Intent on achieving her second sectional cut, this time in the 200 fly, 14-year old Emily Goodbar might have come up short by improving her time to a 2:14.28 in the preliminary heats, but the time was enough to earned her a 27th spot for a second swim in the bonus final at the meet. While at finals she improved to a 2:11.55, both making the Sectional cut, and breaking one of the longest standing team records on the books. The previous record was held by Lynnie North and was set in 1990 at the LA Invite held at USC. Emilys time is the 172nd fastest time swam by any 14-year old girl in the nation during all of 2011. She was a dual finalist by also swimming the 100 fly in 1:00.44 in the preliminary heats which was fast enough for a 22nd place seed in the consolation final heat. Emily has Sectional qualifying times in both the 100 and 200 butterfly events, and will join Mallory Korenwinder, Wesley Coles, Colin Landweer, Chris Nolan and Nathan Rhea at the meet in Long Beach following the Age Group Invitational weekend.
Our only other team records were broken by Mallory Korenwinder who will be attending her second Sectional meet this next month. Thirteen year old Mallory swam under the pre-existing team record in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, not just once in each event, but twice first in prelims, and then again in finals. Joclyn Ford had set the 13-14 record in the 100 breaststroke at Junior Olympics in 2004 with a 1:10.08. Mallorys preliminary time of 1:09.29 wasnt only well under the record, but was also fast enough for 17th place seeding in the consolation final. While in that heat, she swam 1:07.75 for a 5th place finish in the heat and 17th place finish overall. Only 47 girls who were age 13 had a time faster than 1:07.75 up to that point for the entire year, and this time places her within three seconds of the CCS Record while still 13. She swam 2:27.17 in the preliminary heats of the 200 breaststroke, once again fast enough for not only a team record, but a 15th place seeding in the consolation heat. There she once again surpassing her morning performance by finishing with a 2:24.94 and a 3rd place finish in that heat, and the 13th fastest swim for the entire meet for the event. Only 40 swimmers swam as fast nationally during 2011.
Wesley Coles became our highest finisher with a 2nd place swim in the 500 freestyle. He improved his 4:48.23 that he swam at the Hanford meet in September to a 4:40.82 nearly breaking into the sub-40 times. His other championship final swim came in the 5th place finish of the 100 fly event where he swam 52.77. Wesley swam a total of 11 times when also considering his consolation final in the 200 free (1:46.01) and bonus final in the 200 back (2:01.66) events.
Colin Landweers 22.22 was also fast enough for a championship final swim in the 50 freestyle where he swam the 7th fastest time at the meet. Improving his preliminary swim by over a second in the 100 free placed his 48.54 in 3rd place for the consolation heat, or 13th overall. His 1:45.83 in the 200 free was fast enough for a 2nd place finish in the consolation heat, while he swam the 5th fastest time in the 1000 free with a 9:50.37. His 1:59.68 was also fast enough to win the bonus heat in the 200 IM.
Chris Nolan was another repeat finalist who swam a total of 10 swims at the meet earning second swims in 4 of his 6 events. His 4:52.26 in the 500 free was fast enough for a 5th place finish in the consolation heat. He won the bonus heat in the 200 breast (2:15.49) and placed 2nd in the bonus heat of the 100 fly with a 53.79. He had his highest finish in the 200 fly event where he and Wesley Coles represented TNT in the championship final. Chriss 1:56.26 was fast enough for a 6th place finish among the 10 swimmers in the final heat.
Returning veteran Nathan Rhea matched Wesley Coles in the number of swims at the meet due to the repeat final opportunities. He led off the meet with the highest place of any of our swimmers finishing 6th in the 400 IM (4:13.48) during the first day. This championship finish would be matched in the 200 breaststroke later in the meet where his 2:12.14 was more than enough for a championship swim and an eventual 6th fastest swim at the meet in the event. He had a consolation swim in the 200 back were his time of 1:59.07 was fast enough for a 9th place finish in that heat. The 1:01.56 in the preliminary heats of the 100 breaststroke was fast enough to edge into the championship heat and a 10th place finish there. A bonus 200 fly swim of 2:02.93 preceded the 100 breaststroke in both the preliminary and final heats on the final day. His meet was wrapped up with a 56.49 in the 100 back for a 2nd place finish in the bonus heat.
A returning athlete to the meet, now 14-year old Katelyn Herrera earned her second swim for the first time, and she did it in the 200 yard freestyle event. Her 1:58.90 was fast enough to edge into the bonus heat in the event.
Besides our finalists, our other A-session qualifiers eligible to make finals included Bre Abell who finished 40th in the 100 free (55.03), Hannah Giles who finished 57th in the 100 breast (1:12.60), Kyle Grissom finished 48th in the 200 fly (2:14.06), Chris Hansen finished 38th in the 200 breast (2:22.15), Khloe McCarthy finished 53rd in the 200 breast (2:35.34), and Mia Newkirk finished 45th in the 100 fly (1:01.59). Additional qualifiers for the meet included: Allyson Duffy, Josh Koster, Javier Morales, Megan Nino, Taylor Shaw and Cameron Weas.
The TNT Terrapin team maintained a 54% improvement rate which is considered rather high for a senior-level group. These improvements were led by 100% performances of Wesley Coles, Mallory Korenwinder and Mia Newkirk each improving either 6 of 6 or 7 of 7 events. Those with 50% or more improvement included: Khloe McCarthy (86%), Chris Nolan (83%), Kyle Grissom (75%), Chris Hansen (75%), Josh Koster (75%), Katelyn Herrera (67%), Cameron Weas (67%), Bre Abell (50%), Emily Goodbar (50%) and Megan Nino (50%). Katelyn Herrera had the largest drop in time with her nearly 45 second improvement in the 1000 freestyle. She was followed by Chris Hansen who improved over 20 seconds in his 500 free (5:08.81) from only about 2 months ago. The only other double-digit improvement came from Khloe McCarthy who improved over 10 seconds in her 500 freestyle (5:25.66).