Millie Thomas, Shasta Thompson, Gianna Smith, Daphne Smyth, Maddie McKeown, and Nikki Elrod
By Courtney Masella-O’Brien
At the end of the third week of the swim season, the Martinez Community Swim Team (MCST) Otters were undefeated, winning their fifth and sixth meets at Pleasant Hill and Benicia. The combined team scores at the June 20, 2018 meet at Pleasant Hill was MCST 417, Pleasant Hill Dolfins 344. The June 23, 2018 score was MCST 385, Benicia Stingrays 325. Both victories were achieved on the road.
At Pleasant Hill, seven swimmers tied for first place for the women, each earning 10 points for their teams, including eight-year-old Ava Hansen and six-year-old Hailey Trim of Martinez. Eight swimmers tied for eighth place including MCST’s Bella Wilhite, 8, Maeve Mullen, 6, Sydney Bower, 15, Daphne Smyth, 8, and Sara Meadors, 12. Each earned 8 points for the Otters. Earning six points each for the Otters were Briar Cue, 9, Addie Purewal, 9, Claire Padilla, 6, Frankie Schulze, 12, and Madailein Melendez, 9.
For the boys, Max Keifer, 14, Noah Gutierrez, 10, and Finn Morabe, 15, were the top points earners, receiving 10 points each for MCST. Kyle Takamoto, 12, Jackson Barnacal, 13, Shawn Keifer, 10, and Matthew Benz, 11, placed next, each earning 8 points. Earning six points each for the Otters were Logan Moschell, 6, Hunter Burns, 8, Agi Montes, 10, and Del Roderick, 15. Gabriel Zinn earned 5 points, as did Carter Burns, 6, and Liam Morabe, 11.
Sadie Fuller for the girls and Chandler Kent for the boys, both 8, placed third in the 100-yard Individual Medley. Anysley Cheney, 10, also placed third in the boys’ 100-yard Individual Medley. Also, in the girls’ 100-yard Individual Medley, Leila Leonard, 11, Kiara Cheney, 11, and Vera Montes, 11, placed fourth, fifth, and sixth in their age group. Sam Benz, 14, and Mia Harbaugh, 15, each placed third in their age groups in the Individual Medley.
MCST had many excellent swims at the Benicia meet as well. For the boys individual scores, eight-year-old Hunter Burns placed first with 15 points. Max Schulze, 9, and Kyle Takamoto, 12, placed second with 13 points each. In fifth place was Oliver Cutting, 6, with 11 points. Fifteen-year-old Del Roderick placed ninth for the boys with 10 points.
For the girls, six-year-old Maeve Mullen came in first with 15 points. Tying for seventh place, earning 11 points each, were Bella Wilhite, 8, Casey Concepcion, 14, Anne Cevasco, 12, and Sara Cutright, 13. Ana Rubio, 16, and Sara Meadors, 12, each earned 7 points and came in fourteenth overall.
In the girls’ 25-yard freestyle the top four finishers were all six-year-olds from Martinez: Maeve Mullen, Rachel Delgado, Hailey Trim, and Noelle Wilhite. In the 50-yard freestyle girls’ 9-10 age group, second to fifth place also went to Martinez Swimmers. They were Briar Cue, Addie Purewal, Jenna Hekl, and Nelly Nevares, all 9 years old. Ten-year-old Kaylee Salazar finished sixth and nine-year-old Madailein Melendez placed eighth. The next three finishers were Sierra Thompson, 10, Ruby Griffone, 10, and Dani Morrill, 10.
Five of the top six spots in the boys’ 11-12 50-yard freestyle went to Martinez swimmers: Liam Morabe, 11, Owen Bolstad, 12, Aaron Tornero, 12, Gabriel Zinn, 12 and Spencer Ryan, 11.
All of the top five finishers in the girls’ 13-14 50-yard freestyle were Otters: Casey Concepcion, 14, Sara Cutright, 13, Taylor Takamoto, 14, Kacia Kirshen, 14, and Jocie Yee, 14.
In the men’s’ 15-18 100-yard breaststroke, four of the five top finishers were from Martinez. They were Stefano Costa, 16, Jake Bower, 17, Elam Bender, 16, and Brynn Crowley, 17.
In the girl’s 25-yard butterfly, the top 7 were all Otters. They were Maeve Mullen, 6, Hailey Trim, 6, Claire Padilla, 6, Noelle Wilhite, 6, Libby Thomas, 6, Laila Diaz, 5, and Terra Smyth, 5.
In the boys 7-8 50-yard backstroke, the top 5 were all Martinez swimmers. They were eight-year-olds Hunter Burns, Brandon Silveira, Berti Montes, and seven-year-olds Gabriel Robinson and Roman Montes. In the 9-10-year-old age group, Max Schulze, 9, Noah Gutierrez, 10, Shawn Keifer, 10, Isaiah Cassidy, 10, and Kirby Davoren, 10, were all in the top eight. And for the 11-12 group, Kyle Takomoto, 12, Noah Nevares, 11, Owen Bolstad, 12, Aaron Tornero, 12, and Xavier Poyadue, 12, were among the top six finishers.
MCST’s last home meet of the season is July 21 at Rankin Aquatic Center. The Twin Counties League Meet is July 28, 2018 in American Canyon.
Wish you covered the high scholls womens soccer team like this and how the tribune did. All i have seen is a majority of the male sports and basket ball abd baseball. Our womens soccer team has rocked and made amazing sucessful accomplishments yet not a sincle picture or mention of them. I have so many news articles frm 2 years ago of the girla…yet not a single article/mention from you. Very dissapointing
This article was submitted to the Gazette, if you would like to send an article we would run it in the newspaper. We do not have a sports reporter. The Tribune went out of business, very few people will pay for news. There is an expectation it should be free. But that is not a sustainable dynamic.
One of MCST’s parent volunteers writes the articles and submits them to the Gazette. I have been a part of the team for 10 years and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember. It sounds like you could do the same for the ladies soccer team. It would be great to recognize their accomplishments.
One of the parent volunteers for MCST writes the articles and submits them. I have been a part of the swim team for 10 years and it has always been that way. It would be a good idea to submit an article to them about the ladies soccer team to recognize them for their accomplishments.