Winter Junior Olympics
Winter Junior Olympics Results!
Hey, Team!
WOW! What a weekend our swimmers had at the Pacific Swimming Junior Olympics Championships! Including relay swimmers, Tri Valley Aquatics was represented by a total of 18 athletes. Individual qualifiers this year were Mattias Blanco, Thomas Gjerde, Sophia Krafcik, Jason Lau, Tyler Lu, Claire Suen, and Caleb Wagner. And they didn’t just show up at the meet and swim around in circles – there were a total of 14 best times from all of them!
Notable swims included Thomas Gjerde’s 100 Fly – he dropped 6 seconds in the preliminary heats to make finals, then matched his time again to take 5th in the Consolation Finals heat! Our other finalist was Claire Suen, who dropped 6 seconds in her 500 Free to take 2nd in Consolation Finals, and also swam the 200 Free twice to place 4th in Consolation Finals. While they didn’t final, Jason Lau, Tyler Lu, and Caleb Wagner also had some outstanding races: Jason dropped 2 seconds to get a new Far Western in his 100 Fly, Tyler took off more than 2 seconds and broke the minute barrier in the 100 Free, and Caleb dropped almost 2 seconds in both the 100 and 200 Breast.
With the Junior Olympics all wrapped up, it’s time for our older group to start looking at the Pacific Swimming Senior Championships. Most of the gold/senior practice group qualified for the meet, and several swimmers from the silver group did, too! Keep working hard in practice – it’s only a few more days until our big meet!
One more thing: Coach Daniel likes to tell us that we can learn from each other – that the younger groups look up to us, and there’s also a few things we can take from watching them swim. This weekend proved one thing – it’s our turn to learn from them! Nothing stopped our youngest swimmers from racing their hearts out at JOs this past weekend, and nothing’s stopping us from breaking records and taking names this coming weekend!
Congratulations to all of our JO swimmers – you really stepped up this past weekend. And for all of you who are still getting ready for your big meet, keep it up, and good luck!
Natalie Tang
Team Captain
P.S. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…everywhere we go…even at the pool! Here’s a cool holiday secret: Santa’s coming to the TVA party on December 23rd at Rockin’ Jump! And guess who Santa is? YOU! More details on the TVA Secret Santa gift exchange are coming soon!!
