Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Youngest swimmers help propel Stingrays

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Sports Editor; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Albuquerque Young age groups of swim clubs like the Los Lunas Stingrays need older swimmers to help coach and lead them, but it was the youngest group that made a huge contribution at Saturday's Sundance League finals.

The 8-and-under division of the Stingrays accounted for a large percentage of the team's 566 points at the meet, helping Los Lunas place 11th at the meet. Led by 93 combined points from 8-and-under boys Tony Onsae and Chesten Browning, the Stingrays showed they have some young talent that rivals the year-round-swimmers from the bigger Albuquerque clubs.

"Both of those guys did an excellent job," said Stingrays coach Matt Jones. "They really came through."

Browning placed second in the 25 freestyle, second in the 25 backstroke and fifth in the breaststroke. The breaststroke was run at the very end of the meet due to confusion over the start in the original running.

"That was mass chaos," said Jones.

Onsae placed third in both the 25 butterfly and the 100 individual medley and sixth in the 25 fresestyle. Medals are awarded to Sundance finishers in the top three places, and the top 14 receive ribbons.

Onsae and Browning also teamed with William Blea and Christopher Ober to place third in the 8-and-under boys medley relay.

Chiara Pesina was ninth in the 25 butterfly for the 8-and-under girls. Jones credited Jessica Murray with a strong relay performance for the 8U girls.

The impact made by the Stingrays' 9-and-10 age group was significant also. Trevor Brohard's second-place finish in the 25 breaststroke was the highlight for that group.

Kiley McCleary led the way on the girls side, competing in two individual events.

Jones said praise is due for McCleary, a returning individual qualifier at Sundance and a valuable relay contributor in her first year at the 9-10 level.

Mariah Doyle placed eighth in both the backstroke and the 50 freestyle in the girls 11-12 group. She also helped her freestyle relay team to a sixth-place finish.

Sophia Hampton was fifth in the 100 freestyle in the age 13-14 division.

Kelli Williams accounted for nearly all of the team's points in the age 15-18 categories, scoring 44 points by herself. The Belen High senior-to-be was second in the 100 backstroke, sixth in the 100 butterfly, and fifth in the 50 freestyle.

In the backstroke, Williams entered as the top seed in Sundance, and swam what would have been a new meet record with a 1:04.56.

However, the swimmer in the lane next to Williams, Kailee Cremer of High Point Sports & Wellness, swam a 1:04.03 to place first and claim the meet record.

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