Marlins Finish 2nd at California Nevada Sectional Champs

Twenty Marlins traveled to Long Beach December 18 – 22 for the California – Nevada Sectional Championship. Overall, our team finished 2^nd in Division II (medium size team division) and 6^th overall. Several swimmers had fantastic meets with a high percentage of best times, five new team records and some courageous efforts.  Our team was in 8^th after the first night, 5^th after the second, 4^th after the 3^rd and then moved into 2^nd place with a day to go. Fortunately, we held on to 2^nd place despite having to skip the relays on the final night in order to catch our flight. The fact that we moved up in the standings and got stronger with each day is a testament to how our athletes train. When others get tired, we get better.

Top individual point scorers included Ryan Pickett who made finals in all 6 events he swam, including a 6^th place finish in the 200 free and a 7^th place finish in the 100 back. In all, Ryan had 3 best times.  Ryan Studebaker also made it back in all five of his events including a 6^th in the 200 breast and 8^th in the 100 breast. He had 3 best times as well. Sophie Weber had the meet of her life, making finals in 5 out of the 6 things she swam, breaking team records in the 200 IM and 100 back and swimming best times in 5 out of 6 races.  Alexandra Whitford made finals in 4 events and clawed her way to a first place finish in the 50 free to break the Marlins team record for 17-18 girls. Josh Choi scored in 4 out of his 6 events with 4 best times and a new Marlin team record in the 400 IM. Mikayla Winkler scored in 3 events and went 5 out of 6 best times.

Other swimmers that had excellent meets included Brittany Bean, who despite swimming at her first sectional meet and enduring a few hours sitting on the runway Friday night, swam well with 2 out of 4 best times. Hannah Bensman made some great drops and went 4 out of 5 best times. Katelyn Burson swam a perfect 4 for 4 including a monstrous 4 second drop in the 200 breast. Jordan Caines did well with 4 for 6 best times and scored in the 200 back. Hannah Calton had an awesome meet with 5 out of 6 best times. Stephanie Klotz swam 4 for 6 best times and had nearly a 4 second drop in the 400 IM. Weston Landre had a strong meet with 4 out of 6 best times. Maddy Velez swam extremely well with 5 for 6 best times and had some huge drops. Grayson Whitten was on his “A” game swimming 5 out of 6 best times including a 5.5 second drop in the 400 IM.

The Marlins also combined for some great relays. The highlight was the men’s 400 free relay of Ryan Pickett, Josh Choi, Weston Landre and Ryan Studebaker who swam an impressive 3:08.64 to finish 4^th and break a Marlin team record. The women’s 800 free relay of Mikayla Winkler, Alexandra Whitford, Sophie Weber and Hannah Calton also swam awesome, finishing in 6^th place. The 800 free “B” relay went 4 for 4 best times with a tremendous best time lead-off of 1:55.34 from Quincy Christian. Maddy Velez, Stephanie Klotz and Angel Prat finished it out with impressive legs. In the 400 free relay, the “A” team of Alexandra Whitford, Mikayla Winkler, Sophie Weber and Hannah Calton finished in 9^th place and the “B” relay of Stephanie Klotz, Katelyn Burson, Maddy Velez and Hannah Bensman went 4 best times to combine for a big drop.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the fact that many of our swimmers surpassed their best times that were done in high performance suits that are now illegal was an impressive feat. Our athletes proved that IT’S THE SWIMMER, NOT THE SUIT!

Special thanks to Linda Klotz and Gina Studebaker who earned an A+ in the chaperoning department. They went out of their way to make sure that the kids had balanced nutrition throughout the meet which made a big difference in the last few days.