Seventy-one TNT swimmers competed at the Merced Halloween meet in Atwater during the October 22nd weekend. Nearly 20% of our swimmers were recognized with 1st, 2nd or 3rd place high point awards. Eight year old Danielle Albright won the 50 free (34.81), 50 breast (42.46), 50 back (42.62), 100 IM (1:27.90), 100 free (1:16.02), 100 breast (1:34.74), 50 fly (44.19) and 100 back (1:32.15), while 7 year old Ian Belflower of Bakersfield won the 50 free (33.60), 50 breast (45.76), 100 fly (1:23.33), 50 back (38.81), 100 free (1:17.09), 50 fly (35.93), 100 back (1:24.06) and 200 IM (3:07.56) events. Ten-year old Preston Niayesh was our final undefeated swimmer, winning the 50 free (29.69), 50 breast (37.71), 100 fly (1:13.95), 100 IM (1:11.32), 100 free (1:05.70), 100 breast (1:22.40), 50 fly (32.35) and 100 back (1:15.35) events. First place high point trophy winners also included Chase Belfower (age 6) of Bakersfield who won the 25 breast (37.44), 100 IM (2:40.38), 50 free (53.28), 50 breast (1:25.59), 25 fly (29.81) and 50 back (1:06.20) events, and Mallory Korenwinder (age 13) who won the 100 breast (1:11.05), 200 fly (2:29.58), 100 back (1:08.66), 200 IM (2:17.45), 200 breast (2:35.71), 100 fly (1:03.08) and 400 IM (5:00.13) events. Chris Nolan was also a trophy winner as he took home 1st place finishes in the 15-over 1650 free (17:26.96), 100 fly (55.36), 200 back (2:11.62) and 1000 free (10:21.00) events.
Runner-up recipients were awarded a gift certificate, and these went to 5-year old Paige Costa who won the 50 free (51.92) and 25 fly (23.96) events, as well as to her 8-year old brother Peyton Costa who took home wins in the 50 breaststroke (51.16) and 100 IM (1:34.19) events. In the older 13-14 division an apparent tie went to Kyle Grissom (age 13) won the 50 free (24.91), 100 breast (1:12.76) and 200 back (2:21.84) events, and Chris Hansen (age 14) who won the 100 breast (1:09.65), 200 fly (2:27.48), 200 IM (2:18.44), 200 breast (2:21.75) and 400 IM (4:53.73) events. JD Koster of Visalia was also a runner-up in the 10-under division winning the 50 backstroke (36.34) and 200 IM (2:44.29) events, while Colin Landweer took home a win in the 100 free (49.82). Our final 3 runner-ups included 13-year old Mia Newkirk who won both the 50 free (26.26) and 100 back (1:05.05) events, 15-year old Megan Nino winning the 50 free (28.53), 100 breast (1:17.22), 100 back (1:07.20) and 200 back (2:25.83) events, and 12-year old Micah Ruiz swimming with Bill who won the 50 free (27.31), 50 back (32.12), 100 free (1:01.53) and 100 back (1:11.55) events.
Third place high point winners went to Jayce Ford (age 7 of Visalia) who tripled up wins in the 100 breast (2:02.89), 50 fly (49.69) and 200 IM (3:44.88) events, 16-year old Nathan Rhea who won the 100 breast (1:03.56), 200 IM (2:03.22), 200 breast (2:19.57) and 400 IM (4:20.92) events, and 6-year old Emily Sullivan who was the event champion in both the 25 back (27.89) and 50 back (1:03.97) events.
Our other event champions within their respective divisions included Mason Amble (7-8 100 IM), Owen Ansel (13-14 100 back), Keiren Arakawa (11-12 100 back), Justin Bos (13-14 100 breast), Janessa Bringe (9-10 50 back & 200 IM), Reagan De Long (11-12 50 free), Luke Dignan (13-14 200 back), Allyson Duffy (13-14 500 free), Jake Goodbar (11-12 100 free & 1000 free), Tracy Hannan (15-over 50 free & 500 free), Naomi Haworth (11-12 200 free), Noah Haworth (13-14 200 IM & 200 free), Katelyn Herrera (13-14 200 fly & 200 free), Josh Holt (7-8 50 fly & 100 back), Jackson Huckabay (9-10 50 fly & 100 back), Jonas Huckabay (11-12 100 free & 1000 free), Chrystelle Jaramillo (13-14 50 free & 200 free), Michael Jia (11-12 100 fly, 50 fly & 100 back), Jakob Koorey (11-12 200 free), Dax Korenwinder (11-12 100 fly), Jacqui Koster (11-12 50 fly), Josh Koster (15-over 100 back & 100 fly), Alexies Ledesma (15-over 200 back), Conor Martin (15-over 100 breast, 200 IM & 200 free), Khloe McCarthy (13-14 100 fly), Andrea Morales (11-12 200 free), Javiar Morales (15-over 200 free), Cody Nash (15-over 200 breast), Madison Pallares (9-10 50 breast), Jeremiah Santillana (13-14 50 free), Taylor Shaw (15-over 200 free), Mikayla Vierra (7-8 50 breast & 50 back), Ivan Villavazo (11-12 100 breast), Justin Warner (11-12 200 IM), Nick Yribarren (13-14 200 free)
A single team record was set while at Merced, again by Preston Niayesh. Preston has broken a new team record in what seems to be three consecutive meets. This time Preston swam 1:11.32 in the 10-under 100 IM event, breaking Alonso Escobedos record of 1:12.80 that was set at the Holiday Festival in Arizona last December. Prestons previous time was 1:13.54, and his new record currently stands as the 145th fastest in the nation for the 2011 year among all 10-year old boys, and stands as the fastest time on record in CCS for the year.