Stingrays make waves at County Championship

The Shafter Stingrays Swim Club concluded their regular season with an outstanding showing at the Kern County Swimming Championships on Saturday. The local club had 11 swimmers place in the top 10 in their respective divisions.

With over 20 teams competing, the meet had the best swimmers in the county vying for that elusive championship title. Leading the way for the Stingrays were Annemarie Piuser, Josephine Martin and Kaylee Batten, who continued their successful seasons with a strong meet. Piuser swam in three events and finished with two first places and a third place. She won the girls 11 100 final with a time of 1:23. In the girls 11 50-yard breaststroke, Piuser qualified first in the prelim and kept that seeding with a first-place finish in the final in 40.32. She added a third place in the 50-year butterfly event.

Josephine Martin won her heat in the girls 11 50-yard butterfly and took second place in the final with a time of 33.95. Martin got a fifth place in the 50-yard freestyle, butcame back and captured third place in the final, lowering her prelim time by over a second, finishing with a 32.65.

Competing in the girls 13 year old division, Kaylee Batten took second place in the 100 IM event with a time of 1:19.09. She won the prelim and the final in the 50-yard breaststroke. In the 50-yard butterfly event, Batten got third place in the prelim with a time of 34.01. Improving her time in the final by 1.25 seconds, finishing in second place.

Sydnee Macias also had a successful meet, getting a second place in the Girls 11 50 yd Freestyle and a fifth place in the 50 yd butterfly event, improving her placing from the prelim, where she qualified with the eighth fastest time.

Dean O'Neil placed in the top 10 in three events at the meet. He got an eighth place in the boys 9 50-yard freestyle, a fourth place in the 50-yard backstroke, and a fifth place in the 50-yard butterfly.

Sean O'Neil took two third places and a sixth place competing in the boys 12 division. O'Neil got third in the 50-yard butterfly and in the 50-yard breaststroke events. He added a sixth place in the 50-yard freestyle.

Lila Piuser, competing in the girls 8 division, placed fifth in the 100 IM finals. She placed fourth in the 25-yard breaststroke, then broke out and took the championship in the final with a time of 25.45, 1.5 seconds faster than her prelim time.

Kate Valderrama added to the Stingray top-10 total with a seventh place in the girls 9 50 -yard breaststroke final. Mikayla Villagomez got fourth place in the girls 9 50-yard breaststroke final. Brighton Batten competed in the girls 10 division and captured third place in the final, a two-place improvement over her prelim finish in the 50-yard breaststroke event.