Madison Area YMCA Mariners Finish Strong at Junior Olympics

By Fran Clarke & Carrie Guarino

On March 3rd and 4th, twelve Mariners swimmers aged 10 & under represented the Madison Area YMCA at the NJ Swimming JO Championships in Hightstown, NJ. Hosted at The Peddie School, over 700 swimmers representing 48 Teams competed in 44 Events. These twelve swimmers worked hard all season to qualify for the competitive entry times.

The highlight of the meet was the Boys relay team of Tirian Chang (9), Sean Clark (9), Anuthra Abeysinghe (10) and Owen Smith (10) breaking the Mariner’s record for the Boys 9/10 200-yd Free Relay with a time of 2:06.43. This foursome also dropped time in the Boys 9/10 200-yd Medley Relay finishing 15th in 2:24.49.

The Girls 9-10 200-yd Medley Relay team, Molly Newman (10), Sadie Clarke (10), Emily Houng (10) and Chloe Thorn-Lesson (9) finished in 2:26.69. Sadie Clarke (10), Riley Snarr (10), Emily Houng (10) and Molly Newman (10) made up the Girls 200-yd Free Relay team and placed 10th with an impressive finish of 2:06.22.

Leading the pack for the Mariners in individual events was Owen Smith (10) who placed 38th overall out of 350 boys and Sadie Clarke (10) who placed 46th overall out of 380 girls. Both Owen Smith and Sadie Clarke earned points for the Mariners.

Sadie Clarke competed in 7 individual events: 100-yd IM, 100-yd Back, 50-yd Free, 50-yd Breast, 100-yd Breast, 50-yd Back and 100-yd Free. Sadie earned personal best times in all 7 events and had Top 20 finishes in the 100-yd IM, 100-yd Back and 50-yd Free.

Next up for the Girls team was Molly Newman (10) who swam 6 individual events: 100-yd IM, 100-yd Back, 50-yd Free, 200-yd Free, 50-yd Back and 100-yd Free. Molly had 2 impressive Top 20 Finishes in the 50-yd Free and 100-yd Free.

Rounding out the Girls team, Emily Houng (10) swam the 100-yd Fly, with a personal best time, and 50-yd Fly, Riley Snarr (10) competed in the 50-yd Back finishing with a personal best time, and Chloe Thorn-Leeson (9) achieved her personal best time in the 100-yd Fly. The youngest girls were Anya Rodrigo Candappa (8) who swam the 50-yd Fly and 50-yd Back and Julia Jadro (7) who competed in the 50-yd Free and swam her personal best in the 50-yd Breast dropping 4.80 seconds.

The Boys Session was up next and Owen Smith led the Boys with 6 Individual Events: 100-yd IM, 100-yd Back, 50-yd Breast, 200-yd Free, 100-yd Breast and 50-yd Back. Owen achieved personal best times in the 50-yd Breast and 100-yd Breast and broke his own Mariner’s record in the 100-yd Breast with a 1:25.94, earning 11th place.

Tirian Chang (9) qualified for the 100-yd Fly, 50-yd Fly and 200-yd IM, swimming his personal best in the 200-yd IM dropping 4.30 seconds. Sean Clark (9) competed in the 50-yd Breast, 50-yd Back and 100-yd Breast where he dropped 2.45 seconds. Anuthra Abeysinghe (10) achieved personal best times in both the 50-yd Breast and 100-yd Breast. Last but not least, Julian Thorn-Leeson (7) swam the 100-yd IM, 50-yd Free, 50-yd Fly and 50-yd Back, achieving personal bests in the 50-yd Fly and 50-yd Back, dropping 3.54 seconds in the 50-yd Back.

The following weekend, four stand-out athletes represented the Mariners in the 11-14 age group at a separate Junior Olympic meet held at Rutgers University. Collin Faraher lead the way for the small but fierce team. In the 11/12 age group, Collin swam five individual events and earned top 16 finishes in each one, qualifying him for finals. He finished 12th overall in the 100-yd Breast and 100-yd Free, 4th in the 200-yd Free, 8th in the 50-yd Breast, and an incredible 2nd place in the 1000-yd Free, with a time of 10:53.92. Collin earned 53 points for the Mariners team. Following Collin was Owen Weller, who swam in both the 50-yd and 200-yd Backstroke, posting an amazing 19th place finish in the 50-yd Back. Mary Gillan swam in the girls 11/12 50-yd Fly, finished with a personal best time and placed 21st overall. Having recently aged into the 13/14 age group, Bella Guarino qualified for and swam impressively in 3 individual events, including the 100-yd Breast, 200-yd Breast and 200-yd Free.

As a cause-driven charitable organization, the Madison Area YMCA is dedicated to nurturing the potential of every child and teen, and improving the community's health and well-being and giving back by providing support to our neighbors.