Kevin Dyer came away with the individual title for 13-14-year-old boys to help lead an impressive effort for the Carson Tigersharks Swim Club at the State Championships in Las Vegas, which concluded Monday.
Despite being considerably ill, Abby Niehoff also took second place in the individual standings for 13-14 girls. In addition, even though Carson had one of the smallest teams at the meet with 28 swimmers, the Tigersharks were able to take sixth behind, in order, Boulder City, the Clark County Sandpipers, Reno Aquatics, Desert Storm and Team Rebel.
The Tigersharks were also the only team that had 13-14-year-old girls swim the difficult double of the 500 freestyle and the 200 butterfly. Dyer was also the only 13-14-year-old boy to swim that double at the meet.
Carson's swimmers had a near 100 percent rate of swimming season bests and a 75-80 percent rate of swimming personal bests.
Dyer won the 500 free in an outstanding time of four minutes, 50.58 seconds and took second in the 200 fly in 2:06.97.
Niehoff settled for second in the 500 free in 5:22.28. To show how sick she was, Niehoff swam her first 500 in the 1,000 free in 5:09. "She was definitely ill," Tigershark coach Jim Puleo said.
Other top finishes for the Tigersharks were: 13-14 girls 50 free - Julie Asiri, 15th, 27:44. 13-14 girls 500 free - Tatum Boehnke, fifth, 5:28.58; Samantha Ashmore, eighth, 5:39.09; Asiri, 15th, 5:51.29.
13-14 girls 200 fly - Niehoff, third, 2:16.38; Boehnke, fifth, 2:30.66. 15 and over girls 500 free - Jamie Engan, second, 5:00.21; Hilary Schlager, 14th, 5:20.26. 11-12 boys 500 free - Nick Schlager, eighth, 5:58.52. 13-14 boys 200 fly - Sam Ballard, ninth, 2:32.93. 15 and over boys 500 free - Ian Murdock, 15th, 5:22.80.
8 and under girls 50 free - Emily Adams, 14th, 40.96. 8 and under boys 50 free - Quino Chavez, 11th, 41.76; Kainnan Hamilton, 15th, 51.76. 9-10 girls 50 free - Jessica Fahrenbruch, third, 30.21; Chloe Hearn, 16th, 33.39.