Jan 282017
 

Although 17 of our 19 TNT swimmers who competed at the Fresno Senior meet over the third weekend of January earned a final swim in one of three heats, only one TNT swimmer came away as an event champion, and it was in the only event where TNT had a 1-2 finish. Danielle Albright came away as the event champion in the 200 breaststroke, followed by a second place finish from Katherine Mendyk in the event. Danielle had four final swims at the meet that included the 200 breast (1st– 2:34.15), 200 IM (5th– 2:18.56), 100 breast (3rd – 1:09.75), and 50 free (9th – 26.87), while Katherine Mendyk maintained the busiest schedule of any TNT swimmer, earning a final swim in all six events that she competed in. Her finals included the 200 breast (2nd – 2:37.37), 200 IM (11th – 2:23.78), 100 free (13th – 1:00.00), 200 free (7th – 2:07.63), 100 breast (6th – 1:16.02), and 50 free (12th – 27.36).

Other top-24 finishers in finals included Libby Adriaansen (100 back – 23rd, 200 breast – 7th); Layla Flores (100 back – 9th, 200 breast 4th); Jillian Gaines (100 breast – 17th, 100 fly – 17th); Mackenzie Garza (100 back – 7th, 100 free – 2nd); Lauren Geiger (100 back – 4th, 100 free – 9th); Diego Gutierrez (100 back – 8th, 100 free – 8th, 200 free – 8th, 100 breast – 7th, 50 free – 11th); Isaac Gutierrez (100 back – 9th, 100 free – 12th, 200 free – 14th, 100 breast – 9th, 50 free – 11th); Xavier Gutierrez (100 back – 17th, 100 breast – 11th, 50 free – 20th); Preston Niayesh (100 breast – 3rd, 100 fly – 3rd); Ava Olson (200 fly – 3rd, 200 breast – 13th, 100 breast – 16th, 100 fly 10th); Satoshi Shinkawa (200 IM – 4th, 100 back – 3rd, 100 free – 3rd); Seiji Shinkawa (100 back – 18th, 100 free – 15th); Shoji Shinkawa (100 back – 21st);  and Katherine Sullivan (200 IM – 12th, 100 back – 15th, 100 free – 15th).

The top performances in terms of improvements unquestionably belong to two swimmers: Diego Gutierrez and Selma’s Shoji Shinkawa. Despite another rain-drenched swim meet, and a team improvement rate that only reached 37%, Diego and Shoji still managed to improve all events entered, and by very large margins. Diego competed in, earned a final swim in, and improved five of five events with his largest improvement of over six seconds being from his final swim in the 100 backstroke where he earned a top-8 finish. Twelve year old Shoji competed in four events, and improved all four with a margin of no less than approximately three seconds. His largest improvements were also over six seconds, and in two separate events that included the 100 back (his final swim), and the 100 free.

 Posted by at 03:31