By COURTNEY MASELLA-O’BRIEN
Contributor
The Martinez Community Swim Team (MCST) Otters finished up the 2018 swim season with excellent results at the Twin County League Championships on July 28, 2018 and the Contra Costa County Championships on August 11 and 12, 2018.
Once again MCST came out on top at the League Championship with a whopping 3,050 points combined team score. This is the 7th consecutive first place finish at League for the Otters and head coach Keelan Kirshen.
At League, fourteen-year-old Max Keifer came in third place overall for the boys, earning an impressive 57 points for the Otters. Eight-year-old Hunter Burns placed tenth, earning 56 points for the Otters, and Jackson Barnacal, 13, placed twelfth with 53 points. Oliver Cutting, 6, earned 51 points placing 16th and Carter Burns, 6, and Max Schulze, 9, tied for 18th with 47 points.
For the girls, fourteen-year-old Casey Concepcion placed fourth overall earning 57 points for the Otters. Eight-year-old Bella Wilhite came in eleventh with 52 points and Layna Panaguiton, 12, came in twelfth earning 51 points for Martinez. Tatum Cue, 13, earned 50 points for the Otters with her fourteenth-place finish.
Concepcion and Cue placed first and second in the girls’ 13-14-year-old 50-yard backstroke.
Other impressive resultsfor the Otters included 10-year-old MacKinnley Kirshen’s first place finish in the boys’ 9-10 50-yard backstroke. Max Schulze placed second.
In the girls’ 6 and under 25-yard backstroke, Otters dominated. Claire Padilla, 6, Maeve Mullen, 6, Rachel Delgado, 6, and Grace Willis, 6, placed third, fourth, fifth and sixth. The same was true of the 15-18-year-old boys in the 100-yard Butterfly. Martinez’s Finn Morabe, 15, Beau Cutright, 15, and Del Roderick, 15, took home fourth, fifth, and sixth place.
Otters Gabriel Zinn, 12, Samuel Regan, 11, Aaron Tornero, 12 and Owen Bolstad, 12, all placed in the top ten in their age group in the 50-yard butterfly.
Ava Hansen, 8, was second overall in the 7-8-year-old girls’ butterfly. Ten-year-old Noah Gutierrez placed second overall for the nine and ten-year-old boys’ butterfly. Addie Purewal placed third for the girls. Thirteen-year-old Tatum Cue placed second overall in her age group in the butterfly. Kacia Kirshen, 14, and Taylor Takamoto, 14, placed sixth and seventh. Max Keifer, 14, placed second for the boys and Taylor Holland, also 14, placed ninth. Fifteen-year-old Otters Finn Morabe, Beau Cutright, and Del Roderick placed fourth through sixth in the 15-18 age boys’ age group.
Max Keifer took home first place in the boy’s 13-14-year-old breaststroke. Louie Cevasco, 14, placed seventh. Casey Concepcion, 14, placed first and Taylor Takamoto, 14, fifth.
In freestyle, thirteen-year-old Jackson Barnacal placed first in his age group. Sam Benz, 14, was fourth.
Annette Cevasco, 12, Sara Meadors, 12, and Frankie Schulze, 12, were second, sixth and seventh respectively in the 11-12-year-old 100-yard individual medley. Bella Wilhite, 8, and Hunter Burns, 8, were first in their age group.
Several Otters also qualified for and had impressive swims at the Contra Costa County championship.
Oliver Cutting swam the 6 and under 25-yard butterfly and placed second overall. Bella Wilhite placed 12th overall in the 25-yard backstroke and set a new MCST record time. She also set a new team record in the 100-yard individual medley, placing fifth overall.
Hunter Burns placed 27th overall in his age group in the 7-8-year-old individual medley.
Lana Panaguiton, placed twentieth overall in the girls’ 11-12-year-old 50-yard backstroke and set a new team record.
Jackson Barnacal placed 16th overall in the boys 13-14-year-old 50-yard butterfly. Tatum Cue swam backstroke and butterfly and achieved best times in each. Sam Benz also achieved his best time ever in the 50-yard backstroke.
For the 15-18 age group swimmers, Finn Morabe achieved his best time in backstroke and Beau Cutrtight swam butterfly. Del Roderick placed twenty-second in butterfly.
Not only was it another amazingly successful swim season for MCST, but, as usual, a lot of fun was had by all. Sign ups for the 2019 swim season will begin in February. To register, go to gototters.org.
