Front row from left: Harley Bowler, Jordan Williams, Tia Berg, Michelle Young; middle row: Coach Hedemark, Chloe Stein, Cierra Tigard, Katie Stewart, Codie Lagao; back row: Jordyn Clymens, Geneieve MacKenzie, Marcy Calavan, Clare Greaney, Morgan Duvenick

A strong Sisters High School girls’ varsity squad won their first meet of the season against Mt. View, Gladstone and the host team at the Madras Relay Invitational on Saturday, December 4.  

The boys on the other hand had to settle for second place.  

Going into the last event, the 400 yds freestyle relay (Brennan Miller, Remington Bruce, Ian Baldessari and Jake Miller), trailed leader Madras only by one point. In spite of a heroic effort by anchor Jake Miller, the Outlaws could not quite catch up with the White Buffaloes.  

With the help of several JV swimmers, the varsity girls were able to fill all eight relays and finished five of the events well ahead of their competition.  

“They are just in their third week of training, but many swimmers already show equal or better results than at the end of last season”, coach Hedemark commented. “Besides, newcomers Codie Lagao and Brennan Miller demonstrated clearly that they will be very competitive at the district and possibly state level.”

Michelle Young, Tia Berg, Katie Stewart and freshman Codie Lagao set the pace in the first event, winning the 200 yds medley relay with decent splits for the beginning of the season. The same foursome also won the 200 yds butterfly relay and the 400 yds IM relay.

Harley Bowler, Clare Greaney and Marcy Calavan moved up from junior varsity to fill slots in the 200 yds freestyle and 200 yds breaststroke relays respectively.

The boys followed suit and on the first event, the 200 yds medley relay, with an incredibly fast anchor leg by Tyler Berg. Berg finished the 50 yds freestyle in a PR of 26.1 seconds, jamming his fingers so hard into the touch pad that he had to tape them for the rest of the meet. 

Unfortunately the boys could not fill the 200 yds butterfly and 200 yds breaststroke relays but were again victorious in the 200 yds backstroke relay. Freshmen Brennan Miller (30.2) and Ian Baldessari  (32.4) joined Tyler Berg (32.5) and Tyler Baldessari (29.0) in this highly contested relay against a very strong team from Gladstone.

Conor Greaney and Seth Urquhart moved up from junior varsity to join Remington Bruce and Brennan Miller for a  2^nd place finish in the 200 yds. freestyle relay.

The Outlaws return to Madras on December 9 for a regular competition against Redmond, Summit and the host.