Morgan Hill Swim Club Members Place Well at Junior Olympics
Championship
Morgan Hill – Several members of the Morgan Hill Swim Club (Makos) performed well at the Pacific Swimming Junior Olympics Championship last weekend without much rest. On the first day of the meet the Makos took four swimmers and all four qualified for the finals. Makos brought eight swimmers to compete in the championship.
The Makos practice Monday through Friday and hold workouts from 5:15 to 6:30 in the morning.
“We have a group of committed kids right now,” said coach Mark Scott, while running evening practice at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center on Thursday. “The kids are starting to work hard and intelligently. Most all the swims (at the Junior Olympics) were either best times or very close to personal bests.”
Out of 695 swimmers from 105 teams entered in the meet, the Makos team saw all their hard work pay off with a top 25 finish.
Kortney Kay, 10, was getting sick as the meet progressed and managed to score in more events than anybody, including a first place finish in the 500-yard freestyle race, which she led from beginning to end, with a time of 6:00.43.
“She almost broke the six minute mark,” Scott said of Kay’s first place finish. “She swam in a lot of events and had her personal best in practically all of them. She showed a lot of versatility scoring points in the finals of the 100 IM, 100 breaststroke and 200 Free as well.”
Kay had a third place finish in the 200-yard freestlye (2:19.85), a fifth place finish in the 100-yard medley (1:13.86), a sixth place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:22.37) and finished 13th in the 100-yard fly (1:18.22).
Ryan McCombs, 10, earned 11th place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle (2:23.13) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:14.52).
“Ryan made the finals in three events and it was fun to watch him race,” said Scott. “He dropped almost 17 seconds off his 100-fly time to qualify for the meet in that event and dropped another five seconds at the meet, almost placing.”
Katie Rick, 13, placed in four out of eight events she raced in, including a fifth place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:11.49
Estelle Richardson, 13, had an 11th place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:39.51, in what Scott describes as “probably the single best race”. Richardson recorded her personal best in the event and was locked in a battle with a girl from another team, swimming just inches ahead the entire race.
Steven Rick, 14, earned a second place finish in the in the 400-yard medley, dropping some time off his best with a time of 4:22.68. Rick also had a sixth place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:21.90).
“He is getting stronger everyday,” said Scott, who has been coaching Makos for three months. “The whole team is improving. I’ve been throwing a lot of work at these kids and they have done a superb job adapting.”
Scott has coached college teams to national championships and high school teams to state titles and is optimistic for the future of the Makos team.
“I think right now they are surprising themselves at how well they are doing,” said Scott. “It’s not if this team will be good, its when. They will be good.”
The Makos team will be in action again today and tomorrow when they host the Happy Holiday meet at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center from 9 am to 4pm.Â
