2025 Meet #3: South Irvine Dolphins @ Westpark Marlins
Meet Report: Meet # 3 – South Irvine Dolphins vs. Westpark Marlins
Date: July 12th, 2025
By: Nate Williams, Co-President
On Saturday, July 12th, the South Irvine Dolphins traveled for their first away meet this season to encounter a group of Marlins in the community of Westpark. The Dolphins and Marlins put on a swim meet that more than lived up to the hype. This Marlins team presented the toughest challenge this pod of Dolphins has faced yet, but the Dolphins stuck together and had another successful meet filled with exciting swims and time improvements!
A few of the highlights from the meet:
- Our youngest Dolphin calves, Simon Xie, Penelope Nguyen, Levi Kahn, and Julian Salazar got the pod off to a hot start by winning the first event of the meet, the Mixed 5-6 100 Yard Medley Relay. Way to go!
- Rachel Lin dropped an astounding 21 seconds in the Girls 9-10 50 Back! Amazing job, Rachel!
- Ella Diba dropped a whopping 28 seconds in the Girls 5-6 25 Free. Wow! Keep it up, Ella!
- The coaches and parents showed what it means to be a “Dolphin 4 Life” by showing off their skills at halftime, a pair of exciting races indeed!
- Notable time improvements were recorded by several Dolphins. The following swimmers dropped time in all three of the individual events they swam: Joel Chen in the Boys 7-8 25 Fly, 25 Breast, and 25 Free! Callahan Espiritu dropped time in the Boys 7-8 25 Fly, 25 Back, and 25 Breast! Jojo Lee improved in the Men 15-18 50 Fly, 50 Back, and 50 Free! Joshua Lerner dropped time in the Boys 9-10 50 Back, 50 Breast, and 50 Free while achieving ISL Champs Qualifying times in both the 50 Back and 50 Free! Rachel Lin had massive time drops in the Girls 9-10 50 Back, 50 Breast, and 50 Free! Mila Moaven dropped time in the Girls 9-10 50 Back, 50 Breast, and 50 Free! Olivia Toft joined the party by dropping time in the Girls 7-8 25 Back, 25 Breast, and 25 Free! Izzy Wolf improved her times in the Girls 7-8 25 Back, 25 Breast, and 25 Free! Simon Xie improved all three of his swims in the Boys 5-6 25 Fly, 25 Back, and 25 Free! Way to go!
Congratulations to all the swimmers who dropped time. Remember, each time improvement earns a Dolphin Dollar to be spent on snacks and merchandise at the Dolphins Store.
For those swimmers who had disqualifications (DQ’s), please make sure you talk with your coaches about what you can do differently next time! Don’t get discouraged and keep working at it at practice!
Look who’s getting faster! The following is a laundry list of swimmers who recorded new individual time improvements: Keilani Aban, Bryce Alpert, Brice Banga, Drew Chen, Joel Chen, Kyle Chuang, Ava Craver, Ella Diba, Ryan Diba, Oliviia Efimenko, Callahan Espiritu, Cassius Espiritu, Guilherme Falleiros Friggi, Shaw Fournier, Isla Henderson, David Hwang, Ayla Jalili, Amemia Kahn, Bear Lee, Jojo Lee, Joshua Lerner, Rachel Lin, Aria Moaven, Mila Moaven, Ari Mobasseri, Noah Mobasseri, Lukas Molander, Bryce Morales, Liam Putterman, Lina Putterman, Julian Salazar, Riley Simon, Carlo Soriano, Isaiah Suh, Diego Tarry, Ava Toft, Olivia Toft, Nicolas Tsai, Kate Wallin, Eric Wang, Kyle Wang, Summer Williams, Izzy Wolf, Becca Wolf, Simon Xie, Skylar Yeh, Bernie Yu, Sophie Yu, and Elle Zitzman. The team is so proud of all of you!!
Congratulations on a great meet against an excellent Marlin team! We hit the road again to swim in a tri-meet against the Deerfield Bluefins and Woodbridge Tritons on Saturday, July 19th at Woodbridge High School.
See you all on deck!
Nate
