Seventy seven TNT swimmers competed at the long course meet typically held at the Reedley pool, but moved to the Clovis North complex, in late April. This two day event was an introductory meet with respect to long course swimming for fourteen of our athletes. Congratulations to Edmond Aguinaldo for posting five new long course times, along with his sister, Precious Aguinaldo who swam her first two events as a 10-year old. Visalia’s Carson Clarke has to be one of the youngest competitors at the meet, swimming his first event at age 7. He’s supported by his training partner in Visalia, 9-year old Shannell Flores who posted four new times. Although having competed for Sun Prairie Storm in Wisconsin as her first long course experience in 2016, Dasha Lester posted two new times with our club during this meet. Lucas Mcmunn made his debut in the 50 meter freestyle, posting a B-time right out of the shoot. Omolara Omolou also posted a B-time in one of her three events, but also achieved an A-time in 50 freestyle event for her age division. The brother duo of Edward Miguel Ong and Hayden Ong combined to compete in four new long course events at the meet, while the sister-brother duo twins of Abigail Rodriguez and Ivan Ridriguez combined a total of five new events. Ten year old Danny Rodriguez not only competed in a total of five new long course events during the meet, but was one of only three TNT swimmers who remained undefeated in events, and he did so by winning five of his five events. Finishing among the top three in all five of her events was 12-year old Mikayla Rodriguez, who also posted brand new times in all five events. Finally, age-counterpart, Josh Wee swam his first long course meet, by also competing in five new events.
The vast majority of our swimmers had previously recorded times with the team, and sixteen of them managed to improve 100% of the events they competed in. The improvements were led by two Lemoore swimmers who competed in the maximum allowable eight events, and improved all of them. These included Madalynn Lady and Michelle Murphy, both of whom recently attended the Short Course Far Western Championships. Perfect performances also came from Nathan Boudreaux (improving 1 of 1 events), Audrena Butts (improving 3 of 3), Riley Carpenter (4 of 4), Gabriela Dutra (3 of 3), Kate Geiger (4 of 4), Audrey Gutierrez (4 of 4), Kaylee Hicke (1 of 1), Noah Hoy (3 of 3), Jojo Mecum (3 of 3), Raquel Mecum (3 of 3), Delbert Salvadalena (2 of 2), Luke Vanwoudenberg (2 of 2), Alexa Wong (4 of 4), and Brett Wong (2 of 2).