Nine TNT swimmers were event champions at the Mike Snyder Memorial Meet that took place over the Memorial Day weekend, and these gold medal performances were led by ten year old Alexa Wong who entered five events, and won four of them. Alexa took home a first place in the 100 meter freestyle (1:10.82), 200 IM (2:52.08), 50 fly (36.24), and 50 free (33.32). Of these events, she set new team records in two of them. Her 100 meter freestyle time of 1:10.82 currently stands as the 52nd fastest nationally for girls at age 10, and falls under Skylar Ford’s previous record of 1:11.31 that was set five years ago while competing at the Junior Olympics in 2012. Alexa’s 200 IM swim of 2:52.08 is nearly two and half seconds under Danielle Albright’s previous team record set at JO’s in 2013 and stands as the 31st fastest nationally for girls at her age. Her only second place was in the 400 meter freestyle, where her time of 5:22.23 slides under Danielle’s previous tem record of 5:24.37 set at the Fresno meet in 2013 and maintains her highest current national ranking at 29th.
The only other team record set at the Mike Snyder meet was from brother, Bryan Wong, who returned from a stellar performance at the Speedo Grand Challenge with the sole purpose of winning, and breaking the team record, at the Mike Snyder meet in the 11-12 400 freestyle, an apparent goal when watching his first 25 meters of his swim. Bryan did just that, and swam over ten seconds under Jackson Huckabay’s previous record of 4:44.10 set at JO’s two years ago in 2015. Bryan’s new team record of 4:34.32 is currently posted as the 8th fastest time nationally for boys at age 12, and we’ll see if it maintains the top-10 in the current reporting cycle that ends at the close of August. USA Swimming recognizes the top-10 age group swimmers who are 12 to 16 years old annually.
Besides Alexa Wong and Bryan Wong, our team had seven additional event champions who included Visalia’s Layla Flores, our current team record holder in the 11-12 100 meter backstroke, who won the 100 meter backstroke with a time of 1:13.60, and also took home the win in the 200 IM with a time of 2:42.56 for the 13-14 girls division. Our only other double winner was Layla’s previous training partner, now training in Selma, Kylie Walker, who currently holds six 10-under team records, and she won the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:09.32, and the 100 free with a time of 1:04.48 also in the 13-14 division. Drew Black was the winner of the 10-under 50 back with a time of 39.00 and improving over four seconds, while Peyton Costa continues a characteristic 100% improvement rate as he won the 400 free for the 13-14 division with a time of 4:40.35. Jillian Gaines was the winner of the 15-16 mile (1500 free) event with a time of 23.02.24 after improving over a minute in the event, and Katherine Mendyk took home the gold in the 15-16 200 breaststroke with a time of 3:03.98. Finally, 11-year old Ava Olson was the winner of the 12-under 400 IM after posting a time of 6:21.58.
Forty-three TNT swimmers competed at the meet, and forty-one of them had previously recorded times with the team and as a group, they maintained an astounding improvement percentage that exceeded 70%. Fourteen of our swimmers improved 100% of their times, and these included: Visalia’s Ella Bettencourt (improving 7 of 7 events), Peyton Costa (8 of 8), Riley Duffy (4 of 4), Diego Gutierrez (6 of 6), Ashton King (2 of 2), Hanford’s Genoveve Mcilwaine (5 of 5), Visalia’s Tyson Phillips (2 of 2), Visalia’s Emelia Rasner (4 of 4), Selma’s Delbert Salvadalena (1 of 1), Blake Sifton (1 of 1), Selma’s Chesney Watson (6 of 6), Bryan Wong (1 of 1), and Bryce Wong (1 of 1). The following nineteen swimmers maintained an improvement rate at or above 50%: Caroline Mendyk (88%), Daniel Haley (86%), Sienna Abernathy (83%), Drew Black (83%), Isabella Klawitter (83%), Jade Perez (80%), Duncan Champagne (75%), Laney Cox (75%), Xavier Gutierrez (75%), Benjamin Wheeler (75%), Aidan Champagne (71%), Addison Mccullough (71%), Emma Bettencourt (67%), Ciena Clarke (67%), Connor Bruton (60%), Alexa Wong (60%), Nathan Hunt (57%), Ava Olson (56%), and Jacob Wheeler (50%).
A warm welcome goes to sisters Amy Murphy and Michelle Murphy who posted new times with the club.