Athletics
Swim
Another Successful Season for Swimmers S
hort-course season starts in September and spans 25 weeks, culminating with championship meets starting in February through late March. Before the season started, MAC’s team goal was to better the 2014-15 season, which was MAC’s best-ever team performance with 128,400 USA Swimming Virtual Club Score Points. Last season, we crushed the previous benchmark by over 8,000 points, and moved up 26 places nationally, 10 ranks regionally, and one in Oregon swimming. MAC’s team of 150 members has 76 state qualifiers, 35 AG regional qualifiers, 13 senior sectional qualifiers, and three summer junior national qualifiers. Congratulations, swimmers, parents and coaches!
10-and-under Championships Sydney Wilson took first place in the 100 backstroke, third in 50 back, fourth in 200 freestyle, sixth in 100 free, and seventh in 50 free. Graham Inman placed second in the 100 butterfly, third in the 50 fly, fourth in 100 back, fifth in 200 free, and eighth in the 50 free. We had three other girls qualify for state: Carmen Blank, Gigi Abernethy and Kaeli Chapman. We swam in both the 200 free and 200 individual medley relays. It was a great experience for all our 10-and-under swimmers.
11-14 Championships highlights MAC’s third-place finish at state was highlighted by champions Matthias Kreutzer, 11, high point winner in his age group, winning first place in all of his six individual events – 50 back, free and fly, 100 back and free, and 200 free. Other individual state champions included Kevin Keil, 14, 200 back, fly and 400 IM; Beau Lonnquist, 12, 50 and 100 breaststroke; Cody Soo, 13, 200 back; and Khai Tran, 100 IM. Emma Matous placed second in 200 IM. See team records below for those
54 | The Wınged M |
june 2016
in the 50 breast. Cody Soo placed second in the 100 free, third in the 50 free, fifth in the 200 free and 100 fly, and sixth in the 200 IM. Kevin Keil placed second in 100 and 200 back, third in the 200 IM and 200 back, and sixth in 100 breast. Sectionals was a week early this year and just 10 days after the 11-14 state championships, but the athletes rallied and put their best efforts forward.
Senior sectionals
Tristan Furnary, center, leaves as one of MAC’s most succesful swimmers. athletes who set new club records. The age-group program has consistently placed in the top five in Oregon, even though the team only ranks 10th in numbers entered in the competition.
OSI Senior Championships For many athletes this was a tune-up for senior sectionals two weeks later. For others, it was the last meet of the short-course season. Those who ended their season included Donald Holman, with personal best times in six events, Laurel Kemp, with one best time, Sophia Kemp, with three best times, Zaidie Long, one best time, Garrett Smith, with four best times, and Claire Westlake, with three improved times. Individual champions included: Tyler Soo in the 50 free, and Tristan Furnary in the 100 breaststroke.
Age Group sectionals MAC finished 18th out of 125 teams at age group sectionals. MAC took 21 athletes to compete in the four-day event. Sydney Wilson placed seventh in 200 free and eighth in 100 back; Khai Tran placed second in the 200 free, third in the 50 free, fourth in 200 breast and 100 free, and fifth
MAC team finished 11th at the senior sectional meet. The coaching staff wants to acknowledge fine performances by both girls and boys relay teams. The girls placed the 16th in the 200 medley, and the boys fifth in the 800 free, and eighth in the 400 free. Without exception, swimmers put forth their best efforts for the team. Elise Kreutzer, Rob Mead and Nate McFaul deserve a special mention: they just recently aged up and competed in the open division for the first time. All of them got second swims in the finals in their best events, while swimming near the best or best time just to qualify. This is tough to do, but they did a very good job in this transition. Kreutzer placed seventh in 50 free in a big final; McFaul won two consolation finals in the 200 free and 400 free; and Mead won his heat in 100 backstroke. New MAC records have been set by Sidney Wilson (50 and 100 back, Emma Matous (50 breast), Nate McFaul (200 fly team record), Kevin Keil (100, 200 breast, 200 IM 400 IM), Elise Kreutzer (Team record 50 free, and Open record), Brynne O’Shea (Team record and Open Record 200 back) New entries into MAC All-Time Top 5 include: Sara Hsu, Graham Inman, Matthias Kreutzer, Beau Lonnquist, Khai Tran, Tyler Soo, Eli Rheingold, Tristan Furnary, Tyler Soo, Van Mathias and Tristan Furnary. WM