Yamamoto shines at zone meet

MINDEN -- Lisa Yamamoto got her start with competitive swimming for the Carson Tigersharks last year during the Pacific Swimming Zone 4 Championships age group meet held at the Carson Valley Swim Center. Friday, she returned to the same pool and posted her first major victory on the opening day of the zone meet.

Yamamoto, 10, sped to first-place in the girls 9- and 10-year-old division 100-yard freestyle with a personal best time of 1 minute, 19.37 seconds. Teammate Alexandra Schlager was second in 1:23.30 and Erin Chang third in 1:29.31, giving the Tigersharks a 1-2-3 sweep in the event.

Yamamoto swam nine seconds faster than her entry time.

"Lisa swam a great 100 free," Tigersharks age group coach Jackie Boudreau said. "She's fairly new to the sport as far as competition; she swam her first meet here last year. She's been real consistent in practice and it's always exciting when they put in the work and then see all that work pay off.

"We've seen a lot of that from the kids today."

Among the day's highlights for the Carson swim team, 9-year-old Chang led the way as Carson took five of the top six spots in the 9-10 girls 25 breaststroke. Chang won in 21.0, a personal best by two seconds. Schlager was second (23.21), Yamamoto fourth (23.65), Samantha MacCarty fifth (24.06) and Chandler Curry sixth (25.60).

Other Tigersharks who earned victories on Friday included Rebekah Niehoff, who won the girls 13-14 200 freestyle (2:04.93) and the 1,650 (18:57.80). Abby Niehoff won the 11-12 girls 200 freestyle (2:05.20), Zach White won the 9-10 boys 100 freestyle (1:30.06) and Jake Priest won the 11-12 boys 100 butterfly (1:09.48, his first time under 1:10).

Carson's Kiel Costella won the 15-18 boys 1,650 with a time of 17:49.67, while Jeff Stroup third (18:49.41) and Adrian Zeh fourth (19:05.38).

One of the day's closest battles took place in the 15-18 boys 200 freestyle, where Costella of Carson placed second behind Zach Powers of South Tahoe. Powers was clocked at 1:54.84, just ahead of Costella in 1:54.91.

The Tigersharks had other highlights during the day. Katie McEwan placed third in the 11-12 girls 50 breaststroke (42.81) and Beth Lewis placed fifth (44.48). Barbara Perkins placed second in the 13-14 girls 1,650 (19:21.19) and Samantha Ashmore was fourth (22:32.45). Priest placed third in the 11-12 boys 200 freestyle (2:14.84, a 10-second improvement). John Wandel placed fifth in the 15-18 boys 200 freestyle (2:00.53) and Jeff Stroup was sixth (2:01.14).

Kevin Dyer placed second in the 13-14 boys 1,650 with a time of 19:28.82. For Dyer, who just turned 13 in June, the altitude adjusted time of 19:05 was a qualifying mark for the Far Western Championships, according to Boudreau. Scott Wandel placed fourth for Carson in the same race (20:37.16).

For the meet host Douglas Dolfins, John McRae and Alexander Picken finished first and second in the 7-8 boys 100 freestyle with respective times of 1:30.13 and 1:46.17. McRae's time was his best by 11 seconds.

The Dolfins' Josefine Sigala placed fourth in the girls 13-and-over 100 breaststroke (2:52.47) and 200 freestyle (2:08.53). Molly Lahlum was fifth in the 9-10 girls 100 freestyle (1:30.01). Trevor Schaff placed second in the 15-18 boys 200 breaststroke in 2:33.25, behind only South Tahoe's Powers (2:29.18).

The zone meet, which brings together Eastern Sierra teams from Reno to Bishop, Calif., continues today starting at 9 a.m. at the Carson Valley Swim Center. The meet concludes on Sunday.