Thirteen TNT swimmers competed at the 2021 Winter Age Group Championships in Oceanside, north of San Diego, over the third weekend of December, and four of our swimmers performed well enough to score in individual events at the championship-level meet by placing among the top-16 in their respective events. Our team was led by 12-year old Blake Rogers who touched 2nd in the 11-12 50 freestyle with a time of 25.50 that ranks 3rd in our all time top-100 ranking, behind Bryan Wong and Micah Ruiz, and just ahead of USC graduate, Olympic Trial qualifier, and NCAA qualifier, Kyle Grissom. Blake also touched third in the 50 breaststroke (32.92), and 10th in the 50 fly (29.92) events. Visalia’s 10-year old Reece Philips qualified in two events, and scored by touching 13th in both the 50 breaststroke (44.86), and 100 breaststroke (1:38.90) events. Next was 16-year old Mia Buller to finished 15th in the 13-18 division of the 1650 freestyle (commonly referred to as “the mile”) with an improved time of 19:20.71. Ten-year-old Peyton Martin was our only other scoring swimmer, who finished 16th in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:37.42.
Five of our swimmers improved 100% of their times, and these included Kaitlyn Bean, Jillian Duffy, Ivan Rodriguez, Blake Rogers and Blake Sifton. Congratulations in qualifying and attending the meet also go to Samantha Dolan, Gabriela Dutra, Isabella Garrett, Isabella Klawitter, and Rylee Medina.