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Twenty girls’ teams
and fifteen boys’ teams competed at the recent 2007 Swimming State
Championships for 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A at Mt. Hood College in Gresham.
The combined efforts
of Brittany Baldessari,
Felicia Pledger,
Courteney Satko
and Jessie Swaner,
in relays and individual events, earned the Outlaws – tied with
Cottage Grove - the third place team trophy. North Bend was first,
Henley second.
The girls suffered a short lived setback in
their first event, the medley relay, when Philomath and Sweet Home
pushed the Outlaws into sixth place during preliminaries..
Determined to regain their original fourth seed, everyone swam
outstanding legs with
Baldessari
(backstroke) and
Swaner
(butterfly) shaving the most time off their segments. In finals
Sisters moved back into fourth with a 2:03.27. North Bend won the
event in a time of 1:56.10, followed by Marist (2:00.38) and
Cottage Grove (2:01.74).
Stellar performances
by all swimmers put the girls’ freestyle relay team with
Brittany Baldessari,
Felicia Pledger,
Courteney Satko
and Jessie Swaner
into second place overall.
Seated third
(1:48.73) going into preliminaries on Friday, the girls fought off
a fierce attack by eleven other relays, three of which with an
entry time below 1:50 and the rest within striking distance of
breaking that mark. The girls swam their best ever and established
a new Sisters High School record with a time of 1:47.67 for a
second seat going into championship finals. Four of the six
finalist teams posted 1:48’s for the Saturday finals. Cottage
Grove led with 1:45.96.
Brittany Baldessari
(27.2) started the Outlaws, followed by
Jessie Swaner
(28.5),
Courteney Satko
(26.3) and anchor,
Felicia Pledger.
Pledger
swam the best segment this season in 25.5 seconds. The Outlaws
outtouched everyone except Henley, who won the event with 1:46.87.
Sisters finished in second place (1:47.46), breaking their own
record from the day before.
In event 4,
Brian
Greaney
defended his fourth seed (1:53.08) in the 200 yd freestyle
successfully against LaGrande and Tillamook. Sweet Home’s Kieran
Schaefer won and established a new State record with his final
time of 1:49.57. David Elligott and Cameron Barton from Cottage
Grove were second and third respectively.
Henley, Phoenix, Junction City and Cresswell
competed against the Outlaws in event 7, the 50 yd freestyle.
Seated second behind Henley’s junior Stephanie North,
Felicia
Pledger
took 0.05 seconds off her entry time for lane 4 assignment next to
North. Kayla Heath from Phoenix flanked North in lane 2. Both
Pledger
and Heath raced stroke for stroke to catch North, who ended up
winning with a new State record of 24.44. Heath touched the wall
in a time of 25.92 and Pledger in 25.96.
Brittany Baldessari,
entered fifth in the same event, swam an outstanding sprint,
achieving a personal record of 26.68 and moved up to fourth
position overall.
Pledger and
Baldessari
added two more top spots to the Outlaws’ accomplishments during
the State meet.
Baldessari,
seated fourth after prelims in the 100 yd backstroke, raced her
best splits ever in this event. Her final time of 1:04.86 put
Baldessari
into third place ahead of Marist’s Mary Cummings and 0.68 seconds
behind North Marion’s senior, Jessica Garringer. North Bend’s
Denise Green won the backstroke with a time of 1:00.01, setting a
new State record.
 Brian Greaney
(55.49) earned silver in the 100 yd backstroke with a perfectly
swum race with splits of 27.17 and 28.32. Senior Michael Mpitsos
from Newport won the event with a new State record of 53.59 and
Sweet Home’s Jayce Calhoon tied for third with Matt Johnson from
North Bend (57.17).
Pledger,
seeded fifth in the 100 yd freestyle after prelims, held off
fourth seed Jessica Garringer (57.29), but was outtouched by
Cottage Grove’s Jenny Conrad (56.89).
Pledger
placed fourth with a time of 57.06.
Brian Greaney,
the only male Sisters High School qualifier, tied with Marist and
Phoenix for 10th place in the team rankings. |
