TVA's swimmers remarkable swims at Junior Olympics.

Hey, Team!

Congratulations to the 2013 Spring Junior Olympic Team! Tri Valley Aquatics sent 16 swimmers to the meet this past weekend in San Ramon: Sienna Deadrich, Thomas Gjerde, Lissi Knell, Sophia Krafcik, Philip Massoud, Liz Reimer, Patrick Ren, Cole Reznick, Ryan Ridosko, Taylor Rohovit, Natalie Tang, Alex Torrez, Katie Tsui, Caleb Wagner, Julian Wagner, and Grant Yap. After a long three days of preliminary heats and finals, the team put up a remarkable 43 top-16 finishes and 47 best times!

Taylor Rohovit (10) brought home the most awards, with finals in SIX events: the 50 free, 200 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 100 breast, and 100 IM! Other finalists included Lissi (500, 1000 free, 100 fly), Philip (100, 1000 free, 100 fly), Liz (50, 100, 200 free), Patrick (50, 100 free, 50 breast); Cole (50, 200, 500 free; 100, 200 breast), Ryan (200, 500 free; 100 breast; 200 IM), Alex (100 breast, 200 fly, 200 IM), Katie (100, 200 breast), Caleb (100 free, 100 fly), Julian (1000 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 400 IM), and Grant (200, 500 free; 200 back, 50 fly, 200 IM).

As any of the swimmers who participated in finals will testify, three days’ worth of swim meet can be exhausting! Julian Wagner set a high standard for the rest of the team, racing 3100 yards throughout the entire weekend and STILL putting out some best times, even on the last night of competition. The other distance swimmers, Philip and Lissi, not only swam the 1000, but had to sacrifice their break between trials and finals to do so. Way to pull through and represent TVA!

For some swimmers, JO’s marks the end of the short course season; however, a large number of the JO team will continue training for the Far Westerns Championships at the beginning of April! Additionally, the younger swimmers are looking forward to another strong showing at the Pacific Swimming 10-and-Under Age Group Champs, while the high schoolers get ready for their high school league meets and, ultimately, the North Coast Section Championships.

If your short course season’s over, don’t stop working hard – long course season is coming, and fast! For anyone who’s never competed long course before, those who have will testify that long course season will take a lot of training. And if you HAVE raced long course before…well, you know exactly what I mean when I say that you can never train too much for the summer season!

Keep up the good work, and I’ll see you all around the pool!

Natalie Tang, TVA Team Captain