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Sea Dragons 10th at Zone 3 Pacific swim meet

Sonoma team small in numbers, big in heart

With qualification time cuts for the Zone 3 Pacific Swimming Championships providing a rigorous challenge that limits youth teams to their top swimmers in each age-group, 21 members of the Sonoma Sea Dragons qualified for individual events at last month’s Pacific Zone 3 championship meet in Vallejo.

Competing against 25 teams in the Zone-3 region of the Pacific Swimming section – consisting of eight counties, including Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake, West Solano, Marin and San Francisco – the Valley’s Sea Dragons swam to an impressive 10th-place finish.

“For a team our size, that is a fantastic outcome,” said Sea Dragon head coach Jane Hansen, who’s assisted by Lisa Dorman Ran. “I believe that we were the first-place team of under-100 swimmers. I am so proud of the swimmers.”

Pacing the Sonoma Sea Dragons at the Zone-3 regional with first-place age-group finishes were the 8-years-old-and-under girls’ 100-yard freestyle relay team of Sierra Pine, Carlie Fiorito, Glorianna Ring and Katie Brenninger with a time of 1 minute, 12.6 seconds; and the 11-to-12-year-old girls’ 200 free and medley relay team of Maya Grajczyk, Lizzie Hansen, Hannah Ladouceur and Quinn Jensen in 1:57.8 and 2:11.06, respectively.

Earning second-place finishes were the 8-and-under girls’ 100 medley relay team of Pine, Brenninger, Ring and Audrey Powers in 2:28.2; Pine’s 25 backstroke in 20.19; and Jensen’s 50 free in 27.51.

Third-place finishers include the girls’ 9-10s 200 free relay team of Meghan Hansen, Sofia Barker, Claire Shoop and Kathryn Ajax in 2:24.11; and Pine’s 25 free in 16.19.

Taking fourth-place were the 200 free relay team of Hansen, Barker, Shoop and Ajax in 2:47.4; and Ladouceur’s 100 backstroke in 1:12.66.

The fifth-place finishers include Brenninger’s 25 and 50 free, and 50 breast stroke in 16.58, 36.15 and 48.79, respectively; Jensen’s 50 breast stroke in 36.22; Ladouceur’s 200 individual medley (IM) in 2:37. 72; and the 8-and-under girls’ 100 free relay team of Powers, Shelby Padgett, Catey Keohane and Tony Arzaga.

For sixth-place, Ladouceur’s 200 free in 2:22.35; Jensen’s 50 fly in 31.87; and Pine’s 25 breast in 22.72.

Seventh-place finishers were the boys’ 11-to-12s Dominic Tommasi’s 50 butterfly in 31.90; Jensen’s 100 breast and 50 back in 1:21.77 and 33.69, respectively; and Pine’s and Grajczyk 50 breast in 50.34 and 36.57, respectively.

Finishing in eighth-place were Ladouceur’s 50 back and Brenninger’s 25 fly in 34.07 and 20.45, respectively.

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After a hiatus from competition because of a lack of a pool to practice in, the year-round USA Swimming sanctioned Sonoma Sea Dragons were reborn in 2007 and continue to grow in membership. For more information about the Sonoma Sea Dragons swim team or the Sonoma Aquatic Center, visit sonomaaquaticclub.com, sonomaseadragons.com or call 939-8833.