The 59 swimmers of Tule Nation Tritons were among the 484 swimmers at the 2012 Short Course Junior Olympics, and placed 3rd behind the 76 Palo Alto swimmers and the 101 Clovis swimmers this past February. The 3,283 TNT points fell 325 points short of Cloviss 3,635 for the second place finish, although our male team outscored Clovis 1,888 to their 1,419.
Seven year old Ian Belfower of Bakersfield led all TNT swimmers in point accumulation with six first place finishes and contributed a total of 136 points to the third place team finish. He swam undefeated in his age group, and then went on to compete in the 10-under division where he took home a third place finish in the 100 back (1:17.18) while competing in the age group above him.
Tule Nation Tritons fielded seven event champions at the meet, with three of them winning two events each. Fourteen year old Katelyn Herrera was a two-time champions taking home wins in both the 13-14 girls 1650 free (18:17.76) and also in the 500 free (5:12.74) where she established her second Sectional time while at the meet. Mallory Korenwinder took home two first place finishes in both breaststrokes swimming 1:07.02 in the 100 and 2:27.54 in the 200 yard event for the 13-14 girls. Fourteen year old Khloe McCarthy was a two-time champion winning the 400 IM (4:40.07) with a new Sectional cut, as well as the 200 back (2:13.74).
Other event champions included Emily Goodbar who became the champion in the 1000 freestyle (11:01.33) for the 13-14 girls division. Kyle Grissom took home a win in the 13-14 boys 100 fly with his team record breaking performance of 54.56. The previous record was held by Chris Nolan who set the record at last years Junior Olympics as a 54.75. Kyles time currently ranks 119th in the nation. Twelve year old Micah Ruiz took home a win in the 11-12 boys 50 free after swimming a 25.78 in the preliminary heats.
Our team maintained a 68% improvement rate with the following 15 swimmers improving all events they had entered: Mason Amble (6 of 6), Janessa Bringe (6 of 6), Luke Dignan (2 of 2), Olivia Garabedian (1 of 1), Kyle Grissom (7 of 7), Naomi Haworth (1 of 1), Josh Holt (2 of 2), Jackson Huckabay (7 of 7), Jakob Koorey (2 of 2), Garrison Price (2 of 2), Alex Roberts (5 of 5), Micah Ruiz (8 of 8), Mark Tiersma (5 of 5), Ivan Villavazo (2 of 2), and Justin Warner (3 of 3). Congratulations to a perfect meet.
Sixteen team relay records were broken at the meet with nine of them coming from the 13-14 age group alone. Both 8-under boy relay records were a mere two seconds off of the CCS Record set back in 1985, while our 13-14 girls 400 Medley Relay missed the CCS Record by one second. All record-breaking relays qualify at the Far Western time standard.
