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Wesley Coles indicated that he was not fast enough to qualify with a long-course time in the 200 meter butterfly for the Speedo Grand Challenge meet that took place just two months earlier. Indeed, his fastest time was only 2:21.95 in the event. Noticed even among his training peers as one who had been willing to endure the discomfort and train at an elevated level of performance for an extended period of time, Wesley squeezed into a D-final in 32d place, the very last person to earn a second swim (thanks to teammate Bobby Yribarren for the inadvertently very vital opportunity), to win that heat with a time that was among the championship heat at the meet. He swam a 2:07.95 to qualify for Junior Nationals.
The summer Junior National meet will take place at Stanford University during the second week of August, while the short course meet will take place in Austin, Texas in December. Congratulations Wesley, who now is within 3 seconds of Nationals, and within 4 seconds of the Olympic Trial time standard.
Bobby Yriabarren was our point leader solely taking the team to a 2nd place position among the small-team division after the first day of the meet. Bobby swam 4 events that included the open water 5K swim, and placed top 15 in all 4 events. His highest place finish was 6th in the 800 meter freestyle (8:28.13) as he continues to chop away at the Senior National cut. The Senior National time standard is 8:23.09, a mere 5 seconds in one of the longest races offered. Bobby finished Sectionals with the last event offered on Monday, July 25th. The 5K Open Water event was held at Millerton Lake where approximately 53 competitors raced the distance. Bobby finished in 8th place with a time of 48:57.68. The winning time was 48:24.47, only 33 seconds away.
Second swims were also earned by breastrokers Nathan Rhea and Sam Hansen, each swimming times within one second of the Junior National time standard. Nathan was our next closest qualifier with his 2:28.04 in the 200 meter breaststroke, which was .45 seconds from Junior Nationals. Nathan finished 23rd in the breaststroke event and was a dual finalist by also finishing 22nd in the 400 IM. His fastest time for the IM was in the preliminary heats (4:42.59). Teammate Sam Hansen also earned a second swim in the 200 breaststroke swimming to a 22nd place finish and a time of 2:28.26 which was .67 seconds from the Junior National standard.
Another near miss of the Junior cut came from Colin Landweer whose time improvements were more reminiscent of younger age group swimmers with over an 8 second improvement in the 400 IM, over 5 second improvement in the 200 IM, over 4 seconds in the 400 free, and over 3 seconds in the 200 free. Colin, along with Wesley Coles and Bobby Yriabarren, improved 100% of his times. Colins 50 meter free time of 24.92 is now .63 seconds from the Junior National cut, and his 5.35 second improvement in the 200 IM places him 2.57 seconds from the Junior cut all of which are now within range.
Mallory Korenwinder made her first appearance at the meet with a 2.7 second improvement in her 200 meter breaststroke (2:52.79) and her highest place finish of 90th. Jordan Morillo, currently competing for FresnoState, had her highest place finish of 85th in the 200 backstoke (2:31.36), while Chris Nolan, also making his first appearance, had his highest place finish as 68th in the 200 meter butterfly (2:14.30).