
seconds in the freestyle. The Outlaws did not have their “A” team
on the blocks.
The boys finished
fifth with their “A” relay, 1.5 seconds behind Stayton and without
their top breaststroker, Drew Herron.
Brian Greaney
led the foursome with a good backstroke leg
(27.7), followed by Jake Scott
in a personal best for his
breaststroke (42.7), Holden
Sellentin in the butterfly (31.4)
and anchor Thad Anderson
in the freestyle (PR 27.7).
The “B” relay came
in 9th place. Eric
Brown started with the backstroke
(40.8), followed by Nick Luz
and an outstanding breaststroke leg (41.5),
Justin Dean
in the butterfly (38.6) and Allan
Schaad as anchor (28.7).
Swimming without
expert freestyler Brittany Baldessari, the Outlaw girls fought
their way with incredible determination to second place in the 200
yds freestyle relay. Freshman,
Courtney Satko led her group with
a best time of 27.5, followed by
Jordyn Valdez and a PR of 32.2,
Jessie Swaner’s
PR of 29.5 and
Felicia Pledgers
fastest segment of 26.1. Their combined time of 1:55.3 edged out
Sweet Home by only 0.3 seconds. Fourth place finisher Cascade also
swam a 1:55 in this event.
The boys put both
“A” and “B” relays into the top 12 of the competition.
Swimming without
25+ sec. freestyler, Brian Greaney,
the foursome of Schaad,
Duvenick,
Anderson
and Sellentin
raced to unprecedented individual times and a fourth place
overall. Allan Schaad,
who does not get much practice in the regulation pool at Sisters
Athletic Club, but practices with Michele Hammer at the motel pool
of the Sisters Inn, touched the wall in 28.76 seconds, followed by
Justin Duvenick
in 28.81, Thad Anderson in
27.93 and freshman talent,
Holden Sellentin,
in a personal best of 26.9. The combined time of 1:52.4 put the
Outlaws behind Sweet Home, Junction City and Central.
Individually,
freshmen Courtney Satko
and Holden Sellentin
swam into the top of the competition in the
100 yd individual medley. Satko
improved her time from the December relay meet at Sweet Home by
almost five seconds and Sellentin
swam the event for the first time.
Satko’s
1:11.0 was good enough for fourth place and
Sellentin’s
1:08.8 put him into fifth overall. These
times make both swimmers very competitive in the 200 yds
Individual Medley during the upcoming championships.
A record number of
athletes were entered in the 50 yds freestyle sprint and several
of the Outlaws swam close to top 12.
Jordyn Valdez
and Justin Duvenick
improved their previous bests by 0.4 seconds.
Valdez was
12th and Duvenick missed 12th place by 0.01
second. Thad Anderson
was 10th with a time of 27.81.
Five contestants touched the wall with a time of 27+.
Jessie
Swaner represented the Outlaws in
the 50 yd butterfly event with a best time of 32.2 seconds and
only 0.6 seconds behind fourth place finisher and senior Brittany
Dushame from Philomath. Third place and possible medal contender,
Victoria Weiler, finished the race in 31.3 seconds.
Justin Dean
and Jake Scott
competed in the same event.
Hard work in
practice paid off for Kathleen
Greaney in the 100 yd freestyle.
Her final time of 1:14.30 was more than four seconds faster than
her previous best and put her just outside the top 12.
Jamie Kemp
competed in the same event and touched the wall in 1:25.9 minutes.
The Outlaws did not
compete in the 200 yds and 500 yds freestyle.
Courtney
Satko added another excellent
swim to her repertoire of success. She finished third in the 50
yds breaststroke with a time of 36.80 seconds and senior
Jessie Swaner
was 0.6 seconds behind with a personal best
by 2.1 seconds (37.4). Billy
Sampson competed in this event
for the first time, finishing just outside of the top 12 in 41.8
seconds.
The next
competition for the Outlaws is Districts on February 9 & 10 in
Albany. |
