Triton Blog

Nine TNT athletes that included three 12-under swimmers competed at the 2016 Speedo Grand Challenge, hosted by Irvine Novaquatics, over the last weekend of May, and TNT came away with one second swim. Mallory Korenwinder just missed the top-4 championship heat, and took home the win in the consolation field, placing 5^th overall at the meet, and what a swim it was. After staying within .07 and .02 seconds from the Olympic Trial cut over the last two quadrennials, Mallory has now posted a time that ranks 12^th nationally for girls of age 18 (including one foreign swimmer), and 72^nd in the world for girls born between January 1, 1998 and January 1, 2005 (basically, 18-under), and yes, a new Olympic Trial cut. She will join former TNT swimmers, Wesley Coles, Kyle Grissom, and Chris Nolan as the four travel to Omaha, Nebraska at the end of June to compete at the 2016 Olympic Trials. Mallory’s time of 1:11.26 is a new team record.

Improvements from the meet were led by a pair of 11-12 boys, including 11-year old Bryan Wong who improved over a second in the 50 breast (38.63), over two seconds in the 100 breast (1:25.41), and over three seconds in the 100 free (1:07.26). Twelve year old Peyton Costa was the other swimmer with a perfect meet, improving all his events that included nearly a second improvement in the 50 back (34.79), over a second in the 50 breast (39.36), and over two seconds in the 100 back (1:16.02). Danielle Albright improved her 200 free (2:16.03), Visalia’s Layla Flores improved her 50 breast (39.00), and JD Koster improved his 100 breast (1:11.35). Besides Kyle Grissom of USC, and Chris Nolan of UC Santa Barbara, Alonso Escobedo and Preston Niayesh also competed.

TNT hosted a relatively early long course meet at the Reedley complex over the fourth weekend of April where 72 TNT swimmers competed along with teams throughout the central valley, including Fresno State University, and Fresno Pacific University. One team record was broken by two individuals competing in the 11-12 boys division. Both Gage Price and Benjamin Wheeler swam under the pre-existing record in the 11-12 boys 200 meter backstroke event that was set by Parker Giles at the Bakersfield meet four years ago in the summer of 2012 as a 2:52.15. At age 11, Gage Price slid under the pre-existing record with a time of 2:52.09. Gage is our team’s current team record holder in the 100 yard butterfly event for the 10-under age division, and his 200 meter backstroke time currently ranks 43^rd fastest nationally for boys at age 11. Competing alongside Gage was Ben Wheeler who took home the win in the event with a time of 2:49.17, and becomes the current record holder in the event. His new record stands as the 86^th fastest nationally for boys at age 12. Ben is also our team’s current team record holder in the 200 yard backstroke event.

Our team maintained a 56% improvement rate with the following seventeen swimmers improving 100% of their swims that have been previously recorded with our team. Congratulations to: Ella Betancourt (improving 3 of 3 events), Alejandro Cardenas (3 of 3), Ciara Clarke (4 of 4), Audrey Gutierrez (3 of 3), Diego Gutierrez (4 of 4), Isaac Gutierrez (5 of 5), Xavier Gutierrez (3 of 3), Jonas Huckabay (2 of 2), Emma Jimenez (1 of 1), Drew Johnston (4 of 4), Isabella Klawitter (2 of 2), JD Koster (1 of 1), Gage Price (2 of 2), Edward Rodriquez (5 of 5), Shoji Shinkawa (3 of 3), Claire Welborn (2 of 2), and Bryan Wong (7 of 7).

Event champions included those who swam uncontested in their respective eevnts at the meet, and these swims were led by Visalia’s Ciara Clarke who won five of her seven events, Porterville’s Diego Gutierrez who won five of his six events, and 8-year old Luckas Huckabay who remained uncontested in all four of his events. Other quadruple winners included: Porterville’s Isaac Gutierrez, Gage Price, Alex Roberts, and Bryan Wong. Our remaining event champions include: Libby Adriaansen, Danielle Albright, Drew Black, Mikenna Curtis, Kate Frost, Tristan Gaines, Xavier Gutierrez, Logan Huckabay, Dylan Hunt, Tanner Kelm, Isabella Klawitter, Mallory Korenwinder, JD Koster, Rylee Lord, Genoveve Mcilwaine, Ava Olson, Garrison Price, Micah Ruiz, Satoshi Shinkawa, Wyatt Ward, Benjamin Wheeler, Alexa Wong, and Bryce Wong.

Congratulations also go to the following nine swimmers for posting new long course times with the team: Ciena Clarke, Katherine Forbes, Logan Huckabay, Tanner Kelm, Madison Mcginnis, Hunter Sartin, Erika Vandermaarl, Haley Vandermaarl, and Kate Welborn.

Eight TNT swimmers traveled to Pleasanton over the last weekend of March to compete at the 2016 Speedo Short Course Far Western Championships which plays host to many of the top age group swimmers from within California, and also attracts participation from across the western United States. This year teams traveled from Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and the state of Washington to compete at this prestigious meet.

Our team’s highest finisher was Danielle Ablright, competing at the bottom of the 13-14 age division, and finishing 7th in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 17:53.52. She also a championship final with a 9th place finish in the 500 freestyle with her time of 5:08.74 which was a two-time improvement after swimming her lifetime best of 5:09.26 in the preliminary heats. Both events were exemplary performances considering that Danielle competed as a 13-year old in the 13-14 division.
Alexa Wong was another qualifier who competed at the bottom of the age division, and at age 9 her highest finish was 26th in the 100 fly (1:13.23). Following Danielle, our next highest finisher was Ava Olson who finished 18th in the 100 fly (1:11.80) for the 10-under division, and she was followed by Porterville’s Diego Gutierrez who finished 19th in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.84) for the 11-12 division. Peyton Costa was our next highest finisher at 21st, and he did this both the 11-12 girls 400 IM (4:58.01) and 1650 free (19:02.80) events. Visalia’s Janessa Bringe finished 23rd in the 13-14 division of the 1000 freestyle (11:15.97) event, while her training partner, Layla Flores, finished 33rd in the 11-12 50 breaststroke (34.16). Hanford’s Rylee Lord made her first appearance at Far Westerns, and finished 41st in the 11-12 girls 100 free (59.37).

A mere fourteen “attached” TNT swimmers attended the inaugural South Western Age Group Regional meet hosted by Clovis, and without entering a single relay over the four day meet, TNT managed score 400 points to place 5th behind Davis-Arden Hills (1640 points), Clovis (1564), Mission Viejo (800), and Tucson Ford (565), and ahead of California Capital (374). Twenty eight teams entered the meet with team sizes ranging from the 58 swimmers of Clovis, to a single swimmer from each team that included Bakersfield Aquatics, Bakersfield Swim Club, Fresno Dolphins and Spare Time (of course, many swimmers were unattached who may have represented these teams). There were 291 swimmers attending the meet. The meet format included final heats in individual age divisions that included the 11, 12, 13 and 14 divisions. The 10-under swimmers competed in one age division.

Our event champions included Danielle Albright who won the 1650 free (17:40.29), and 200 breaststroke (2:29.00) events in the 13-year old division, Visalia’s Janessa Bringe who took home the gold in the 1650 free (18:36.43) for the 14-year old division, Hanford’s Rylee Lord who won both the 100 fly (1:03.67) and 100 free (57.43) in the 12-year old division, Gage Price was a double winner in the 200 free (2:07.11), and 1000 free (11:51.48) for the 11-year old group, and Benjamin Wheeler won the 200 back (2:22.36) for 12-year olds. Every swimmer competing for TNT earned a final swim, and scored in the championship heat. Our other finalists included: Peyton Costa, Layla Flores, Mackenzie Garza, Diego Gutierrez, Ava Olson, Katherine Sullivan, Alexa Wong, Bryan Wong, and Bryce Wong.

Performance at the Clovis meet has increased our team’s participation in the upcoming Far Western Championships in Pleasanton within two weeks. Our Far Western team of eight no longer has any individual qualified in only one event. Congratulations, and good luck to our 2016 Far Western Team of Danielle Albright (13-14), Visalia’s Janessa Bringe (13-14), Peyton Costa (11-12), Visalia’s Layla Flores (11-12), Porterville’s Diego Gutierrez (11-12), Hanford’s Rylee Lord (11-12), Ava Olson (10-under), and Alexa Wong (10-under).

Time improvements at the Clovis meet reflect what may be an unprecedented percentage at 86% with six of our 14 swimmers improving 100% of their times. Congratulations to Danielle Albright (8 of 8), Visalia’s Layla Flores (7 of 7), Visalia’s Mackenzie Garza (6 of 6), Hanford’s Rylee Lord (3 of 3), Gage Price (7 of 7), and Bryan Wong (5 of 5). Individuals who improved 80% or more of their times included: Visalia’s Janessa Bringe (86%), Peyton Costa (86%), Porterville’s Diego Gutierrez (80%), and Ava Olson (83%).

Six team records fell at the meet, and these were led by Danielle Albright whose 17:40.29 in the 1650 freestyle was not only a new 13-14 team record, but also stands as the team’s Senior record, making her time the fastest in the history of the team, regardless of age. Her time went well under Megan Eppler’s previous record of 17:54.47 set over ten years ago at Sectionals in 2005 while she too was 13 years old. The Senior record was held by Katelyn Herrera, set when she was 16 as 17:45.35 at Sectionals in 2014. Danielle’s new record stands as the 42nd fastest nationally for girls at age 13. Danielle also slid under Mallory Korenwinder’s 4:34.81 in the 400 IM by swimming 4:33.96. Mallory had set the record at Clovis three years earlier in 2013. Danielle’s record in the 400 IM is posted as the 59th fastest nationally. She swam twice under the team’s existing 1000 free record, once as an intermediate split of the 1650 (10:37.87), but then improved that split to a 10:34.19 during the individual event. She improved her own record that she set as a 10:40.02 at Junior Olympics last month in February. Her time now is the 45th fastest nationally.

Peyton Costa doubled up with team records, also breaking two in one swim. He swam the 1650 freestyle with a time of 18:59.00, being the first TNT swimmer in the 11-12 boys division to post a time under the 19-minute mark, thereby improving his previous team record of 19:33.65 that he set at the Tulare meet this past December. His time stands as the 161st fastest nationally for 12-year old boys. He split 11:30.18 at the 1000 freestyle point in the race, and this split took him under his 11:41.41 that he set as the team record last November in Tulare. This time stands as the 241st fastest nationally.
Benjamin Wheeler was the only other record-breaking swim, in an event that seems to go back and forth between he and Peyton, and from one meet to the next. Benjamin originally set the team record as 2:25.29 at the Age Group Championships in San Diego while training in Visalia this past December. Peyton subsequently broke the record with a time of 2:24.72 at the Canyons meet last month. Now Benjamin regained the title, swimming under the pre-existing record twice, and now setting the new standard as a 2:22.36. The new record stands in the 700th spot nationally for boys at the same age.

Ten TNT swimmers competed at the Juanita Allington Memorial meet held in Clovis over the last weekend of February, and three of our swimmers earned a second swim in one of three heats of ten. Our highest finish was from 13-year old Danielle Albright who finished 14th in the 100 breaststroke with a lifetime best of 1:08.44. She was followed by Visalia’s Megan Ridenour who was our only swimmer with multiple finals, finishing 30th in the 200 breaststroke, and 15th in the 100 breaststroke. Owen Ansel was our only other finalist who touched 29th in the 200 breaststroke event.
Thirteen-year old Alex Roberts was the only swimmer to improve 100% of time, improving four of four events. Her highest finish was 71st in the 100 back. Our remaining six swimmers, along with their highest finish, include: Janessa Bringe (154th – 200 free), Tristan Gaines (41st – 1000 free), Laruen Geiger (48th – 100 back), Ashley Olson (47th – 100 back), Micah Ruiz (52nd – 200 back), and Katherine Sullivan (53rd – 200 fly).