Winter Age Group Championships RECAP
Congratulations to all Winter Age Group qualifiers who put in a strong effort to put MPMR at 2nd place overall! It was truly an exciting and tough 4 days of competing (up to eight races in one day for some athletes.) It was truly a team effort as we were able to capture 2nd by a mere margin of less than 5 points to the hosts of the meet, RAA who ended up 3rd!!!
Special shout-out to our MVP in points of the meet: Kenny You, was able to score 63 points with a 1st place finish in the 200 BK (1:53.03), 200 IM (1:56.43), 100 FL (52.01), and 100 BK (51.72) – that is four events!
More high scorers of the meet include Alex Jiang with 53 points, placing 1st in the 400 IM (4:08.85) & 100 BR (1:00.20), Frank Pang with 47 points, placing 1st in the 1650 FR (17:06.53) & 1000 FR (10:03.36), and Kaiden Wong with 43 points placing 1st in the 50 BR (39.39) – not to mention this was Kaiden’s first WAG ever at 9 years old!
Kathy Munoz was also a big contributor to this competition with 39.5 points and showing an exciting tie finish to the race in the 100 FL (57.94), Scott Isa who scored 32.5 points after just aging up to 11, as well as Grace Gallardo who scored 31 points and had a strong 2nd place showing in the 200 FL (2:17.5).
Also shout-out to our other finalists, Kenny Jiang (23.5 pts), Adam Truong (24 pts), Felix Yang (23 pts), Kiana Li (20 pts), Angelina Pang (12 pts), Jessica Chu (11 pts), Alton Qian (6 pts), Audrianna Zhu (5.5 pts), Colin Shiung (5 pts), Alyssa Hong (4 pts), Joshua Corpuz (4 pts), Troy Seto (3 pts), Ella Fong (3 pts), and Jerry Huang (1 pt).
However, it was the TEAM effort in the RELAYS that really pushed us to 2nd. Our 15+ 400 FR A relay placed 1st (3:14.61) while our B relay had a fantastic performance to clutch 3rd (3:23.06) beating 4th by less than .70 of a margin ensuring our positioning at the end of the met. Great finish at the end to the B relay consisting of (Alton Qian, Jerry Huang, Colin Shiung, and the anchor Felix Yang). Please note, relays are worth DOUBLE the amount of points given to individual events.
Extremely proud of all qualifiers and future finalists of WAG: Dylan Caloza, Ryan Caloza, John Hah, Eden Kuang, Nick Poon, Reese Romo, Brandon Shin, Nate Teeraniti, and Chris Wong.
And a SUPER shout-out to our relay-only swimmers who came out to compete and help score points on the relays Austin Zhu, Emily Wong, Carla Mantovani, and Helena Gallardo!
MPMR could not have gotten 2nd place with even just ONE less swimmer. However, if we have more of our swimmers competing and attending swim meets and qualifying for meets like WAG, it is only a matter of time until we are 1st. We truly look forward to you all signing up for the next swim meet. Great job Manta Rays!
