Phil

Mallory Korenwinder Swims 7th Fastest Time in the Nation

Jun 252008

Madison Gilbert (11), Sam Hansen (15), Mallory Korenwinder (10), Khloe McCarthy (10), Christopher Nolan (12) and Nathan Rhea (13) competed at the long course Age Group Invitational hosted by Buena Ventura in Ventura during the weekend of June 20th. The team of six maintained the very high improvement percentage of 71%. These improvements were led by Madison Gilbert (100%), Mallory Korenwinder (100%), Khloe McCarthy (100%), Nathan Rhea (75%) and Sam Hansen (50%).

The largest time improvements came from Khloe McCarthy whose improvement totaled over 25 seconds in six events. Her largest drop came in the 200 freestyle event where she improved over seven seconds to a 2:41.56. This time is the second fastest time ever recorded on TNT and is a mere two seconds off of the team record.

Our highest point getter came from Mallory Korenwinder who brought home a total of 73 points by scoring in five of six events. Mallory placed first in both breaststroke events by a very large margin, third in the 100 backstroke, fourth in the 50 backstroke and fifteenth in the 50 freestyle events. Mallory also went on to break her own team records in the 100 breaststroke (1:29.83) and 50 breaststroke (39.99) events. The 39.99 was the National Reportable time for consideration in the previous national rankings for that event. Currently Mallory’s 33.99 ranks 7th in the nation behind now 11-year old Olivia Anderson (35.77) from Minnesota. Unless this is a typo, this would be the National Age Group record. The time of 36.17 is currently posted as the National Age Group record for the 10-under girls 50 meter breaststroke. Great job, and good luck to Mallory.

Other point getters included Nathan Rhea who qualified for finals and finished 5th in the 100 breaststroke, 7th in the 200 breaststroke and 14th in the 400 IM events, Khloe McCarthy placing 11th in the 50 backstroke, 13th in the 100 backstroke and 15th in the 200 freestyle events, and Sam Hansen who finished 10th in the 1500 freestyle event.

2008 Half Dome Hike

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Jun 212008

Eleven TNT members made it all the way to Half Dome this summer. The youngest was 11-year old Christopher Hansen. Although the hike was very challenging, not one person turned back early. The following individuals of TNT made it all the way: Alex Ellis, Suzanne Ellis, Megan Eppler, Stephanie Eppler, Alex Hansen, Ben Hansen, Christopher Hansen, Karen Hansen, Sam Hansen, Zach Hansen and AJ Reid.

A swimmer had asked, How was the hike? Beside the obvious response of painful, exhausting, time-consuming, and all those other inconveniences that come with reaching a worthwhile goal, from my perspective the hike was an amazing accomplishment.
Oftentimes success at a meet includes the number of swimmers who can make finals. This is true even at the most advanced teams in college swimming, and at their most advanced meet. Besides the spectacular view, what made our hike to Half Dome most rewarding for me was the fact that no one, NOT ONE PERSON, turned back early. This is like going to a meet, and having 100% of the athletes making it to finals.

The dynamics of a TEAM help provide support for achieving even the most difficult tasks in fact its a necessity. The lower the goals, the less important the team; the higher the goal becomes, the team becomes more important in lending support and establishing expectations even if the expectations are not verbalized. This support and expectation helps the group achieve.

Kohlton Norys Seeded 21st at Olympic Trials

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Jun 212008

Kohlton will swim in the Olympic Trials later this month in both backstrokes. His highest ranking is 21st in the 100 meter backstroke event. This is a very respectable seeding considering he is only 18 years old. As long as the psych sheet is posted, it can be found at: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/62596663-6b19-4c96-b628-eefb9c064290/Psych%20Sheet_US%20Olympic%20Team%20Trials.pdf

Earlier in the year Kohlton had broken the National Age Group record in the 100 yard backstroke for the 17-18 year old male swimmers. His relay lead-off time of 46.7 was faster than Jamie Cramer’s 100 backstroke national record of 47.3 at the time. This makes Kohlton the first 18-under swimmer in the United States to swim under 47 seconds. While it’s still posted, the National Age Group records can be found at: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/4c737824-bc77-4246-8510-296e69e079bb/SCY%20-%20May%2008.pdf

Korenwinder, McCarthy & Rhea perform at Buena Age Group Invitational on Day 2

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Jun 212008

Now swimming on the top of their respective age groups, ten-year-old Mallory Korenwinder and ten-year-old Khloe McCarthy shine while competing at the Summer Age Group Invitational hosted by Buena Ventura in Southern California Swimming. Mallory Korenwinder becomes the champion in the 100 meter breaststroke while she wins that event during the first day of her competition (second day of the meet). Khloe McCarthy drops eight seconds in her 200 meter freestyle event taking her to the second ranking in our team’s all time Top 100 performers in that event. While on the bottom of his age group, 13-year old Nathan Rhea enters finals tonight in the 200 meter breaststroke in third place.

Keeping Track of Kohlton

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Mar 212008

March is the month for the NCAA championships. Going in, Kohlton is ranked 6th in the 100 backstroke event. He had qualified with the A cut during a long course meet against Florida. That meet also brought Kohlton his second Olympic Trial cut. Currently out of the 89 swimmers who have qualified for Olympic Trials, Kohlton has the 24th fastest time in the 100 back, and out of 63 swimmers who currently have cuts in the 200 back he is the 41st fastest . Kohlton currently appears to be the fastest Auburn backstrokeran admiral feat considering that Auburn is arguably the top swim school in the nation (5 time NCAA champion) and Kohlton is only a freshman.

So where did all that come from? Realize that in 2005, when Kohlton was only a sophomore in high school, he swam a 49.66 in the 100 back. For the 15-16 age group, that time places him on the All-time Top 100 list for all swimmers in America. For instance, this list has Michael Phelps as 3rd with a time of 48.64. Kohlton was just over a second away from Michael while at the same age. Even before that, Kohltons drive took him to multiple National Age Group Top-16 rankings, as well as setting records in Central California Swimming. His goals and aspirations were truly beyond the normand more importantly, his level of commitment in training to reach those goals matched. This is reflective of the amount of effort and consistency that Kohlton exhibited in training early on in his swimming career, and characteristics that his current coaches have recognized as still going strong.

Our First Long Course Meet of the Year

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Mar 212008

In taking an advantage of the early start to the long course season, six TNT swimmers competed at what might be the first long-course meet in California. Madison Elick, Alex Ellis, Madison Gilbert, Dax Korenwinder, Mallory Korenwinder and Khloe McCarthy traveled down to Orange county past Los Angeles to compete at the SET Aquatics Long Course Meet held at El Toro High School near Mission Viejo. The meet maintained minimum time standards, so that it was a qualifying meet that allowed only those who qualified to participate. Our six were among over six hundred who entered the meet.

Eleven year old Madison Elick competed among the seniors at the meet during the afternoon session. She became the heat winner with a long course time in the 100 meter breaststroke event (1:42.77) that is only three seconds off of our Junior Olympic standard. Twelve year old Alex Ellis swam her first long course meet with TNT, and qualified for three events there. Two of her events (33.23 in the 50 free and 1:24.24 in the 100 back) are only one second off of the long course Age Group Invitational time standard. Madison Gilbert swam her first long course meet in the 100 back event, qualifying for the Junior Olympics by one second (swimming a 1:30.68). Seven year old Dax Korenwinder also qualified for three events at the meet. While Dax is still only seven years old, his best time of 49.41 in the 50 backstroke was only one second off of the 10-under Junior Olympic time standard. Mallory Korenwinder was our highest place finisher as she swam to a second place finish in the 50 meter breaststroke event. Her 43.25 was one second under the Zone qualifying time, and only two seconds away from the team record. Ten year old Khloe McCarthy also competed in three events with her 45.32 only one second away from the Age Group Invitational time standard.

Our swimmers competed only during the second of three days at the meet, while Sunday was reserved for Disneyland. Several families went to Disneyland for two or three days since the meet was short enough for us. Im hoping that pictures will be forwarded so that they can be posted and shared.

Keeping Track of Kohlton

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Jan 252008

During a January 10th meet against #1 ranked Texas, Kohlton swam a 1:46.73 in the 200 backstroke event. This is over 3 seconds faster than his time prior to leaving. The 1:46 also ranks him 33rd out of all college swimmers in the nation, and currently the sixth fastest freshman in the event. The automatic cut for NCAA Division 1 is around 1:43.6, and the B-cut is around a 1:46.67.

See Kohlton’s race at: http://www.flocasts.org/floswimming/coverage.php?c=152&id=7312

Mr. Robert Mattes

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Jan 092008

On December 27th of 2007, Robert Mattes had passed away. As with many others, I’ll remember Bob because of his selflessness in working with people in general. It was truly an honor and privilege to have his involvement with the TNT program. Bob and his wife Elaine were awesome parents to have on TNT. In fact, Bob is the primary reason the name is as it is. It was his suggestion from working with Scouts with his son Sean, that the name reflect something that was in this geographical region that included Lemoore, Hanford, Tulare and Visalia (at that time the four towns from which TNT swimmers came). He suggested the Tule Indian Nation. This conversation took place on the way back from a meet in Pacific Swimming.

Bob, Elaine, Sean and Melinda were with me at Kings Swim Club when I coached there in Lemoore and Hanford. They made the commute to practice on a regular basis. I could sense the commitment level of Melinda while she was very young. The family came with me a short time after I left Kings Swim Club and came to Tulare Swim Club. Bob went on to become the designated coach of the Corcoran High School swim team which brought it back to life. It was a great thing to provide Melinda the opportunity to compete in high school. Before Bob made it happen, the high school team was dormant – there was no active high school team at the time. Bob arranged that the team travel to Tulare and train with me. That was a great experience that I’ll never forget. What a neat group of kids. To this day, the team remains active – thanks to the rebirth that Bob contributed to.

I cant say how rewarding it was for me to see Melinda coaching at Juniors when it was in Bakersfield a few years ago. It was just as rewarding to have been invited to her wedding only a few months ago, and see that she continued coaching, and that she had married Mark who she coaches with. It was neat to see so many of their swimmers running around during the wedding. And once again, just like Rachel and Ramie Denning’s weddings, it was neat to see the TNT swimmers, now adults, have such a strong bond after all these years.

His caring personality is reflected strongly in all the members of his family – and is in itself a great legacy to have left behind. He and Elaine have done a phenomenal job in raising their children. He will definitely be missed. I’m glad to see other TNT entries into Bob’s Guestbook:

http://www.legacy.com/FresnoBee/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=100497402

Growing into the new year? – 2008

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Dec 292007

The 2007 year for TNT was a heck of a transition year. Even though we had some of the fastest kids ever on the team (three swimmers ranked 2nd, 12th, 16th etc. in the nation with Olympic Trial, Junior National and Senior National qualifiers) our team was really small. A couple of years prior to 2008, TNT numbers had been down rather low. When once we could see over 60 kids in the pool, we went down to about eight regularly. With the influx of many very talented Summer League swimmers from local summer teams (representing Tulare, Visalia, Hanford and Corcoran), 2008 will be an interesting year.

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