2014 Western Zone Senior Championships

15 CAT athletes traveled to the Western Zone Senior Championships in Clovis, California July 30 through August 3.  Results are available on Meet Mobile - search for the word "Clovis" then choose the finals meet.  Congratulations to Kayla Ashland, Rylie Ball, Molly Beamer, Ida Donohue, Nick Gambatese, Lexi Heyerly, Kaarina Nyman, Zac Plum, Zoey Rochefort, Tanner Schipper, Emily Shaw, Lindsey Soule', Austin Thompson, Karly Vial, and Charlie Way.  

This year's Western Zone Senior Championship set a standard for how swimmers should race in a championship. The meet was not great because we out scored other teams or had amazing relays, it was great because we came to the facility to race every day through the end of the meet.  One-swim qualifiers through top 8 athletes all swam to best times with some fun racing.

On the first day of competition, Ida finished 14th and Lindsey finished 13th in the 1500 free. On the last day of competition in the 800 free, they pushed each other, head to head, without any other competition, for 9 minutes of racing.  After all swimmers had completed the 800, Lindsey finished 11th and Ida 7th. On the second day of competition, Molly finished 23rd in the 200 fly with a best time and Ida was 26th in finals with a new CAT record. In the 200 back, Lindsey set a new CAT 13-14 record and finished 22nd. In the 400 free, on the 4th day of competition, Lindsey finished 23rd with a best time by 4 seconds and Ida was 26th with a best time and a wonderful finals swim. On the final day of competition, we had one of our best finishes compared to any other CAT championship.  Molly finished 28th in the 100 fly just off of the CAT record, with a best time by 2 seconds.

Kayla had a fun meet, swimming to 5 best times out of 6, and swam to strong finishes in both the 1500 free and 800 free on either ends of the meet. Zoey had a phenomenal lead off in her 400 IM, swimming to a best time split in the 100 fly.Charlie came to Clovis to race, putting down 100% best times.  He went out in the 100 free in a best time and finished with a best time by 3 seconds. Tanner dropped another 11 seconds off of his 400 free from a week earlier and had a wonderful lead off leg on the medley relay. Rylie had one event to swim in the meet and did an amazing job dropping 2.5 seconds off of her best time from a week earlier. Nickhad a fun 200 back dropping 4 seconds off of his best time accelerating to a beautiful finish. Lexi had 100% best times with her best last 50 of the 200 breast; wonderful finish.Kaarina had an amazing 100 fly on the final day of the meet, dropping 7.5 seconds. Zac had 100% best times for the meet. In the 100 fly he was a ways from making finals, but that did not hold him back as he dropped another 2 seconds off his best time from a week earlier. Emily had a huge 18 second drop in a wonderfully swum 400 IM, and a sweet 100 fly race on the last day. Like Rylie, Austin had one swim at the end of the meet and it was a wonderful swim dropping 2.5 seconds from his best time in the 100 breast from a week earlier. Karly has declared war on the 200 breast - at Oregon A's she went a 3:11 in finals; at Clovis one week later, she pulled off a well split 3:04.

Thank you swimmers for a fun, great raced meet. We had nights where we did not get back to the hotel until 10:00 and the next morning we were up and racing, with great attitudes.

-Rick Guenther