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5 EVENT CHAMPIONS AT MERCED

Apr 142017

At a swim meet where only about a third of all events that had been previously recorded on the team were improved, six TNT swimmers still were able to manage an improvement rate at 50% or better, and these swimmers were led by ten year old Raquel Mecum who improved two events that had been previously recorded with the team, and swam the 100 meter breaststroke for the first time. Our next highest improvement rates went to Peyton Costa and Hanford’s Nathan Hunt who each improved four of their seven events. The remaining three swimmers maintained a 50% improvement rate, and these three included: Adian Champagne (improving 3 of 6), Jillian Gaines (2 of 4), and Carlos Garcia-Lemus (1 of 2).

Five of our swimmers were event champions in in their respective A, B or C divisions, and these were led by Katherine Mendyk who won all three events she competed in on Sunday within the B-division. These events included the 100 meter freestyle (1:09.24), 100 breaststroke (1:26.79), and 200 IM (2:44.44). Peyton Costa competed primarily in the A-division, and he won both the 200 meter breaststroke (2:54.71), and 200 butterfly (2:44.42) events. Jillian Gaines was the B-division winner of the 200 fly (3:16.72), while Ava Olson was the A-division winner of the 400 IM (6:18.90). Our only other event champion was Benjamin Wheeler who improved over 40 seconds in the 800 free to win the B-division with a time of 10:06.69.

BRYAN WONG – 4 TEAM RECORDS & 3 FINALS AT FAR WESTERNS

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Apr 142017

Eight TNT swimmers traveled to Pleasanton over the last weekend of March to compete at one of the most competitive age group championship meets in the nation. Pacific Swimming’s Far Western Championships has an international history that dates back to 1925 where the inaugural meet was held at the San Francisco Fleishhacker Municipal heated salt-water swimming pool that played host to the likes of Johnny Weissmuller. More recently the meet has played host to the likes of Michel Phelps, Janet Evans, Pablo Moreales, Summer Sanders, Natalie Coughlin and Missy Franklyn.

This year, 12-year old Bryan Wong competed at the meet along with his teammates, and began the meet with a near miss to finals, finishing 11^th in the preliminary heats of the 200 breaststroke, but with a new team record of 2:30.33 which currently stands as the 178^th fastest nationally. He came away with earning a final swim in three events later in the meet that resulted in three new team records. He started his championship performance with a 3^rd place finish in the 50 breaststroke, where his time of 30.59 fell over a second under his pre-existing team record of 31.71 that he set at the Age Group Championships in San Diego last December. His new record stands as the 78^th fastest nationally for boys at age 12. He improved nearly ten seconds in the 400 IM to post a new record of 4:44.85 in the events to finish 5^th, and once again went under his previous record of 4:54.35 that he set last December at the Tulare meet. His new records now stand as the 167^th fastest nationally for his age and gender. His final championship swim was in the 100 breaststroke where his time of 1:07.40 was nearly a two second drop, and again went under his San Diego swim, and previous record, of 1:09.22, and currently stands as the 118^th fastest nationally.

Our team had two additional finalists, and one of the remaining two included a new team record. Sister, ten-year old Alexa Wong, also set a new team record, but in the preliminary heats of the 10-under 100 backstroke. She improved her lifetime best by swimming 1:08.90 in the event, and finished 9^th in a field of 10 swimmers in finals. Alexa is the 111^th fastest nationally for girls of age 10. Fourteen year old Danielle Albright was our team’s only other finalist, swimming a time of 1:06.72, and finishing 8^th in the 100 yard breaststroke event for the 13-14 year old girls.

Selma’s 10-year old Sienna Abernathy had her highest finish as 36^th in the 200 free (2:21.42), while 10-year old Drew Black was the only TNT swimmer to improve 100% of times, and finished 27^th in the 100 back (1:13.34) as her highest place. Visalia’s 11-year old Layla Flores topped her performance with a 50^th place finish in the 100 breast (1:10.65) while competing at the bottom of the 11-12 division, while Preston Niayesh finished 16^th in his 100 breaststroke event (1:01.76) for the 15-16 division. Swimming her newly qualified event from the previous weekend, 11-year old Ava Olson finished 28^th in the 11-12 200 fly (2:29.99).

LAYLA FLORES WINS AT SWAGR

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Apr 142017

Six TNT swimmers competed at the second annual South West Age Group Regional (SWAGR) swim meet hosted by California Capital Aquatics in Roseville over the March 16-19 weekend which afforded finals for single-age divisions for the top ten performers from the preliminary heats, and four of our six came away earning a spot in no fewer than three finals within their respective age divisions. Visalia’s thirteen year old Layla Flores came away as the only event champion for TNT, and she did this in the 400 yard IM by improving her preliminary swim by over 20 seconds to a lifetime best of 4:46.53, and moving from 8^th to 1^st in the event. Layla was also the top overall scoring individual for TNT, earning finals in five of her seven events, thereby also maintaining the largest number of earned finals for the team. Besides the first place finish in the 400 IM, Layla scored 41 points from individual events by also finishing 2^nd in the 200 breast (2:33.74) and 2^nd in the 200 IM (2:16.38), as well as finishing 4^th in the 200 back (2:17.84), and 6^th in the 100 breast (1:11.71).

Layla’s training partner in Visalia, Rylee Lord, also earned five second swims for the 13-year old division among her six events entered, her highest finish being a 3^rd place in the 100 free where she posted her lifetime best of 56.26. Rylee also improved her 200 freestyle time to a 2:03.87 to finish 4^th in that event. She improved four of her six swims, and the improvements included the 6^th place finish in the 100 fly after swimming 1:02.66 in the preliminary heats. Rylee finished 7^th in the 200 fly (2:22.42), and topped out her finals with a 9^th place finish, and time improvement, in the 50 free (26.19).

Our next finalist was Ava Olson who competed in the 11-year old division, and she had top-9 finishes in four of her seven events, earning 29 points in the scoring final, and having her highest place as 4^th in the 100 fly where she posted a lifetime best of 1:07.42 in the event. She followed that with a pair of 8^th place finishes that included an improvement that exceeded 10 seconds in the 400 IM (5:14.77), and a near four second improvement in the 200 fly (2:25.44) where she posted a new Far Wester cut while on the bottom of the 11-12 age group. Her Sunday held a busy schedule that included the preliminary and final in the 200 fly, but also the 1000 freestyle where her nearly 17-second improvement was enough for a 9^th place finish there.

Our remaining finalist was Selma’s 10-year old Sienna Abernathy who posted three final events among her six that she competed in. Sienna’s highest place was in the 100 yard freestyle event where a nearly half second improvement was enough for an 8^th place finish there. She followed that swim with a 9^th place in the 200 IM where she improved her preliminary swim by over two seconds to a 2:48.35. Her remaining final was in the 50 fly, where she posted a time of 33.28, which was once again faster than her preliminary swim, and enough for a 10^th place finish there.

Visalia swimmers Ciara Clarke had her highest finish as 13^th in the 50 back (33.56) for the 11-year old division, while Visalia’s Daniel Haley competed in the 13-year old boy’s division and his highest finish was 17^th in the 500 free where he posted his lifetime best of 5:30.47.

23 IMPROVE 100% AT RCA LONG COURSE MEET

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Apr 132017

Twenty-three TNT swimmers led our team to an improvement rate that exceeded 66% at the first long course meet held in Central California Swimming to kick of the next season in preparation for achieving time standards for the upcoming summer’s long course championship meets that include: Junior Olympics, June Age Group Invitational, Speedo Grand Challenge, Swim Meet of Champions, LA Invitational, Sectionals, Futures, and Junior Nationals. Our top performing swimmers in terms of 100% time improvement of their events include: Isabel Burrough (improving 2 of 2 events), Aaron Butts (2 of 2), John Cemo (2 of 2), Aidan Champagne (7 of 7), Duncan Champagne (6 of 6), Ciena Clarke (3 of 3), Jullian Gaines (4 of 4), Nadia Garabedian (4 of 4), Logan Huckabay (2 of 2), Lucas Huckabay (8 of 8), Drew Johnston (3 of 3), Sydney King (3 of 3), Isabella Klawitter (7 of 7), Addison Mccullough (3 of 3), Luke Pena (3 of 3), Jade Perez (4 of 4), Delbert Salvadalena (2 of 2), Shoji Shinkawa (4 of 4), Blake Sifton (2 of 2), Nicholas Vassylenko (6 of 6), Kylie Walker (4 of 4), Alexa Wong (3 of 3), and Bryan Wong (3 of 3).

Twenty-three event champions among TNT swimmers were a result of the meet, and our highest number of first place finishes came from the performances of Selma’s Lucas Huckabay who took home the gold in the 10-under division by winning the 200 free (2:45.46), 50 free (34.04), 100 free (1:15.96), and 200 IM (3:15.56) events. Three of our swimmers remained undefeated in the small number of events they did enter. Danielle Albright competed in three events for the 13-over division, and won all three. These included the 100 breast (1:22.17), 200 back (2:47.19), and 200 IM (2:47.00). Her training partner, Alonso Escobedo, also won three events, and his included the 200 free (2:07.17), 100 free (58.67), and 200 IM (2:20.21) events. Our only other uncontested swimmers, also winning three events, was Bryan Wong in the 11-12 division, winning the 100 free (1:03.21), 100 breast (1:19.95), and 200 IM (2:35.45) events. Other event champions included Sienna Abernathy (200 free), Libby Adriaansen (800 free), Drew Black (50 breast), Aidan Champagne (100 fly & 50 fly), Ciara Clarke (50 fly & 50 back), Layla Flores (100 back), Mackenzie Garza (50 free), Jonas Huckabay (400 IM), Caroline Mendyk (100 breast), Preston Niayesh (100 fly & 100 breast), Ava Olson (100 fly & 400 IM), Madison Pallares (200 breast), Mckenna Pressley (200 fly), Micah Ruiz (100 back), Satoshi Shinkawa (200 fly & 200 back), Kylie Walker (100 fly & 100 free), Wyatt Ward (200 breast), Sydnee Wilson (50 breast), and Alexa Wong (50 back & 200 IM).

Forty-nine TNT swimmers posted long course times in events for their first time. A warm welcome to the long course season goes to: Sienna Abernathy, Drew Black, Aaron Butts, Audrena Butts, William Butts, Paulina Cemo, Duncan Champagne, Ciara Clarke, Cabrielia Costamagna, Laney Cox, Riley Duffy, Isaak Ensz, Koen Ensz, Carlos Garcia-Lemus, Kate Geiger, Sophia Guzman, Caolinn Hardy, Annlyn Haworth, Daren Hess, Lily Hodges, Sarah Hourigan, Logan Huckabay, Nathan Hunt, Ashton King, Madalynn Lady, Mark Marroquin, Addison Mccullough, Jojo Mecum, Raquel Mecum, Joshua Mitchell, Madison Pallares, Luke Pena, Jade Perez, Mckenna Pressley, Emelia Rasner, Delbert Salvadalena, Seiji Shinkawa, Shoji Shinkawa, Clara Shinn, Liam Shinn, Blake Sifton, Jake Surratt, Jenna Surratt, Bianca Sweidy, Nicholas Vassylenko, Addia Watson, Chesney Watson, and Jacob Wheeler.

ALBRIGHT, KOSTER & NIAYESH FINAL AT SPRING SECTIONALS

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Mar 082017

Five TNT swimmers competed at an inaugural Spring Sectional Championships held in Carlsbad over the first weekend in March, and our finalists were led by our top point-getter, Danielle Albright who earned second swims in two of the four events she competed in, and improved her times in those two of four events. An improvement of over a second in the 100 yard breaststroke to a 1:05.29 placed 16^th in the second of three heats that fielded ten contestants. Danielle is a veteran Futures qualifier in the event, and her improvement of over three seconds in the 200 breaststroke took her to a time of 2:22.68, a 19^th place finish in a second consolation heat, and a second Futures cut.

Our second finalist was JD Koster who improved his time by over a half second to a 1:55.15 in the 200 yard butterfly, improving one of his three events that included a time trial, and finishing 30^th in the bonus final. Preston Niayesh improved one of his four events that also included a time trial event, and his second swim came in a consolation final heat where his time improvement of over a second to a 58.34 was enough to win that heat, place 21^st, and set the only team record at the meet. Preston had previously set the record as a 59.49 prior to the close of the year while competing at the Kevin Perry meet in November, and his new record stands as the 124^th fastest male swimmer at age 16; however, he is one of only two swimmers in the history of our team to swim under on minute in the event. Preston’s time is a new Futures cut.

Visalia’s Mackenzie Garza maintained the highest improvement rate, bettering two of three events that included one time trial. Her highest place was 43^rd in the 50 yard freestyle (24.53), while Alonso Escobedo swam to a second alternate position (32^nd) in the 400 IM (4:16.27).

FOUR SCORE AT JUANITA ALLINGTON

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Mar 082017

Twelve TNT swimmers competed at the Juanita Allington Memorial meet over the last weekend of January, and four of our swimmers earned second swims in a scoring final, highlighted by the championship, top-8, swim by Selma’s Jonas Huckabay. Jonas maintained the highest finish of any TNT swimmer by placing 8^th with a time of 17:04.26 in the 1650 freestyle. Jonas also finished 21^st in the 1000 free (10:16.31), and 25^th in the 500 free (4:54.26). Our top point-getter was JD Koster who scored in three events, where a nearly 10 second improvement in the 400 IM to a 4:16.40 set him up for a 9^th place finish in the championship final that fielded 10 swimmers. He also won the consolation heat of the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:12.84, and then went on to score in the B final of the 200 IM where his 2:01.68 was enough for a 17^th place finish there. JD had two additional finals that included a 26^th place finish in the 100 fly (53.72), and 22^nd place in the 100 breast (1:01.85). Two other swimmers earned a scoring finish by winning their respective consolation heats, and these two included Danielle Albright who swam 1:06.45 in the 100 breaststroke to finish 11^th there, and Selma’s Morgan Coddington who improved her 400 IM by five seconds to a 4:37.69 to finish 11^th in that event. Danielle also finished 22^nd in the 200 breast (2:27.10), 36^th in the 100 fly (1:01.62), and 24^th in the 200 IM (2:13.95), while Morgan earned additional second swims by finishing 21^st in the 200 breast (2:26.36), 31^st in the 100 back (1:02.32), and 31^st in the 200 IM (2:12.40).

A total of eight swimmers earned a second swim in one of four heats of ten finalists, and our remaining finalists included Libby Adriaansen who finished 40^th in the 100 breast (1:15.69), Katherine Mendyk who finished 30^th in the 100 breast (1:13.36), Selma’s Emma Pena who finished 32^nd in the 50 free (25.29), and Selma’s Satoshi Shinkawa who finished 22^nd in the 200 back (2:02.30), 33^rd in the 50 free (22.79), and 27^th in the 100 fly (54.23).

Only three swimmers managed to improve 100% of their times at this senior-level of competition, and the three included Libby Adriaansen who competed in two events and improved both, Selma’s Morgan Coddington who improved all four of her events, and Selma’s Maya Herrera who competed in five events, and improved all five, and who, by improving over 27 seconds, maintains the largest net improvement among any of our team members.

DANIELLE ALBRIGHT – EVENT CHAMPION AT GOLDEN WEST

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Mar 082017

Five TNT swimmers competed in the second long course meet scheduled on our senior meet calendar for the year, and our top performer is recognized as fourteen year old Danielle Albright who swam a time of 1:18.28 in the 100 meter breaststroke to come away with the only first place finish on our team. The next highest finish was the 2^nd place performance of JD Koster, swimming a time of 2:35.65 in the 200 meter breaststroke, and he was followed by the 3^rd place swim in the 500 IM of Alonso Escobedo who posted 5:07.56 in the event. Fourteen year old Katherine Sullivan had an 8^th place finish in the 400 meter IM with a time of 5:48.93, while Preston Niayesh came home with a 10^th place finish in the 200 breaststroke (2:51.45) as his highest finish.

COSTA & GEIGER FINAL AT LOST DUTCHMAN

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Mar 082017

Eleven TNT swimmers traveled to Chandler, Arizona over the third weekend of February and competed in the 2017 Lost Dutchman, and two of our team members earned second swims in no fewer than three of their events. Our highest finish came from Visalia’s Lauren Geiger who scored in the championship final of the 50 yard butterfly event, swimming a time of 27.69 in the event to finish seventh in the sprint. Lauren also finished 10th in the 50 backstroke (29.13), and 14th in the 100 back after posting a time of 1:02.86 in the preliminary heats. Competing at the bottom of the 13-14 age division, Peyton Costa was the only other finalist for the team, scoring in the championship final of the 100 breaststroke event with a time of 1:08.76, and then swimming in the consolation heat of the 100 back (9th – 1:01.37), 50 back (11th – 28.68), and 200 breaststroke (13th – 2:27.56) events.

Our remaining swimmers, along with their highest finish, include: Micha Ruiz (100 free – 23rd), Janessa Bringe (500 free – 25th), Marcus Mecum (50 breast – 33rd), Raquel Mecum (50 breast – 54th), Carlos Garcia-Lemus (50 free – 62nd), Jillian Gaines (100 breast – 77th), Kate Geiger (50 back – 80th), Ashton King (100 back – 85th), and Isabella Klawitter (100 breast – 88th).

ROBRTS, WONG & WONG SET TEAM RECORDS AT JUNIOR OLYMPICS

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Mar 072017

Four team records fell during the short course Junior Olympic meet, and these were reset by three different swimmers. Fourteen year old Alex Roberts took home the gold medal in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 58.27 which topped the previous team record held by Samantha Goates, and set in 2005 while competing at Sectionals while earning a final swim in the event. The previous record stood at 58.42, and now Alex’s time stands as the 151st fastest in the nation for girls at age 14. Alex’s time is also a qualifying time for Futures.

Alexa Wong set her first team record, and in the same 100 yard backstroke event, but for the 10-under girls division while placing 2nd. Alexa’s time of 1:10.30 is currently the 142nd fastest in the nation for girls at age 10, and she set a record that was established back in April of 1990 as 1:11.16 by Jill Edminster while competing at Far Westerns, and was therefore one of the longest standing records on the books.

Bryan Wong continues his record breaking performances in the age division by setting two new records for the 11-12 boys. His time of 1:03.20 finished 3rd in the 100 IM, and slid under Satoshi Shinkawa’s Far Western time of 1:03.64 set as the previous record four years earlier. Bryan’s time is the 285th fastest nationally for boys at age twelve in the event. His second record came in the 200 IM, where his time of 2:15.74 finished 2nd, and broke Coach Jason Ricablanca’s team record of 2:16.88 that was set in 1994 while competing at the Merced meet. The new record ranks 311th nationally for boys at the same age. Bryan now holds six of the eighteen short course team records, and they include: 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast, 100 IM, 200 IM and 400 IM events.

Forty-four TNT swimmers competed at this year’s sort course Junior Olympic meet over the February 17-20 weekend, resulting in an accumulation of 1423 points, and a fourth place finish as a team, behind Clovis (4791 points), CCAT (2193), Bakersfield Aquatics (1802), and just ahead of Las Vegas Swim Club (1365). Twenty-nine teams scored at the meet. A total of 1,146 points resulted from our 26 swimmers who scored during individual events, and these points were led by five swimmers who scored in the triple digits: Alexa Wong (120 points), Selma’s Sydnee Wilson (110), Bryan Wong (106), Visalia’s Layla Flores (103), and Selma’s Sienna Abernathy (100). Our remaining points from individual events came from: Lucas Huckabay (98), Jillian Duffy (81), Bryce Wong (72), Kylie Walker (62), Drew Black (55), Alex Roberts (51), Rylee Lord (41), Daniel Haley (35), Wyatt Ward (25), Addison Mccullough (14), Isaac Gutierrez (13), Nathan Boudreaux (13), Ava Olson (9), Diego Gutierrez (9), Tyson Phillips (8), Nadia Garabedian (6), Claire Welborn (5), Nicholas Vassylenko (4), Meghan Adams (3), Logan Huckabay (2), and Annlyn Haworth (1).

Our overall team improvement percentage exceeded an astounding 73% with nineteen of our swimmers maintaining a 100% improvement rate. Congratulations to: Sienna Abernathy (improving 8 of 8 events), Meghan Adams (1 of 1), Libby Adriaansen (1 of 1), Maquire Barteau (1 of 1), Drew Black (7 of 7), Aidan Champagne (3 of 3), Ciena Clarke (1 of 1), Collin Duffy (1 of 1), Isaac Gutierrez (4 of 4), Madalynn Lady (3 of 3), Genoveve Mcilwaine (1 of 1), Ava Olson (3 of 3), Alex Roberts (3 of 3), Luke Vanwoudenberg (2 of 2), Kylie Walker (4 of 4), Wyatt Ward (2 of 2), Claire Welborn (4 of 4), Sydnee Wilson (8 of 8), and Alexa Wong (7 of 7).

ALBRIGHT & MENDYK FINISH 1-2 AT FRESNO SENIOR MEET

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Jan 282017

Although 17 of our 19 TNT swimmers who competed at the Fresno Senior meet over the third weekend of January earned a final swim in one of three heats, only one TNT swimmer came away as an event champion, and it was in the only event where TNT had a 1-2 finish. Danielle Albright came away as the event champion in the 200 breaststroke, followed by a second place finish from Katherine Mendyk in the event. Danielle had four final swims at the meet that included the 200 breast (1^st– 2:34.15), 200 IM (5^th– 2:18.56), 100 breast (3^rd – 1:09.75), and 50 free (9^th – 26.87), while Katherine Mendyk maintained the busiest schedule of any TNT swimmer, earning a final swim in all six events that she competed in. Her finals included the 200 breast (2^nd – 2:37.37), 200 IM (11^th – 2:23.78), 100 free (13^th – 1:00.00), 200 free (7^th – 2:07.63), 100 breast (6^th – 1:16.02), and 50 free (12^th – 27.36).

Other top-24 finishers in finals included Libby Adriaansen (100 back – 23^rd, 200 breast – 7^th); Layla Flores (100 back – 9^th, 200 breast 4^th); Jillian Gaines (100 breast – 17^th, 100 fly – 17^th); Mackenzie Garza (100 back – 7^th, 100 free – 2^nd); Lauren Geiger (100 back – 4^th, 100 free – 9^th); Diego Gutierrez (100 back – 8^th, 100 free – 8^th, 200 free – 8^th, 100 breast – 7^th, 50 free – 11^th); Isaac Gutierrez (100 back – 9^th, 100 free – 12^th, 200 free – 14^th, 100 breast – 9^th, 50 free – 11^th); Xavier Gutierrez (100 back – 17^th, 100 breast – 11^th, 50 free – 20^th); Preston Niayesh (100 breast – 3^rd, 100 fly – 3^rd); Ava Olson (200 fly – 3^rd, 200 breast – 13^th, 100 breast – 16^th, 100 fly 10^th); Satoshi Shinkawa (200 IM – 4^th, 100 back – 3^rd, 100 free – 3^rd); Seiji Shinkawa (100 back – 18^th, 100 free – 15^th); Shoji Shinkawa (100 back – 21^st); and Katherine Sullivan (200 IM – 12^th, 100 back – 15^th, 100 free – 15^th).

The top performances in terms of improvements unquestionably belong to two swimmers: Diego Gutierrez and Selma’s Shoji Shinkawa. Despite another rain-drenched swim meet, and a team improvement rate that only reached 37%, Diego and Shoji still managed to improve all events entered, and by very large margins. Diego competed in, earned a final swim in, and improved five of five events with his largest improvement of over six seconds being from his final swim in the 100 backstroke where he earned a top-8 finish. Twelve year old Shoji competed in four events, and improved all four with a margin of no less than approximately three seconds. His largest improvements were also over six seconds, and in two separate events that included the 100 back (his final swim), and the 100 free.

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