THREE TEAM RECORDS FALL AT MERCED

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Three team records are set by four individuals (one who still remains unattached). The most established of the three records broken was that of the 50 yard freestyle event for the 13-14 year old boys. Fourteen year old Colin Landweer swims a 23.15 to break the existing team record by over two tenths of a second belonging to Josh Tabers (23.36) that was set at the Winter Invitational meet two years ago in December of 2007.

Eleven year old Khloe McCarthy battled with soon to be teammate Brianna Fleeman in the 1650 yard freestyle. Both swimmers swam faster than the existing team record set last month by Mallory Korenwinder while at the Hanford meet. Furthermore both Khloe’s 20:56.66 and Brianna’s 20:57.28 were fast enough to qualify for Arizona, and they did so while also qualifying for Arizona in the 1000 on the way to the 1650 yard freestyle cut. Khloe’s 20:56.66 becomes the new team record.

Fourteen year old Nathan Rhea is the remaining individual who had established a new team record while at the meet. Nathan improves his 100 yard breaststroke to a 1:03.28 to break his own team record that was set at the Tulare meet in February of this year.

 

TNT swimmers had left this Merced meet with much hardware. High Point awards included trophies for the top three point getters in each age group.

Preston Niayesh goes undefeated for first place High Point in the 7-8 boys division (80), while Nathan Rhea in the 13-14 boys division (76) and Kaleigh Botill in the 17-18 girls division (52) became the only other two TNT swimmers to swim away with the top honors of High Point.

Second place High Point went to Madison Droney in the 6-under girls division (34 points), Katelyn Herrera in the 11-12 girls division (67), Colin Landweer in the 13-14 boys division (71) and Hannah Giles in the 15-16 division (69). Third place went to Kailyn Fleeman in the 7-8 girls division (67), Mallory Korenwinder in the 11-12 girls division (66), Kyle Grissom in the 11-12 boys division (65), Alex Hansen in the 13-14 boys division (65), Wesley Coles in the 15-16 boys division (56), and Sam Hansen in the 17-18 boys division.

 

Three hundred and eight swimmers represented twelve teams and an unattached group at the Merced meet. Although TNT was not the largest team at the meet (Clovis with 67 swimmers vs. TNT with 50 swimmers), Tule Nation Tritons placed first in the combined team points with 3,686 points over Bakersfield’s 3,569 points. Eleven teams scored at the meet. Event champions included Kaleigh Botill (15-over 50 free), Wesley Coles (15-over 200 fly), Hannah Giles (15-over 100 breast), Alex Hansen (13-14 500 free), Chris Hansen (11-12 50 breast & 1650 free), Katelyn Herrera (11-12 100 IM), Mallory Korenwinder (11-12 50 breast), Colin Landweer (13-14 50 free), Khloe McCarthy (11-12 1650 free), Preston Niayesh (8-under 50 breast, 100 fly, 50 back & 100 IM), and Nathan Rhea (13-14 100 breast, 100 back & 200 IM).

The overall team improvement percentage was 63%, well over the 50% that would be considered a successful meet. Twelve of our 42 who had previously recorded times on the team in events 50 yards or longer improved all events that they swam. These 12 included: Bre Abell, Tristian Abell, Connor Allison, Kaleigh Botill, Thomas Brown, Crista Droney, Madison Ekizian, Chris Hansen, Makayla Jordan, Colin Landweer, Makenna Mason and Ira Porchia.