Thirty three of our 51 swimmers contributed points from individual events that resulted in an overall team finish of 3rd place at the 2019 Short Course Junior Olympic Championships hosted by Clovis over the third weekend of February. Our individual points were led by Selma’s eight year old Logan Huckabay who nearly went undefeated, winning six of his seven individual events, and thereby becoming the highpoint recipient at the meet for his age division and coming home with the largest number of individual wins for our team. His long list of wins in the 8-under division include the 100 free, 50 back, 50 fly, 100 IM, 50 breast and 50 free. The only 2nd place finish occurred when he challenged the 10-under boys, and touched 2nd in the 100 fly. Logan was one of only eight TNT swimmers who came away as event champions in one or more events.
Drew Black was our next highest point-getter, and was an event champion in the 11-12 year old 50 fly event, and was the runner up in three additional events that included the 200 fly, 100 free, and 100 fly events. Next in points, and bringing home the next largest number of wins in comparison to Logan, was Bryan Wong who was undefeated in all events he competed in, winning the 1650 free, 200 breast, 100 breast, 50 free and 1000 freestyle events in the 13-14 division. Our next highest points came from Alexa Wong, who behind Logan and Bryan, had the next highest number of wins at four. Alexa took home the gold in the 400 IM, 200 fly, 100 IM, and 200 IM events for the 11-12 girls division. Garrison Price also had four wins, and in four events, thereby being one of only two TNT swimmers to remain undefeated, winning the 15-18 200 free, 100 breast, 200 back and 100 free events, and, along with Lucas Huckabay, provided the 5th highest contribution to the overall team score. Three additional swimmers returned as event champions, and these include Gage Price who won the 13-14 100 back, Visalia’s Luke Vanwoudenberg who took home gold in the 15-18 year old 200 IM, and Bryce Wong who was the champion in the 15-18 year old 50 freestyle event.
Eight team records were set by two swimmers from one family. Twelve year old Alexa Wong posted a time of 4:40.62 in the 400 IM thereby shaving off over two seconds from her previous record set at the Winter Age Group Championships last December. Her new time stands as the 28th fastest nationally for girls at age 12. Her 2:13.35 in the 200 fly was also an improvement of her own previous record of 2:13.69, also set at the Winter Age Group meet, and this time now ranks 36th nationally. Winning the 200 IM with a time of 2:14.08 resulted in an improvement of another record previously held by her from the same December meet. Her new time currently stands as the 83rd fastest nationally. She went on to improve over seven seconds in the 200 freestyle and became the first 11-12 year old girl in the history of our team to swim under the two-minute mark. Her 1:59.61 is an improvement of Danielle Albright’s previous record of 2:00.81 set at the Age Group Championships in 2015, and Alexa’s new record currently stands as the 119th fastest time in the nation.
Bryan Wong had our only other record-breaking performances, and he reset the bar in five events beginning with his time of 16:26.93 in the 1650 freestyle. His 74 second improvement fell under Nathan Rhea’s 16:41.65 that was set at Sectionals in 2009, and the new record stands as the 55th fastest nationally for boys at age 14. He led off the 800 free relay with a time of 1:47.16, and improved his own previous record of 1:48.21 and posted the 192nd fastest time nationally. His next record resulted from the 59.66 in the 100 breaststroke, which was once again an improvement of his previous record 59.76 set last December, and now ranks 58th nationally for boys the same age. His relay leadoff time of 49.28 in the 100 free also slid under his previous record (49.66), and stands in the 235th spot nationally. Bryan finished off the meet by improving over 40 seconds in the 1000 freestyle, posting a time of 9:40.12, falling once again under Nathan Rhea’s previous team record of 9:55.37 set at Sectional in 2009, and is his highest ranked event at 24th based on the Junior Olympics.
Sixteen TNT swimmers maintained a 100% improvement rate at Junior Olympics despite the inclement weather. Congratulations to: Riley Carpenter, Ivy Carter, Isaak Ensz, Koen Ensz, Layla Flores, Nadia Garabedian, Alyssa Gonzalez, Lucas Huckabay, Lucas Mcmunn, Kamlynn Newlin, Jade Perez, Garrison Price, Blake Sifton, Maryn Vanwoudenberg, Alexa Wong and Bryce Wong.
