Thirteen TNT swimmers traveled to Huntington Beach over the first weekend of November to compete at the senior-level meet there, and five of our swimmers came away with second swims, led by Visalia’s Megan Ridenour who had our highest place finish of 7th in the championship final of the 100 yard breaststroke where she posted a life-time best of 1:04.02 in the preliminary heats, and establishing her first Winter Junior National qualifying time. Our Winter Junior National team doubled in size from two to four with Megan’s swim, and Danielle Albright’s swim in the same event, also during the preliminary heats. Danielle posted a time of 1:04.24 in the prelims that was fast enough for a 9th place finish, and new Winter Junior National cut. Based on a scratch, Danielle was able to compete in the championship field where she finished 8th. The two new Winter Junior National qualifiers will join Preston Niayesh, and JD Koster as they travel to the University of Iowa over the second weekend of December, all of whom will compete in their first Junior National meet.
Danielle Albright was one of three TNT swimmers who earned a second swim in two events while at the Kevin Perry meet, her other events being in the 200 yard breaststroke where she posted a lifetime best of 2:22.05 in the preliminary heats which was fast enough for a consolation spot where she finished 16th. Another double-finalist was JD Koster whose highest finish was 16th in the consolation heat of the 400 IM where he posted a lifetime best of 4:09.06 in the preliminary heats, and then swam 4:15.61 in finals. His second final was in a bonus heat of the 200 fly after swimming another lifetime best of 1:54.99 in the preliminary heats, and then 1:55.60 in finals to finish 23rd. Preston Niayesh was our only other double finalist, and he earned two consolation swims with his highest place being 11th in the 100 breaststroke where he posted a time of 58.23 after swimming a 58.46 in the preliminary heats. The 58.23, although not necessarily his fastest time when considering high school competition, is a new team record going under his previous record of 58.34 that he posted at Sectional in March of this year. His 200 yard breaststroke preliminary swim of 2:06.99 was over a five second improvement to take him 14th into the consolation final, where he moved up one place to 13th and posted a 2:08.20 for his time. His preliminary swim was also a new team record, and fell just over a second under Nathan Rhea’s 2:08.01 posted at Sectionals in 2012. Preston’s new team records ranks 25th and 21st nationally for boys at age 16 within the most current reporting cycle. Our remaining finalist was Alonso Escobedo who improved over five seconds in the 400 IM of the preliminary heats to a 4:09.30 and 16th place there, and moved up one place to 15th with a time of 4:09.56.
Our additional competitors, along with their highest place event include: Janessa Bringe (40th in the 1000 free), Peyton Costa (117th in the 100 back), Layla Flores (58th in the 100 breast), Jonas Huckabay (57th in the 1000 free), Garrison Price (35th in the 100 & 200 fly), Brett Wong (91st in the 50 free), Bryan Wong (64th in the 200 breast), and Bryce Wong (44th in the 400 IM).