From left: Michelle Young, Tia Berg, Katie Stewart, Samantha Williamson

Sisters High School Swimming finished another season with outstanding individual and relay results in the nine-team District 3 Championships in Albany on February 11 and 12.  

Eleven Outlaw swimmers will move on to the State meet at Mt. Hood Community College Feb. 18 and 19. 

Katie Stewart, Tia Berg, Michelle Young and Samantha Williamson opened the District 3 Swimming Championships with a first place in event #1, the medley relay.

Stewart led the group in a strong backstroke segment (31.5), followed by Tia Berg in the breaststroke (36.9), Michelle Young in the butterfly (28.2) and Samantha Williamson in the freestyle (27.3). The relay’s final time of 2:03.9 was 4.4 seconds faster than their preliminaries time the day before. The girls earned an automatic berth at State Championships Feb. 18 and 19.

The medley relay team is listed 4^th in the State Psych sheet behind Hidden Valley, Phoenix and Taft.

Event # 15, the girls 200 yds freestyle “A” relay with sophomore Katie Stewart (28.15), freshman Codie Lagao (28.68), junior Samantha Williamson (27.16) and junior Michelle Young (26.20) also went to the Outlaws with a gold medal standing (1:50.19).  The relay earned an automatic State appearance in this event as well and is listed in 4^th position behind Phoenix, Hidden Valley and Henley.

The “B” relay (2:01.1) with Geneieve MacKenzie (30.9), Marcy Calavan (30.7), Cierra Tigard (30.5) and Tia Berg (29.0) earned medals for their 6^th place finish in the same event.

 Cierra Tigard and coach Hedemark

In spite of an incredible effort and a ten second time drop from preliminaries to finals in the 400 yds freestyle relay, Stewart (1:02.2), Berg (1:03.5), Williamson (1:01.9) and Young (58.7) could not keep the Sweet Home “A” team from grabbing first place in a remarkable race. Two of Sweet Home’s girls swam splits of 58 seconds, the other two 1:01 and 1:03 respectively. Stayton, Blanchet, Cascade and Philomath finished 3^rd through 6^th place.

Young, Berg, Stewart, Williamson

The Outlaws’ 400 yds Freestyle Relay is currently in 6^th place on the State Championship psych sheet.

Other top finishers at District Championships include a second place by Michelle Young in the 100 yds butterfly (1:06.3), and a third place by Katie Stewart in the 200 yds Individual Medley (2:25.6) which qualified both girls for the State Meet.

Codie Lagao finished in the medal round with her third place performance in the 100 yds backstroke (1:13.2) and Samantha Williamson earned a 5^th place medal for her 100 yds freestyle (1:03.2).

Top finisher on the boys’ side was Tyler Baldessari with an outstanding swim and second place finish in event 18, the 100 yds backstroke (1:00.26). Baldessari’s performance puts him into 5^th place for prelims at next weekend’s State Championships.

Tyler Baldessari	Brennan Miller

Tyler Berg was third in the 500 yds freestyle (5:47.1), Ian Baldessari fifth in the 100 yds breaststroke (1:15.8) and Brennan Miller seventh in the 100 yds. backstroke (1:04.15). Miller’s time earned him a wild card for an appearance at State Championships next weekend.

Coach Hedemark, Ian Baldessari, Tyler Baldessari, Tyler Berg, Jake Miller

The boys’ “A” 200 yds medley relay with Tyler Baldessari (backstroke 28.2), Ian Baldessari (breaststroke 33.9), Jake Miller (butterfly 29.1) and Tyler Berg (freestyle 25.1) was third behind Sweet Home and Philomath and the foursome of Berg (57.0), Flanders (56.3), Jake Miller (54.3) and Tyler Baldessari (53.4) added another third place finish to their medal count. Their final time of 3:41.0 in the 400 yds freestyle relay was also good enough for a spot at State Championships.

Tyler Baldessari, Seth Flanders, Tyler Berg, Jake Miller

Jake Miller (25.39), Brennan Miller (25.89), Tyler Berg (26.55) and Seth Flanders (24.78) earned a 6^th place in the 200 yds freestyle relay (1:42.6). Sweet Home won the event in a tight race with Philomath and qualified for State in second place (1:33.6) behind North Bend (1:32.7).

Overall, the Outlaws girls and boys finished in 4^th place behind Sweet Home, Philomath, Stayton and Sweet Home, Philomath and Central respectively.