Club Olympia’s Ty Mayer, Luke Miller, Connelly Furnish, Camila Mejia Murguia and Josh Pendleton competed in last weekend’s Central Zones Open Water Championship in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Submitted photo
Team Indiana, led by Club Olympia coach Jennifer Brinegar, traveled to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, last week for the annual Central Zones Open Water Championship Meet at the Kenosha Rec Plex’s Lake Andrea. Tony Young, executive director of Indiana Swimming, selected Brinegar, who eagerly accepted the challenge.
Open Water swimming is conducted in bodies of water without the prescribed lanes typical of swimming pool competitions. For the Central Zones Championships, Team Indiana athletes who had met tough qualifying standards competed against teams from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and the Missouri Vallley Area on 1.25K (10-and-under), 2.5K (11-12 and 13-14) and 5K (Open) courses, where all swimmers for a given event start simultaneously from a floating stationary position at a defined starting line.
At the end of the one-day event, which drew a record 1,000-plus competitors, Brinegar’s Team Indiana, with 60 swimmers, brought home an overall second-place finish. Team Illinois, which entered 149 swimmers, took
first overall. Team Indiana outscored third-place Wisconsin, fourth-place Ozark (Missouri) and fifth-place Iowa.
Team Indiana won two of the events, with Ayla Madara from the Fishers Area Swim Team winning the 13-14 Girls 2.5K, and Grace Gannon, also from Fishers, winning the Girls 10U 1.25K. Team Indiana had a total of 17 swimmers claim top-20 positions in the eight total events.
Club Olympia had five qualified swimmers travel to Pleasant Prairie to compete as part of Team Indiana.
Josh Pendleton placed ninth in the Boys 13-14 2.5K, and Connelly Furnish took 18th in the Girls 13-14 2.5K. Camila Mejia Murguia, competing in her first Open Water Meet was 18th in the Girls 11-12 2.5K.
Ty Mayer finished 26th in the Men’s Open 5K. Luke Miller, who specializes more in sprinting than distance, was 62nd in the Men’s Open 5K.
Conditions on Lake Andrea were challenging at the time of the meet, with strong easterly winds blowing against the athletes during the front stretch of the buoy-marked course, with air temperatures in the mid-50s and water temperatures below 70 degrees.
