Triton Blog

The 2013 Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions held at Mission Viejo in early June was host to an international contingent of athletes that included countries of Australia, as well as some of Canada’s top athletes. Tule Nation Tritons is proud to have eleven athletes qualify and compete at the meet, with three of our swimmers performing well enough to earn a second swim in either the consolation or bonus final.

Our top finisher was 15-year old Mallory Korenwinder who finished 14^th in the 100 meter breaststroke event with a time of 1:14.66, improving her Santa Clara International swim, and previous team record, of 1:15.34. Mallory swam under her pre-existing 15-18 record both in the preliminary and final heats. The time currently stands as the 14^th fastest nationally for girls at age 15.

Christopher Nolan was our only swimmer with multiple second swims, and his highest finish was a 15^th place in the 200 fly event that resulted from a preliminary time of 2:06.30. His second final was a second place finish in the bonus heat (18^th overall) in the 100 fly, where his final time of 57.79 placed just in front of teammate Wesley Coles who finished third in the heat (19^th overall) with a time of 57.88 in the only event that fielded two TNT swimmers in any final.

Three team records were established by three swimmers at the meet. Besides Mallory Korenwinder, Jillian Hatch improved her previous record in the 200 freestyle event that she had set as a 2:08.92 at the Clovis meet earlier in the summer. Her new record of 2:08.77 currently stands as the 55^th fastest among 15-year old girls in the nation. Khloe McCarthy not only had the largest single improvement (over 8 seconds in the 400 IM), but also improved all her times, and her largest drop resulted in a new team record for both the 15-18 and Senior division in the 400 IM. Her time of 5:14.47 was under the 15-18 team record that was set by Emily Goodbar at the LA Invitational last summer, who held both the 15-18 and Senior division team records. Khloe stands as the 77^th fastest female 15-year old swimmer in the nation to date.

Sixteen TNT swimmers competed at the Summer Age Group Invitational hosted in Ventura by the Buena Ventura team over the last weekend of June, and with the small group, accomplishments were multifaceted, and nearly too many to fathom. To begin, nine-year old Kylie Walker became our only event champion, and she did so in the 50 meter fly event while still on the bottom of the 9-10 age division. Her time is the fourth fastest in the 9-10 age division for the event when considering all three Age Group Invitational meets combined that took place throughout Southern California Swimming over the weekend. Her swim of 34.44 is over a half second under her pre-existing team record that she set at the Clovis meet the previous month, and her time stands as the third fastest in the nation for all girls at age nine. The top nine-year old time in the nation of 34.13 was interestingly established during the same weekend at the Age Group Invitational meet hosted by NOVA in Irvine within Southern California as that nine-year old also won the event at that meet.

Two additional team records were set by Preston Niayesh who already owned both the 50 meter and 200 meter breaststroke events for the 11-12 boys division. He had set the 50 mark at the Speedo Grand Challenge meet the previous month as a 37.54, and his 37.47 from the Age Group Invitational now stands as the 115^th fastest time nationally for boys of age 12. His 3:01.51 topped his previous 200 breaststroke record of 3:03.15 that he swam at Santa Clarita last May, and that time ranks 139^th among 12-year old boys.

Several of our 10-under boys made their first Far Western qualifying times, and although nine-year old Peyton Costa will be a returning contender, he may be joined by ten-year old Tomas Contreras and nine-year old Toby Jones who made their first cuts at the Age Group Invitational. Owen Ansel came away with his first Speedo Grand Challenge cut on the senior-swimming side. One of the more challenging time standards to achieve at the senior level was obtained by Kyle Grissom who made his first Junior National time standard in the 100 meter fly with a time of 56.71. He qualifies for both the winter and the summer Junior National meets. The summer meet is held in Irvine later this summer, while the winter meet will take place in Greensboro, North Carolina in December. Kyle joins Mallory Korenwinder and Chris Nolan as our current Junior National qualifiers.

Finally, our 10-under girls of Priscilla Niayesh, Danielle Albright, Kylie Walker and Maya Herrera not only became the event champions, but are also the owners of the 10-under girls CCS Record for the 200 medley relay. The pre-existing record was set by Clovis as a 2:30.68 in 2011. Our 10-under girl’s time of 2:28.25 is the fastest time in the history of Central California Swimming, and is currently the fourth fastest nationally for 10-under girls. The top two national times were established at the Age Group Invitational hosted by Irvine NOVA over the same weekend.

The team came away with a 72% improvement rate where five of our sixteen swimmers improved 100% of their times, and they included Priscilla Niayesh, Kylie Walker, Owen Ansel, Peyton Costa and Kyle Grissom. Top eight finishers included Danielle Albright (2^nd in the 50 and 100 breast; 7^th in the 200 IM), Kyle Grissom (2^nd in the 100 fly; 4^th in the 200 fly), Khloe McCarthy (6^th in the 200 back), Madison McCarthy (2^nd in the 100 back and 5^th in the 50 back), Preston Niayesh (4^th in the 50 fly and 50 breast; 6^th in the 100 breast), Priscilla Niayesh (5^th in the 50 back), and Kylie Walker (1^st in the 50 fly; 4^th in the 50 back; 8^th in the 100 fly and 50 free).

The 2013 TNT Summer Age Group Invitational team of 16 was small, yet very powerful, and they undoubtedly had set the stage for what’s to come this summer.

Ten athletes qualified for, and attended the 2013 Speedo Grand Challenge held in the Irvine facility that will host the US Open and Junior National Championships later this summer. This is the second year that the meet invited swimmers in a 5-12 age division, but only if they’d reached the stringent minimum time standard. The 12-under swimmers competed for one of the top-8 places for their championship finals, while 13-over swimmers competed for one of the top 20 places in finals, only the top four eligible for the championship heat and cash prize (for professional athletes only of course).

Two of our swimmers competed well enough in the preliminary heats to earn second swims. Twelve year old Preston Niayesh made his second trip to the meet, and this time came away with two championship final swims, placing seventh in both the 50 and 100 meter breaststroke events. Preston’s 37.54 in the 50 breaststroke was over two seconds faster than his previous time, and both his preliminary and final time fell under our team’s previous team record set as a 38.18 by Kyle Grissom in 2010 at Junior Olympics. Preston’s 100 meter time 1:20.92 was nearly six seconds faster than his best, and again both his preliminary and final times fell well under the team record, this time set by Josh Avila at Junior Olympics in 2009. Preston’s 50 meter time currently stands as the 66^th fastest in the nation, while his 100 meter time ranks 42^nd nationally for all boys of age 12.

Christopher Nolan was our only other finalist at the meet in the senior division that allowed for the top 20 swimmers to return for consolation finals. Chris had his highest finish of 7^th in his specialty, 200 meter fly event with a time of 2:05.82, and he followed this performance with an 8^th place finish in the 100 fly event with a time of 57.51.

Our next highest finisher was 12-year old Satoshi Shinkawa of Selma who came away with an 11^th place finish in the 50 fly (32.25), along with 12-year old JD Koster of Visalia who swam to two 15^th place finishes in the 50 breast (40.83) and 100 breast (1:30.33) events. Senior swimmers competing at the meet, along with their highest placed events included: Kyle Grissom (28^th 100 fly; 59.23), Colin Landweer (42^nd 50 free – 25.35), Nathan Rhea (48^th 100 breast – 1:13.90), Chris Hansen (52^nd 100 breast – 1:14.69), Josh Avila (59^th 100 breast – 1:16.25), and Matthew Tashima (87^th 200 IM – 2:34.75 & 50 free – 26.41).

Forty-eight TNT swimmers competed at the Clovis Memorial Day B+ Meet over the Memorial Day weekend, and four team records were broken by four different individuals. Ten year old Danielle Albright was the event champion in six of her nine events, and she set the team record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:58.15, sliding just under Janessa Bringe’s previous record of 2:58.42 that was set at last summer’s Age Group Invitational. Daniell’s time stands as the 126^th fastest nationally for all 10-year old girls.

Coming off of her high school season, fifteen year old Jillian Hatch won both events she entered, and broke the team record in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:08.92, thereby reestablishing a six year old record by over a second. The previous record (2:10.24), as well as the top six times, was held by Megan Eppler who is a recent graduate from the University of Kentucky where she achieved two Olympic Trial cuts. Only 47 other girls at age 15 have gone faster anywhere in the nation since September of last year.

Swimming as a new 15-year old, Mallory Korenwinder set the team record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:16.66, going under Lauren Davis’s previous record of 1:17.60 that was set at Zones in Colorado last summer. Mallory and Lauren finished 1^st and 2^nd at the D2 High School Valley Finals in the same short course event. Although her Santa Clara International swim currently stands as the 15^th fastest nationally, Mallory’s Clovis time stood as the 22^nd fastest nationally. Mallory was the event champion in all three events she competed in at the meet.

Nine-year old Kylie Walker establishes herself as our fastest 10-under girl in the history of the team, and does so while only nine years old. Kylie set the team record in the 50 butterfly event with a time of 35.09 which is under Skylar Ford’s previous record of 35.19 that was set at Junior Olympics last year. Kylie was the event champion in both the 50 fly and 50 free events, and her 50 fly time currently stands as the fourth fastest time nationally for any girl at age 9 since last September.

Other event champions included: Joseph Cobarrubias (50 free, 200 free, 100 back, 100 free & 200 IM), Peyton Costa (50 free & 400 free), Lauren Davis (200 breast), Jayce Ford (50 back), Josh Koster (100 back), Khloe McCarthy (200 back & 200 IM), Madison McCarthy (100 back), and Alex Roberts (50 back).