Triton Blog

This Porterville meet marks the last chance to qualify for Far Westerns. TNT is proud of our nine swimmers who have achieved the Far Western Time Standard. Achieving a Far Western qualifying time standard truly separates swimmers from other swimmers in the valley. Far Westerns will be held on April 2-5 weekend at Morgan Hill.

Remember, swimmers may only compete in seven events for the meet, with no more than three per day. On-line entries for Far Westerns will close on March 25^th; mailed entries must be postmarked by March 23^rd. Check the Tulare TNT web page for the block of rooms that are set aside at the hotel directly across from the pool.

Finally, two team records had been broken while at this first long course meet. Both records were previously held by the current record holder. Twelve year old Christopher Nolan broke his own 800 meter freestyle record in the 11-12 age group by over a minute and thirty seconds. Chris swam 12:04.33 in the 800 last June at the same pool in Porterville, and this March (only nine months later) swam a 10:32.11.

Nathan Rhea was the only other record breaker at the meet. Nathan is 14 years old and also broke his 800 meter freestyle team record for the 13-14 age group. Nathan swam a 9:33.20 while at Western Zones in  Oregon last August while he was 13 years old. His 9:27.62 is nearly six seconds faster than his time swam at Zones last year.

Congratulations to all swimmers.

Congratulations to our collegiate athletes as they have just swum their most recent Conference or National meet. Here are some highlights:

Ewins, Nolan, Granada, Hoover and Giles Qualify for All Stars

Christopher Ewins, Hannah Giles, Jonathan Granada, Cori Hoover and Christopher Nolan were among the nineteen TNT swimmers who attended the All Star Qualifying meet in Fresno. These five swimmers and all performed at a level to be selected to represent Central California Swimming as a All Star team member. Our team members will combine with other qualifiers from Central California Swimming and travel to Folsom in northern California for the January 31^st weekend to compete against an All Star team representing Pacific Swimming.

TNT QUALIFIES FOUR FOR LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX

Katherine Bristow, Sam Hansen, Nathan Rhea and Joshua Tabers will return to Long Beach to compete at the Grand Prix meet held there this year. This will be the first experience for these four swimmers to compete at a meet with several returning Olympian athletes. Our athletes will compete at the meet along with the likes of Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers, Ous Mellouli, Mary Descenza, Lacey Nymeyer, Ben Hesen and Caitlin Leverenz. Our same four swimmers competed at Long Beach last month at the Winter Invite meet.

DAX KORENWINDER, MALLORY KORENWINDER AND JOSH KOSTER GO UNDEFEATED AT RIGECRESTTwenty five TNT swimmers competed at the Ridgecrest meet and all 25 contributed to an overall team score of 1028 points by scoring in one or more events. The team total is lead by three swimmers who won every event that they were entered in, as well as the McCarthy sisters. Eight year old Dax Korenwinder and ten year old Mallory Korenwinder leads the team point total by each scoring 90 points and wining ten of ten events. Our next undefeated swimmer was twelve year old Josh Koster who remained undefeated in all eight events entered, brining home 72 points.Josh Avila, Joshua Caminero, Jacqui Koster, JD Koster and Kara Nino lead the team on improvements at the Beat the Cold Meet held in Ridgecrest during January 24^th weekend by improving every event entered. The overall team improvement percentage was 48 percent. Swimmers who improved 50% of their times or more included: Megan Nino (80%), Jake Caminero (75%), Alexander Metzner (71%), Raelynn Surratt (71%), Dax Korenwinder (67%), Athena Niayesh (67%), Corey Nolan (67%), Jimmy Koster (63%), Thys Jacobi (50%) and Madison McCarthy (50%). Here’s the overview of the improvement percentages at 50% or higher, and individual point totals from the Ridgecrest meet.

MADIONS ELICK, JONATHAN GRANADA, KHLOE MCCARTHY & NATHAN RHEA SET SIX RECORDS

Ten year old Jonathan Granada leads the team in new records set while at the Last Chance meet this February. Jonathan breaks his own 500 free record which was set only about two weeks earlier during All Stars in Folsom. His previous record of 6:37.01 is now 6:24.34. He had also broken the team’s 100 IM record by over a second. Jonathan’s 1:14.63 breaks a long standing record that was set by Micah Storey at the Fig Garden Racquet Club in August of 1987. Jonathan has also tied Micha Storey’s 50 free record with a 29.77.

Fourteen year old Nathan Rhea’s 1:04.31 breaks his own 100 breaststroke record that he had sent while shaved and tapered at Winter Invite in December. The previous record stood at 1:04. 59. Twelve year old Madison Elick set a new 1650 freestyle record for the team in the 11-12 age group with her 22:52.64, which was re-established in the following heat by Khloe McCarthy. The new record is set at 21:36.01.

Sixty seven TNT swimmers competed at the Last Chance meet in Tulare during the first weekend of February. Dodging the potential rain for the weekend, our swimmers improved 62% of the 262 events that had been previously recorded on the team, and that were 50 yards or longer. This improvement percentage proved to be the largest for the year. Nineteen of our swimmers improved 100% of their times. These swimmers included: Rebecca Bristow, Bryan Brown, Jake Caminero, Greyson Canterbury, Taralyn DeLeeuw, Thys Jacobi, Emily Jacobs, Mathew Jacobs, Branson Kelly, Jenna Koetsier, Dax Korenwinder, Jacqui Koster, Alexander Metzner, Landon Molin, Christopher Nolan, Adrianna Pedro, Taylor Shaw and Kashin Visahan. Swimmers who improved 80-90 percent of their times included: Chris Ewins, Jonathan Granda, Shanti Matkin, Preston, Niayesh and Conor Martin. Improvement percentages in the seventies included: Trevor DeLeeuw, Madison Elick Simon Grigoryan and Nathan Rhea. Kara Nino, Thomas Brown, Nicholas Butler, Makenna Mason and Megan Nino improvement percentages were in the sixty percent range. Swimmers who improved half of their times included: Luke Gregory, Cori Hoover, Jill Jackson, Scott Jordan, Khloe McCarthy, Athena Niayesh, Jenna Jouar, Breann Santos, Carter Shaw and Connor Vasquez. Forty four of our sixty-seven swimmers improved at least 50% or more of their times.

The TNT Last Chance meet is the last meet prior to the entry deadline for Junior Olympics. Throughout the year sixty-six of our swimmers have qualified for Junior Olympics within their respective age groups. Congratulations to the following age-group breakdown of the swimmers who have qualified.

Girls

Boys