Triton Blog

The sister-brother duo of 10-year old Alexa Wong and 12-year old brother Bryan Wong had previously made their initial marks on the short course team record board for TNT, and as a result of the Reedley meet that took place over the last weekend of April, are now beginning their impact onto the long course realm. Each of the two marked this early season long course meet with two new team records, the accumulation of their efforts over time being a notable reflection on the level of commitment considering a two-hour commute from Coalinga and back (one hour each way) to make it to practice nightly.

Ten year old Alexa Wong started her meet with a bang, improving nearly two seconds in the 200 meter freestyle, finishing 2^nd in the event, but swimming a time of 2:33.85, falling just over a second and a half under Daniel Albright’s previous team record of 2:35.42 that was set at Junior Olympics in the summer of 2013, and posting the 10^th fastest time in the nation for girls at age 10 to date. Her second team record came in the 100 meter backstroke, placing her as the owner now of both the 100 yard and 100 meter record in the stroke. Her first-place finish in the 100 meter backstroke, and time of 1:21.79 slides under Layla Flores’s previous record of 1:22.24 that was set at Junior Olympics in 2014. This time now stands as the 18^th fastest nationally, in a reporting period that extends through August.

Brother Bryan Wong posted a new team record, also in the 200 meter freestyle, but in the 11-12 age division. His 2:14.05 just slides under Jonas Huckabay’s previous record of 2:14.70 that was set two years ago at Junior Olympics, and Bryan’s new record currently stands as the 11^th fastest nationally for boys at age 12. There are currently only four California swimmers who are 12 years old among the top 10 in the nation. Bryan also set a new team record in the 100 meter freestyle, where his time of 1:02.68 edges under Peyton Costa’s previous record of 1:02.94 set just last year at JO’s. Bryan’s time currently stands as the 22^nd fastest nationally for boys at age 12, in this early phase of the long course season.

Two of our Visalia swimmers were uncontested at the meet, winning all four events they entered. These two include 13-year old Layla Flores who won the 200 breast (3:07.14), 400 IM (5:44.56), 100 breast (1:26.25), and 200 IM (2:41.33) events, along with her 13-year old training partner, Kylie Walker, who won the 100 fly (1:09.48), 50 free (29.26), 100 free (1:06.47), and 100 breast (1:27.44). Other event champions included: Sienna Abernathy (age 10 – winning 1 event), Danielle Albright (14 – winning 3 events), Ella Bettencourt (11 – 1), Drew Black (10 – 1), Connor Bruton (14 – 1), Riley Carpenter (13 – 1), Aidan Champagne (12 – 2), Ciara Clarke (11 – 1), Peyton Costa (13 – 5), Riley Duffy (12 – 1), Diego Gutierrez (13 – 3), Daniel Haley (13 – 3), Nathan Hunt (12 – 1), JD Koster (16 – 3), Addison Mccullough (10 – 2), Genoveve Mcilwaine (13 – 1), Caroline Mendyk (12 – 1), Katherine Mendyk (16 – 1), Axel Miller (10 – 3), Preston Niayesh (16 – 1), Tyson Phillips (8 – 2), Chesney Watson (12 – 2), Benjamin Wheeler (13 – 3), Jacob Wheeler (8 – 1), Alexa Wong (10 – 5), and Bryan Wong (12 – 5).

With an improvement rate of 50% or greater as an indicator of successful improvement, our team maintained a 54% improvement rate, with eleven swimmers improving 100% of their events that had been previously recorded with our team. Congratulations to: Emma Bettencourt (improving 2 of 2 events), Paulina Cemo (1 of 1), Riley Duffy (2 of 2), Diego Gutierrez (4 of 4), Xavier Gutierrez (3 of 3), Addison Mccullough (7 of 7), Jojo Mecum (3 of 3), Marcus Mecum (3 of 3), Finnlee Morgan (3 of 3), Luke Vanwoudenberg (1 of 1), and Maryan Vanwoudenberg (1 of 1). The following 22 swimmers improved 50% or more of their times. Congratulations also go to: Isabel Burrough (86%), Sydney King (83%), Rylee Noronha (83%), Ella Bettencourt (80%), Madalynn Lady (80%), Genoveve Mcilwaine (80%), Bryan Wong (80%), Kate Geiger (75%), Chesney Watson (75%), Drew Black (71%), Carlos Garcia-Lemus (67%), Daniel Haley (67%), Isabella Klawitter (67%), Raquel Mecum (67%), Addia Watson (60%), Benjamin Wheeler (57%), Alexa Wong (57%), John Cemo (50%), Aidan Champagne (50%), Peyton Costa (50%), Nathan Hunt (50%), and Luke Pena (50%).

The following nine swimmers entered only new events. A long course welcome to: Connor Bruton, Riley Carpenter, Brayden Coppola, Morgan Darpli, Axel Miller, Tyson Phillips, Mackenzie Sepeda, Arya Shrestha, and Avani Shrestha.

Four past and current TNT swimmers competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials, and all four made their first appearance at a meet that defines the National Team to compete at the Olympics in Rio over the August 6^th-13^th week.  This year’s Olympic Trials swim meet reflects participation from the largest group of athletes that have gone through our program. Kohlton Norys and Bradley Matsumoto were the two athletes to attend the 2008 Trials, while Kohlton and Megan Eppler both competed at the 2012 Trials. This year Wesley Coles, Kyle Grissom, Mallory Korenwinder and Chris Nolan all competed at the meet.

Wesley Coles has been a TNT swimmer from the 10-under age division, and quickly achieved a Junior Olympic time standard in the butterfly event shortly after joining the club in Tulare. Wesley began his swimming with the Lindsay Skimmers. His 10-under times with our club go back to 2004, and can still be seen on our All Time Top 100 lists, holding position for twelve years. After a few years of no Junior National qualifiers on the team, Wesley was our first athlete to bring our team back to the national stage in 2011 by qualifying and competing at the long course Junior Nationals held at Stanford, and then going on to the Winter Junior National meet at the University of Texas in Austin for the short course meet there. In 2012, Wesley traveled to Omaha with our team to compete in the Swimvitational meet which served as a pre-meet to the 2012 Olympic Trials. Now in 2016, under the guidance and training of Josh Christiansen of Fresno Pacific University, Wesley qualified one year ago to attend the Olympic Trials this year, and swam a lifetime best time of 54.48 to finish 56^th in the 100 meter butterfly event at the meet.

Kyle Grissom achieved an Olympic Trial qualifying time while competing at the Junior National championships in the summer of 2015 in San Antonio, Texas by swimming a time of 54.18 in a consolation final, improving nearly a full second from his preliminary swim. Kyle’s earliest 100 butterfly meter times with club were posted in 2010 and reflects a time of 1:17.30 in May of that year. This is an improvement of over 23 seconds in the span of five years, and he is a product of swimming that began with the Porterville Neptune summer league program, and Visalia’s TNT club program, prior to his training in Tulare. Kyle is one of only a few of our club swimmers who qualified for Olympic Trials prior to entering college, and had entered the Junior National/National levels of competition for the first time at age 15 when he competed at the long course Junior Nationals in August of 2013. He has completed his first year competing for the University of Southern California under the guidance of Dave Salo. Kyle posted a season best time of 55.17 at Trials and a 94^th place finish, and his time is his fourth fastest swim on record.

Mallory Korenwinder is our first athlete to not only qualify for Trials prior to college, but to compete at the meet as a pre-collegiate athlete. There are only eight TNT swimmers listed on our team’s All Time Top 100 performances for the 100 meter breaststroke event for the 15-over division, and one reason so few are listed is because Mallory has posted the top 53 times, leaving only 47 spots for the remaining swimmers, and she has eight of those. She achieved the time standard for Trials at the end of May with a time of 1:11.26 at the Speedo Grand Challenge meet which was four weeks before Trials. The time standard she needed was 1:11.49, and consider that she swam 1:11.56, and 1:11.63 at Junior Nationals in the summer of 2014. Mallory’s earliest 100 meter breaststroke time was from April of 2007 where she swam 1:48.34 in Merced at the age of eight, which is an improvement of over 37 seconds in nearly ten years. Mallory has the most experience of any TNT swimmer at the Junior National/National level as she began competing at that level in 2012 when she was 14 years old. Mallory’s Olympic Trial time of 1:12.96 finished 110^th at the meet. She will be attending, and competing for, the University of Arizona this upcoming fall under the guidance of Rick Demont.

Chris Nolan had the highest place finish for any of our four swimmers competing at Trials, and he is one of the two who posted a time improvement, swimming a life-time best in the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 2:01.14, and finishing 35^th in the event. Chris was the 88^th fastest qualifier in the nation going into the meet, based on a time of 2:01.62 that he posted in the summer of 2014 while competing at Junior Nationals, thereby being another TNT swimmer who achieved the qualifying time standard prior to entering college. The half second improvement in his 200 meter butterfly at a swim meet where only 20% of the athletes improve their times when considering the meet in its entirety, has an impact of moving up 53 places. Chris began his Junior National/National experience at the age of 16 when he competed in the summer at the 2012 Junior National meet. Chris’s earliest 200 meter butterfly time posted with the team is from the May Day Classic in May of 2008 where he swam a time of 2:54.37 at age 11. Eight years later, and 53 seconds faster, Chris is competing at Olympic Trials, and finished a mere 19 places from a semi-final swim. Chris has completed his second year competing for the University of Santa Barbara, under the guidance of Matt Macedo and Gregg Wilson.

Tule Nation Tritons was represented at the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series at Mesa in early April, and they competed alongside the world’s greatest including eighteen year old Katie Ledecky who had broken two world records this past summer when she was only seventeen. Mallory Korenwinder and Kyle Grissom join Ledecky and others like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte as they competed at the fourth stop on the Pro Swim circuit that includes six locations across the country.

Mallory Korenwinder was our only swimmer to earn second swims, and she did so in both breaststroke events. Her 1:13.97 in the preliminary circle-seeded heat finished three places in the heat behind Trojan swimmer and 2012 Olympic medalist, Jessica Hardy  who swam 1:11.03 in that heat. Mallory’s other final was the 200 breaststroke where her time of 2:44.43 earned her a spot in the D final.

Kyle Grissom made his first appearance at a Grand Prix/Pro Swim level of competition, and his first race placed him side-by-side Olympic Gold Medalist, and in-kind sprinter, Cullen Jones, during the 100 meter butterfly event. Kyle’s highest finish was 53^rd in that 100 fly after swimming 57.58 in the preliminary heat and finishing 5^th there.

Chris Nolan is completing his first year of college and represented UC Santa Barbara in his third appearance at the Mesa meet. He made the televised heat (places 1-16) last year in the 200 fly, and again this year with his time of 2:04.65 during the preliminary heats – a time that took him into finals in 15^th place, where he maintained that place. Chris competed against the likes of Tom Shields and Bobby Bollier.

Seven swimmers from three different towns competed at the 2014 Winter Sectionals held at East LA College over the third weekend of December, and this year two of our swimmers earned second swims into the championship heat.

Fig Garden swimmer Lauren Davis earned two scoring swims in both breaststroke events, thereby earning the most points for the team. Her lifetime best of 1:05.34 in the 100 yard breaststroke took her to the consolation heat, and eventual 11th place finish there. Her top performance came in the 5th place finish of the 200 breaststroke that resulted from her back-to-back best times that ended with a 2:19.90 in that final heat. Lauren maintained the highest improvement percentage for any of our swimmers, improving four of her five events.

Selma swimmer Sierra Jett was our other finalist, and she did it with not only a championship final, and 5^th place finish, in the 50 freestyle, but also with a team record. Sierra had previously set the team record as a 24.10 during Junior Olympics earlier this year, but had lost that record to training partner, Jillian Hatch, who had broken it one week prior to Sectionals to a 24.03 while at Junior Nationals. Now Sierra’s new team record, swimming twice under the 24-second mark at Sectionals, stands as 23.83, and is the 71^st fastest nationally among all female 16-year old swimmers.

Our next highest finisher was Selma swimmer, Emily Goodbar, who swam 2:09.64 in the 200 fly, and finished 32^nd in that event. Khloe McCarthy had her fastest 200 freestyle time at the meet with her 1:57.44, but her highest place came with the 45^th place finish in the 500 freestyle (5:08.73). Owen Ansel finished 46^th in his 200 breaststroke, after swimming 2:16.44 during the preliminary heats, while Katelyn Herrera had her highest finish as 88^th in the 500 free (5:23.44). Making her first Sectional appearance at only 13-years old, Visalia swimmer Megan Ridenour showed no signs of backing down to the seasoned competition as she blasted a lifetime best of 1:08.96 in the 100 breaststroke, with sure signs of future accomplishments.

Tule Nation Tritons has two pre-collegiate qualifiers to the 2014 Winter USA Swimming Nationals that were held in Greensborough, North Carolina over the first weekend of December. Kyle Grissom qualified, and competed in two individual events, along with a time trial in the 100 yard freestyle. He came away with his highest place of 57th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 49.68. His other event, 50 freestyle, resulted in a life-time best of 20.78, and a new team record after swimming under his previous 15-18 team record of 20.84 that was set last year at this very same pool, but at the Winter Junior National meet. His time currently stands as the 13th fastest among 17-year old swimmers, in a reporting period that began this past September. Kyle also broke the 15-18 team record in the 100 freestyle, with a time of 46.32, swimming under Colin Landweer’s previous record of 46.72 that he had set two years ago at Sectionals. This time ranks 56th nationally.

Mallory Korenwider was our only other pre-collegiate qualifiers, and she qualified in three individual events. She had the highest place finish of the two, with a 52nd place in the 100 yard breaststroke, after swimming 1:03.52.