Nine senior TNT swimmers traveled to Huntington Beach over the first weekend of November to compete alongside swimmers such as former University of Florida, and Colombian Olympic backstroke swimmer, Omar Pinzon. The meet took the place of the “Terrapin” meet that we typically travel to on the same weekend in Pacific Swimming.
Our team came away with only two finalists, each earning a spot in the C-final, and both swimmers being two of only three remaining Futures qualifiers on our team. Visalia’s Megan Ridenour is our most veteran swimmer, competing at Futures for the past two years, and is the only swimmer to earn two final swims at the Kevin Perry meet. Megan finished 22nd in the 100 yard breaststroke after swimming a 1:06.53 in the preliminary heats. She teamed up with 13-year old Danielle Albright in the C-final of the 200 yard breaststroke, where both swimmers improved nearly three seconds in the preliminary heats to earn their second swims. Danielle and Megan finished 20th and 22nd respectively with Danielle swimming a time of 2:25.72 in finals, and Megan posting a time of 2:25.65 in the preliminary heats.
One team record was set at the meet, and that was from 15-year old Preston Niayesh who has now established himself among the ranks of only a few TNT swimmers in our history as holding a team record in each age division from the 10-under, to the 15-18 and Senior divisions. Highlighting an impressive birthday swim, Preston swam a personal best of 59.59 in the 100 yard breaststroke to finish 28th in the event, and sliding under Nathan Rhea’s team record of 59.75 that was set at the Clovis meet in March of 2012. Preston’s time currently stands as the 14th fastest nationally for boys at age 15 in an annual reporting period that began two months ago.
Two TNT swimmers led the 57% improvement rate (considered considerably high for a senior-level meet) at the meet with Alonso Escobedo improving all five of his events, averaging an improvement of over two and a half seconds each time he hit the water. Alonso’s top finish was 36th in the 200 back (1:57.81). Garrison Price maintained the only other 100% improvement rate, and he maintained the largest drop by improving nearly eight and a half seconds in the 200 yard butterfly event (1:59.69), swimming under the 2-minute mark for the first time. His highest finish was 51st in the 100 fly (53.06).
The highest finish for our remaining swimmers included 45th in the 1000 freestyle for Visalia’s Janessa Bringe (10:51.66), 35th in the 50 free for Visalia’s Mackenzie Garza (24.59), 95th in the 100 back for Visalia’s Lauren Geiger (1:01.52), and 45th in the 200 fly by JD Koster (1:57.62).