Hart, Michael help lead Skimmers to impressive showing in big meet.

The Merced Skimmers sent 44 swimmers to the Central California Swimming Junior Olympics at Clovis North High last weekend.

According to Skimmer coach Ryan Randall, it’s the largest group sent by the local club since the program was established in 1962.

During the four-day competition the local swimmers combined for 132 lifetime best times.

Skimmers Rob Carpenter, Emily Trejo, James Savage, Aaron Helfgott, David Chen, Katarina Capulong, Kaileb Michael, Sophia Hart, and Chloe Dingeldein all qualified for finals.

Hart won the title in the 15-18 Girls 200-meter backstroke after dropping over 9 seconds in the event with a time of 2 minutes, 41.02 seconds.

In his first Junior Olympics, Michael picked up a victory in the the 15-18 Boy’s 100 butterfly with a final time of 1:01.04.

Two swimmers swam some of the fastest times in the nation for their age. Chloe Dingeldein (11) swam 20:04.18 in the 1500 freestyle, which was almost a full minute time drop. This is currently the 32nd fastest time in the nation among 11 year old girls.

After turning 13 a few weeks ago, Rob Carpenter swam three times that rank within the top 100 in nation for his age. In the 50 freestyle he swam 26.35 (69th in the nation), 57.75 in the 100 freestyle (92nd in the nation), and 2:06.19 in the 200 freestyle (76th in nation).

The Merced Skimmers placed ninth out of 25 teams.

“This was an all-around standout performance by both individual and relay swimmers,” said Randall. “They cheered each other on, swam hard, and stuck to their race strategies, which led to so many finalists and over 130 personal best swims.”