S
At the traditional
season opener, the Sweet Home Relay meet, sixteen Outlaw swimmers
competed against District champions Sweet Home, Marist, Stayton,
Jefferson and Junction City and came home with several first place
finishes.
The five returning
senior swimmers, Kate Canja,
Justin Hedemark,
Casey Meudt,
Casey Pyke
and Kyle Whipps
led the team with explosive individual segments in each relay
during the first competition of the season.
Starting with the
girls’ 200 yd. medley relay, second year swimmer
Aubyn Geser
set out with a personal best in
the backstroke leg, followed by
Jessie Swaner’s fastest
breaststroke ever and Kate Canja’s
PR of 31.6 in the butterfly.
Rachel Pilliod
swam the last leg and the girls finished ahead of Marist, Stayton
and Jefferson.
On the boys’ side, the
Outlaws stunned the competition, when the medley relay finished
first with an eight second lead over Sweet Home.
Casey Meudt
pushed off the wall in respectable 29.7
seconds, newcomer and expert breaststroker
Tyler Young
expanded the lead, Justin Hedemark
added more distance with a powerful, personal best 26.7 sec.
butterfly leg and Kyle Whipps
anchored the winning relay. The combined time of 1:59.23 was
barely one second slower than the Outlaws District Championship
time at the end of the season last year.
The girls’ 400-yard
freestyle relay, with legs of 50-100-200-50 yards, was contested
by newcomer Chelsea
Flanders,
Rachel Pilliod,
Kate Canja
and novice Tori Carlson.
Flanders
and Carlson
put out great sprints to frame their team mates’ segments and
secure another third place.
 In
the same event, Byron Womack,
senior and first year swimmer, sent the Outlaws off with an
astounding 24.7 second sprint.
Justin Dean and
Clifton Williams,
both new to the team, swam the middle segments and
Casey
Pyke
brought it home for a third place overall. Marist won with a clear
lead over Sweet Home.
Only the boys were
entered in the next event, the 4x100 medley relay, in which each
swimmer swam one length of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and
freestyle. Justin Hedemark,
Kyle Whipps,
Tyler Young
and Casey
Meudt
left all competitors behind and finished twelve seconds ahead of
Sweet Home. Unfortunately one swimmer was disqualified for an
illegal turn on the breaststroke.
Veteran swimmer
Kate Canja
led the pack in the 200 yard freestyle
relay, followed by Amanda Sarles,
Monica
Offield
and Rachel Pilliod.
Rachel
battled Sweet Home to the finish line but had to succumb at the
last stroke. Marist won the event, Sweet Home came in second with
a time of 2:16.49 to Sisters 2:16.62.
The Outlaws did not
feature teams for the 200 yards butterfly event.
Another victory for the
boys came in the next event, the 200 yard backstroke relay.
Casey Meudt
led the group with a 31.3, followed by
Casey Pyke
(31.5), Kyle Whipps
(32.2) and
Justin Hedemark (27.1) Their time
of 2:02.1 was 3.5 seconds faster than second place finisher Sweet
Home.
An equally stellar
performance for the girls was the last event. The breaststroke
relay with Rachel Pilliod,
Chelsea Flanders,
Aubyn Geser
and Jessie Swaner
won with confidence in a time of 2:56.06.
Marist was second in 2:59.11.
The boys relay with
Young,
Womack,
Dean
and Williams
was disqualified in the breaststroke relay for a non-simultaneous
touch at the finish.
On December 16 the
Outlaws travel back to Sweet Home for the first Invitational
competition. |
