In spite of missing three swimmers, a strong girls’ team came within nine points of winning the meet in Sweet Home on December 15.

Philomath, Stayton, Junction City, and Central were represented at the Invitational. Sweet Home won the meet with 88 points to the Outlaws’ 79.

Katie Stewart won the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:29.28, just slightly slower than last year’s State Championship mark. Sam Williamson added another win for the Outlaws. She swam 100 yds freestyle in 1:01.88, which was 1.5 seconds faster than at the 2011 District Championships.  The foursome of Sam Williamson, Marcy Calavan, Cierra Tigard and Katie Stewart finished first in the 400 yds freestyle relay, all posting close to or better times than at the end of the  2010-11 season.

“The swimmers showed great promise to make waves at the top during Districts and State next February”, coach Hedemark commented.

Battling Stayton for second place in the 200 yds Medley Relay, Codie Lagao, Liz Stewart, Katie Stewart and Sam Williamson kept the Eagles at bay and finished with a time of 2:12.25, 0.41 seconds ahead of Julie Wallace, Aleya Hill, Taniaya Wagner and Krysta Reynolds.

Freshman Emily Christen added another second place in her outstanding effort in the 100 yds butterfly. Christen’s time of 1:15.31 was better than last year’s third place finish of Cascade’s Janie Naylor at District Championships in Albany.

Codie Lagao swam into second place with a great 100 yds backstroke race, finishing in 1:13.64, close to her all time best performance.

The foursome of Sam Williamson, Emily Christen, Geneieve MacKenzie and Katie Stewart were barely outtouched by the Sweet Home “A” team and finished second with a time of 1:54.08, a scant 0.33 seconds behind the Huskies.

Jordan Williams, Harley Bowler, Emily Christen and Geneieve MacKenzie added valuable points for the Outlaws in their performance in the 200 yds Medley Relay.  Cierra Tigard contributed three points in her individual performances in the 200 yds Individual Medley and the 50 yds freestyle, as well as her participation in the 5^th place finish on the 200 yds freestyle relay.  Liz Stewart, Jordan Williams, and Codie Lagao joined Tigard in the relay race against the Junction City Tigers.  Inspite of great splits swum by each of the Outlaws, the Tigers prevailed with a time of 2:02.25 against the Outlaws’ 2:03.18.

Top finishers on the boys’ side was the “A” relay in the 200 yds freestyle with a time of 1:44.39 for a second place behind Central’s “A” team. Tyler Baldessari led off the foursome with a time of 25.6, followed by Ian Baldessari (26.4), Tyler Berg (26.2) and anchor Jake Miller (26.1).

The boys’ “A” medley relay with Tyler Baldessari in the backstroke (28.8), Ian Baldessari (breast 34.4), Tyler Berg (butterfly 28.6) and Jake Miller (24.7) as anchor in the freestyle finished in solid third place.  Berg and Miller clocked times faster than at last year’s District meet in the same event.

Other third places were achieved  individually by Tyler Baldessari in the 100 yds backstroke (1:02.51, Ian Baldessari in the 100 yds breaststroke (1:15.18), Tyler Baldessari in the 50 yds freestyle (24.93), Jake Miller in the 100 yds butterfly (1:10.71), Tyler Berg in the 100 yds freestyle (56.72) and the 500 yds freestyle in 5:49.83.

The Outlaws travel to the Kroc Center in Salem on January 7 for their next competition.