Taylor Sarnecki, 12, of Ortonville, competed in the USA Swimming Central Zone Long Course Meter Championship Aug. 7-9 in Minneapolis. She is a member of the Aqua Club swim team in Oxford.
On Aug. 7, she was the top seed in the 100 meter freestyle for girls ages 11-12, with a time of 1:00.47. She set a new zone record in morning preliminaries with a time of 59.98, breaking the previous record of 1:00.18. She returned in evening finals and broke her own record by going 59.87 seconds. Also, at the beginning of the evening finals session she anchored Team Michigan’s Girls 11-12 200 freestyle relay as they won the event in 1:52.98 which broke the zone record of 1:03.00.
On Aug. 8, she was the top seed in the 50 meter freestyle for girls 11-12, with a time of 27.90 seconds. She finished second in morning preliminaries with a time of 28.17 seconds. She came back in the evening finals and took first place with a time of 27.63 seconds, a personal best. Also, in the morning session she anchored the Team Michigan Girls 11-12 400 meter individual medley relay team and helped them to a third place finish. In the evening finals session, she anchored the Team Michigan 11-12 200 meter individual medley relay team and led the team to a second place finish.
On Aug. 9, in the morning session, Taylor anchored the Team Michigan Girls 11-12 400 meter freestyle relay team as they took first place in a time of 4:06.97, which broke the zone record of 4:08.24. Her 100 meter freestyle time in this event was a personal best 59.49 seconds. Also, in the morning preliminaries she swam the girls 11-12 200 meter freestyle with a time of 2:17.49 which seeded her fifth in the evening finals where she finished seventh with a time of 2:18.27. In the morning preliminaries she finished 18th in the 100 meter butterfly with a time of 1:10.64.
In all, Taylor took two individual first place finishes, with one zone record; a seventh place finish; an 18th place finish; two relay first place finishes with two zone records; one second place relay finish and one third place relay finish.
Taylor’s 50 freestyle time currently ranks her seventh nationally in the 11-12 age group for females and her time in the 100 freestyle ranks her sixth nationally in the age group.
She practices two hours per day five to six days a week year-round and looks forward to swimming every day.
Taylor is the daughter of Stephanie Sarnecki of Brandon Township and granddaughter of Randy Whitkopf of Brandon Township.