Diego Cotero Tapia
Saturday afternoon and evening’s persistent rain couldn’t derail Donner Swim Club’s annual Jaime Miller Invitational.
The three-day event that took place Friday through Sunday at Donner Park soldiered on through showers that came through Columbus during Saturday’s later sessions.
“We had lots of fast swims, even in the rain,” Donner coach Mike Cunningham said. “All of our senior kids swam through the rain, which was kind of cool. They were after it, so it was a good time. It was pretty awesome. It was a great weekend.”
The meet featured 670 individuals from 27 teams. Club Olympia won the boys competition, despite being without Josh Pendleton, who was competing for Team Indiana at the Duel in the Pool in Indianapolis, and took second overall behind Valparaiso Swim Club.
“I thought our kids did great,” Club Olympia coach Jennifer Brinegar said. “We didn’t have any 13-and-over boys relays, which we would have with Joshua. Overall, though, I never would have dreamed that we would (finish that high).”
Shreyan Kulkarni led Club Olympia with 207 points and had four first-place and four second-place finishes. He won the 11-12-year-old boys 100-meter backstroke, 200 backstroke, 100 butterfly, and 200 individual medley. Myra Jaryal scored 152 points and won the 8-and-under girls 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke, 50 butterfly, 100 butterfly and 50 breaststroke.
Arash Thokade scored 147 points with seven 2nd place finishes in 8U boys events. Xavier Zhang also scored 147 points in the 11-12 boys age group. Vivan Shah scored 132 points with four 2nd place finishes in the 9-10 boys events.
Lexi Miller scored 125 points and won the 11-12 girls 400 freestyle. Sarthak Deshmukh scored 110 points and won in the 9-10 boys 200 IM. Chad Pendleton scored 100 points in just two days, winning the 9-10 boys 50 butterfly and 100 breaststroke and finishing in secnd in four other events.
“We’ve only been in an outdoor pool two weeks,” Brinegar said. “Then, with the weather and stuff, we weren’t in it every day by any means. So we haven’t had the 50-meter training, but the kids have been doing really good out at East in the 25-yard pool and getting after it. So hopefully, with another couple weeks out here, maybe we can finish our races a little bit stronger.”
Diego Cotero Tapia led Donner with wins in the senior boys (13-and-over) 50 butterfly, 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly. Cotero Tapia also finished second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle.
Mridula Muthakumaran placed fourth in both the senior girls 400 IM and 200 backstroke and was in the top 10 in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly.
Among Donner’s top younger swimmers were twins Ella and Cooper Bringman and 8-year-old Emily Meek. Meek was top 10 in several events and nearly earned a divisional cut for the 13-14 age group in the 200 breaststroke.
“We had a ridiculous amount of best times, a whole bunch of state cuts,” Cunningham said. “We had a lot of kids who swam events they’ve never swam before, kids taking new events to new levels and getting divisional cuts in things they never thought was possible. So it’s really exciting.”
