Swimmers from the Pleasanton Seahawks team competed in several championship events during the past month in the Bay Area, Southern California and Washington state.
Junior nationals
Six Pleasanton swimmers attended the Speedo Junior National Championship held in Southern California. The seven-day event ran from July 28 to Aug. 3 in Irvine and included some of the nation’s top youth swimmers.
All six Seahawk swimmers qualified for the finals in most or all of their races.
For the girls: Iris Brand finished 20th in the 100 free and 21st in the 50 free. Erika Brown finished 11th in 100 free and third in 200 free, which earned her a spot on the National Junior Team. Moriah Simonds finished eighth in 400 free, 13th in 800 free and seventh in 1500 free.
For the boys: Maxime Rooney finished second in 100 free, ninth in 100 fly, third in 200 fly, second in 200 free and 11th in 100 backstroke, earning a spot on the National Junior Team. Nick Silverthorn finished 22nd in 100 free, 14th in 200 breast and 15th in 100 breast. Tony Shen also represented the Seahawks, but his results were not readily available.
The Seahawks team came in 12th place overall.
Far Western
More than 90 swimmers between the ages of 10-19 represented the Seahawks at the Far Western Championship. The five-day swim meet was hosted by the Concord Terrapins from July 30 to Aug. 3 and included 138 events.
Among the Seahawks’ highlights was the performance by their 13-14 years old boys freestyle relay team, which shattered a regional record that stood for three decades. The quartet of Jonah Cooper, Tyler Lu, Christopher Jhong and Nathan Yates swam the 400 freestyle in 3:44.32 on Aug. 2. The previous Pacific record was set by the San Jose Aquatics team.
Western Zone
Some Seahawks headed north to Washington state Aug. 6-9 to compete in the Western Zone Age Group Championship for all-star swimmers up to age 14. The Pleasanton swimmers were a part of the Pacific Swimming team, which included 60 athletes.
Pacific Swimming finished in third place with 2,491 total combined points. Team Colorado came in first place with 3,283 points, and the host team, Pacific Northwest Swimming, finished in second with 3,056 points.
The 13 swimmers from the Pleasanton Seahawks were Daniella Hawkins, Caroline Eckel, Claire Suen, Miranda Heckman, Nawoo Kim, Hannah Franzwa, Grace Nimmo, Amber Fornoles, Olivia Kim, Christopher Jhong, Tyler Lu, Sydney Lu and Lleyton Plattel.
Phillips 66 Nationals
Seahawk swimmers took part in another competition in Irvine, the Phillips 66 National Championship from Aug. 6-10.
Pleasanton participants Erika Brown, Maxime Rooney, Nick Silverthorn and Moriah Simonds finished in the top of their age groups and achieved gold-medal times, a requirement to be a potential Gold Medal Team. Being ranked a Gold Medal Team means the Pleasanton Senior Elite Group is among the top 20 teams in the U.S.
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