The Pro-Am Classic is a complementary meet to the Pro-Am Elite, and the Classic took place at Lewisville, Texas over the third weekend of December. Among our own team of eleven swimmers, this meet played host to professional athletes that included Eugene Godsoe, Bobby Bollier, and Karlee Bispo (to name only a few) who were among the field of approximately 700 swimmers at the meet. Three of our swimmers earned a spot in one of four final heats (top 32) offered in the shorter events (200 yards and below), and these three were led by 14-year old Visalia swimmer Megan Ridenour who was our teams only scoring swimmer by making it to a championship or consolation heat, and who came away with the team’s highest championship finish of 7th place in the 50 yard breaststroke event. She earned a final swim in three of her five events, and finished 12th in the consolation heat of the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:06.10, and a nearly two-second improvement. Her final second swim was in the 200 breaststroke where her nearly three and a half second improvement to a 2:28.22 finished 27th in the event.
Another triple finalist for the team was Selma’s Aubrey Holbert who had her highest finish as 17th in the 100 backstroke, improving nearly six seconds to a time of 58.56, and being the only female TNT swimmer under the 59 second mark in the event for the past two years. Her next highest finish was in the 200 yard backstroke, where her time of 2:06.48 was a newly recorded time on our team, posting a time on our team that hasn’t been seen for the past eight years. Her final second swim resulted from a preliminary time of 58.83 in the 100 yard butterfly, where she finished 29th in the event. Aubrey, along with Megan Ridenour, were our two swimmers who also improved 100% of their times.
Our other finalist at the meet was Selma’s Morgan Coddington whose specialty of breaststroke earned two second swims at the meet. Her time of 31.87 in the 50 yard breaststroke was enough for a 20th place finish there, and her second and a half improvement in the 200 breaststroke to a 2:29.01 was fast enough for a 24th place finish in that event. Morgan also had one of the highest time improvement rates on the team, improving six of her eight events.
Selma’s Jonas Huckabay finished 24th in the time-based final 1650 freestyle (17:13.76) as his highest place, and his largest improvement was over nine seconds in the 200 breaststroke (2:22.50) event. Our next highest finisher was Visalia’s 14-year old Janessa Bringe who finished 30th in the time-based final 1000 freestyle (10:58.67), and her largest improvement was nearly eight seconds in the 200 IM (2:20.50). Alonso Escobedo had our next highest finish of 32nd in the 400 IM (4:20.18) where the top 24 make finals, and his 1:51.91 in the 200 free reflected his largest improvement of 2.72 seconds. Selma’s Satoshi Shinkawa was next with a pair of 47th place finishes that included the 200 IM (2:01.84) and 100 back (55.82) events, and his largest improvement was nearly three seconds in that 100 back event. Next was Jakob Koorey who finished 49th in the 400 IM (4:40.90). Jakob improved over 20 seconds combined, his largest improvement being over six and a half seconds in the 200 back (2:12.51) event. Visalia’s Lauren Geiger finished 50th in the 100 fly (1:00.30), and her largest improvement was nearly a second in the 50 free (25.73), while Ashley Olson finished 88th in the 100 back with a time of 1:03.41. She improved over a second in the 50 free while at the meet (25.81). Justin Bos came away with an 90th place finish in the 100 fly with a time of 57.00, and then repeating the swim for a time of 56.95.