Monsters at Junior Olympics

A very small contingent of the Aquamonsters competed over the weekend at the Sierra Nevada Swimming Junior Olympics over the weekend. Kaitlyn McElhern and Elle Motekaitis, both 14 years old, represented AQM Friday through Sunday, dealing with torrential downpours and winds that gusted up over 35 miles per hour.

Motekaitis started the weekend off by dropping 10 seconds in her 400 IM. Then both girls competed in the 100 freestyle and the 200 breaststroke events. Motekaitis had another dynamite effort, dropping 5 seconds in the breaststroke and fifth overall in the finals. McElhern rounded out the day with a fourth place finish in the1000 freestyle, slashing 14 seconds from her entry time.

The second day, through a rain and wind storm, the girls each had one event in the prelims. The winds got so high though, that the officials deemed it necessary to cancel the finals session. A good judgement, considering a tree fell inside the complex, smashing three easy ups in the team area. Motekaitis finished second overall in the 100 breaststroke and McElhern took fourth in the 1650 freestyle.

They capped off the weekend on Sunday with some very strong swims. Both girls had terrific prelims swims in the 500 freestyle, earning a place in the finals. They would finish seventh and tenth overall. McElhern swam the 200 IM and the 200 Free and Motekaitis finished the meet with the 50 freestyle. All of those swims resulted in personal bests for the girls to cap out a great weekend for the duo and the Aquamonsters.