Felicia Pledger led the Outlaws in the medals standing during last weekend’s District 3 Swimming Championships in Albany.

In a highly contested 100 yards backstroke event, Pledger, Baldessari and Marist’s Mary Cummings raced neck on neck all four 25 yard legs and hit the electronic touch pads almost simultaneously.

Seeded second after prelims behind senior backstroker, Brittany Baldessari, and ahead of Marist’s Mary Cummings, Pledger was only 0.01 seconds ahead of Baldessari on the half way mark but brought the second half back in 33.79 seconds to Baldessari’s 33,97. Mary Cummings finished 0.09 seconds behind Baldessari in third place.

Pledger added another individual medal (bronze) in the 50 yard freestyle sprint (26.89). Courteney Satko (26.56) was top Outlaw in this event (silver) and Baldessari (26.90) finished in fourth place. Blanchett’s Marie Miner, who also won the 100 yards freestyle event, won with a time of 26.04 seconds. 64 swimmers were entered in this sprint.

Courteney Satko was the second most successful competitor on the girls’ side, with a bronze medal in event 11. In a surprise prelim performance in the 100 yards freestyle, Satko (58.82) dropped almost four seconds from her entry time and kept Cascade and Sweet Home freestyle specialists Young, Littrell and Helfrich at bay in finals as well.  Blanchett and Marist won first and second places respectively.

The girls had already given notice in several meets during the season that their relays were performing at very high levels. Seeded third in prelims, the 200 yards medley relay team with Baldessari, Flanders, Satko and Pledger dropped significant time during prelims, to place securely in second position behind Marist. Even a powerful push by Sweet Home’s butterflyer, Sarah Rosa, could not challenge the Outlaws silver medal in finals. Sisters’ time of 2:03.26 was more than 3 seconds faster than their entry time.

The girls added another silver medal to their collection, when Baldessari (26.90), Johnson (29.90), Satko (26.50) and Pledger(26.60) raced top contenders Cascade and Blanchett in the 200 yards freestyle relay. Both teams were anchored by state champions in 2007. Cascade’s Crystal Kibby won last year’s Individual Medley and 100 yards breaststroke and Blanchett’s Marie Miner was second in the 200 yards freestyle.

Adding valuable points for the girls’ team were Tia Berg with a 6^th place in the 200 yards individual medley and an 11^th place in the 500 yards freestyle. Chelsea Flanders was 10^th in the 100 yards breaststroke and 11^th in the 200 yards freestyle.

On the boys’ side, senior Brian Greaney was the most successful individual swimmer with two silver medals in his top events, the 200 yards freestyle and the 100 yards backstroke. Wedged between 2007 state record holder, Sweet Home’s Kieran Schaefer, and Philomath’s Chris Leonhard, Greaney defended his position successfully to finish in a time of 1:57.28.

Greaney’s top competition in the 100 yards backstroke, Jayce Calhoon, had an explosive start and never gave up his marginal lead over Greaney. Greaney’s final time of 56.8 seconds, a PR by 1.4 seconds for the season, was barely one second behind the winner from Sweet Home.

Other top finishers for the Outlaws included Holden Sellentin with two 6^th place finishes in the 200 yards freestyle and 100 yards backstroke. In both events, Sellentin was edged out of 5^th place by less than half a second. Parker Bennett was 12^th in the 500 yards freestyle.

Both boys’ relays were successful in their swims during championship finals. Greaney, Herron, Sellentin and Duvenick defended their fifth seed in the 200 yards medley relay with PR’s for each leg and the foursome of Greaney, Schaad, Duvenick and Sellentin moved up from a 6^th seed in the 200 yards freestyle relay. Their final time of 1:41.40 was within 1.5 seconds of 4^th seed Blanchett. All boys achieved best times.

OSAA just informed Sisters High School Swimming that the boys' 200 yard freestyle relay was granted a berth at State Championships due to the re-seeding of the event.

Brian Greaney, Holden Sellentin, Allan Schaad and Justin Duvenick

will represent the Outlaws in this relay event.