The Greenwave varsity swimming team has a renewed hope to send some of its own to the regional competitions this season after their meet in South Tahoe where the boys and girls teams finished with 90 and 117 points respectively.
Though team scores varied, slightly lower for the boys swimmers and slightly higher for the girls, Fallon coach Ken Grimes said many of his swimmers dropped significantly in time, but several are beginning to make regional qualifying times as well.
“For those who have made qualifying times our focus shifts toward trying to be in that group of eight that can make finals,” Grimes said. “Our experienced athletes know pretty well who they are competing against for those upper tier places but there are always surprises and we know that the hard work must continue if we want payoffs in May.”
Fallon’s next meet is in Fernley on April 16 at 8 a.m. competing against swimmers from Incline.
In the girls 200-yard freestyle, Fallon’s Addyson Harmon and Amber Revels finished third and fourth respectively with times of 2:54.84 and 2:55.02.In the 200-yard medley relay, the foursome of Revels along with Kaelyn Nemeth, Danielle Brown and Kataline Martineze took second in 2:17.50.
The same foursome, with the exception of Sierra Bivens in Brown’s stead, placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 2:00.45, more than 16 seconds down from their seed time.
Brown, meanwhile, competed in the 100-yard breaststroke where she placed first at 1:29.56. Brown’s last team event was the 400-yard freestyle relay alongside Bivens and including Katlynn Hanks and Madison Tiede, where the Fallon foursome finished first in 5:32.46.
Martinez and Kaelyn Nemeth, though, took second and third in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 29.17 and 30.07, both shaving more than 30 seconds off of their seed times. Martinez also took first in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:04.86 while Kaelyn Nemeth did the same in the 100-yard backstroke finishing at 1:18.06.
For the boys, Christian Nemeth placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:15.68, his only individual event besides the 200-yard individual medley where he swam alone for a time of 2:32.51.
Christian Nemeth competed in several boys team events, however, including the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay where both his teams finished second. In the freestyle, he along with Nick Amerson, Charlie Brown and Isaac Kelsey timed 1:48.44. A similar foursome, replacing Kelsey with Ryan Ware, had a time of 2:28.81 in the medley relay.
Fallon’s younger swimmers Nathan Narag and Nick Amerson finished second and third respectively with times of 2:29.26 and 2:30.65.in the boys 200-yard freestyle.
In next weekend’s meet at Fernley, Grimes said, will be the first time Fallon has seen Incline this year, and the Greenwave will continue to focus on dropping time for individuals.
“We have some fundamental goals we are working on with this year’s new swimmers,” Grimes said. “Improving our turns could helps us drop significant time. Some swimmers will swim team events they haven’t yet qualified in just to give them more options down the road.”