2019 October Challenge Meet Recap
2019 October Challenge
What a great meet for WAVE swimmers. Wave finished with over 3000 points for the entire meet and a plethora of new AGI and Champs qualifiers! Congratulations to everyone that competed in Marysville over the weekend.
The following athletes made new USA Swimming Motivational Times:
Barun Acharya: B Time 50 Back, BB Time 50 Breast
Gwen Angus: B Time 100 Free, B Time 50 Free
Allie Bai: A Time 100 Breast, BB Time 100 Breast, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Free
Anouk Balog: AA Time 200 Free, A Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Back, A Time 50 Free, AA Time 500 Free
Luke Barnett: B Time 500 Free, B Time 200 IM
Abagail Bissett: BB Time 200 Back
Simone Boczar: B Time 200 Free
Laney Brackett: A Time 500 Free
Matthew Choy: B Time 200 Free
Thomas Claux: BB Time 100 Back, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 50 Back, BB Time 50 Fly, BB Time 100 IM
Hailey Crawford: A Time 100 Breast, BB Time 200 Breast, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 500 Free
Carter Drazich: B Time 200 IM, B Time 50 Back
Ella Drazich: B Time 100 Free, B Time 200 Free, B Time 500 Free
Grady Dunn: B Time 200 Free
Lena Duryee: BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Back, BB Time 100 IM
Kyle Fontelera: B Time 100 Breast, BB Time 100 Fly, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Fly, BB Time 50 Free
Jaden Gao: BB Time 200 Free
Ananiah Gashaw: B Time 50 Fly
Nethaniah Gashaw: B Time 100 Back
Deming Gates: B Time 50 Fly
Sophia Gorveatt: B Time 50 Fly
Nathan Greenmun: BB Time 500 Free
Melis Gursoy: B Time 200 Back, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 400 IM
Selin Gursoy: A Time 100 Fly, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 400 IM, BB Time 50 Free, BB Time 500 Free
Taryn Han: B Time 100 Fly, BB Time 200 Breast, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Fly, BB Time 500 Free
Kirsten Hau: B Time 100 Back, B Time 100 Free, B Time 200 Free, BB Time 50 Breast
Lauren Hizzy: B Time 50 Fly
Iris Huang: BB Time 100 Breast, B Time 200 IM
Ann Huynh: B Time 400 IM
Nicholas Imig: A Time 200 IM, BB Time 500 Free
Aarjav Jain: BB Time 500 Free
Arnav Jha: B Time 100 Back
Ella Johnson: B Time 200 IM
Nikhil Kadam: B Time 100 Free
Madison Kelly: BB Time 100 Back, B Time 200 Back, BB Time 50 Back
Jenna Kimborowicz: BB Time 100 Breast, A Time 400 IM, A Time 500 Free
Kohki Kita: B Time 200 Free, B Time 400 IM
Reyhan Kondapally: B Time 50 Breast
Pradhhyot Kore: B Time 100 Breast
Priyanka Kulkarni: B Time 200 Back, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 500 Free
Sophie Lai: B Time 100 Free, B Time 200 IM, B Time 50 Free
Veico Lai: A Time 100 Back, BB Time 500 Free
Cora Ledrick: BB Time 100 Back, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Back, BB Time 50 Fly
Owen Ledrick: BB Time 200 Breast, B Time 200 Free, B Time 50 Free, B Time 500 Free
Chloe Lewis: B Time 100 Breast, B Time 50 Breast
Aiden Li: BB Time 100 Breast, B Time 200 Back, A Time 200 Free
Kyle Li: B Time 100 Free
Grace Liu: BB Time 100 Back, BB Time 200 Breast
Maja Loeser: B Time 200 Breast, B Time 200 Free
Ameya Madhugiri: B Time 200 Back, B Time 200 Breast, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, B Time 500 Free
Anton Mazepa: BB Time 100 Fly, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Breast, BB Time 100 IM
Vidhi Mehrotra: B Time 100 Breast, B Time 100 IM
Olivia Meverden: B Time 100 Fly, B Time 500 Free
Zoe Meyer: B Time 500 Free
Ignacy Misiuda: B Time 200 Fly
Aleksandr Mkrtchyan: B Time 100 Breast
Ethan Na: B Time 200 Back, BB Time 50 Breast
Yana Nanda: BB Time 200 Free
Shir Netz: B Time 100 IM
Vincent Ngo: B Time 200 Back, B Time 200 Free, B Time 200 IM, B Time 400 IM
Sonny Nguyen: BB Time 200 Breast, BB Time 500 Free
Blake Nilsen: B Time 200 Back, B Time 200 IM
Oluwalonimi Oladosu: BB Time 200 Free
Karolina Pastusiak: B Time 100 Breast, B Time 50 Breast
Graham Petersen: B Time 200 Free
Cameron Piepkorn: A Time 200 Free, BB Time 500 Free
Zoe Piepkorn: B Time 100 Back, BB Time 100 Breast, BB Time 200 Free, B Time 200 IM
Maria Pineda Serrano: B Time 100 Back
Alexandru Popov: B Time 200 Breast, B Time 200 Free
Anindita Purkayastha: BB Time 200 Free
Elizabeth Reedy: BB Time 500 Free
Aadhav Saravanan: B Time 100 Free, B Time 200 Free, B Time 200 IM, B Time 50 Free
Noah Sattari: B Time 200 Fly
Lavanya Sharma: B Time 100 Breast
Arlene Shergill: B Time 100 Free
Srianvika Siram: B Time 50 Free, B Time 100 IM
Jack Skarda: A Time 400 IM, BB Time 500 Free
Shea Skarda: BB Time 200 IM, B Time 500 Free
Artur Sobol: B Time 200 Back, B Time 200 Breast, B Time 200 Free, B Time 500 Free
Jaiden Sreenivasan: A Time 100 Free, A Time 200 Fly, A Time 200 Free, B Time 50 Breast, A Time 500 Free
Bailey Tang: B Time 100 Back, B Time 100 Free, BB Time 50 Breast
Joshua Tang: B Time 100 Back
Isaiah Taylor: B Time 400 IM
Ananya Varadarajan: B Time 100 Breast, B Time 50 Back, B Time 100 IM
Dylan Vu: B Time 200 IM
Oliver Wang: B Time 100 Breast, BB Time 100 Fly, B Time 200 IM
William Wang: BB Time 100 Back, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 50 Breast, BB Time 100 IM
Andy Wang: B Time 100 Back, B Time 200 Free, B Time 200 IM, B Time 50 Back
Alexander Werth: BB Time 200 Fly, A Time 500 Free
Joshua Wu: B Time 200 Breast, BB Time 400 IM
Daniel Xia: BB Time 100 Back, BB Time 200 Free, BB Time 500 Free
Kenneth Yang: A Time 200 IM
Matthew Yi: B Time 200 Back, BB Time 200 IM, BB Time 500 Free
Sarah Yi: B Time 200 IM
Highlights by practice group…
Black
Black had thirty six athletes from the group attend the October Challenge, and overall they had a terrific meet.
As a group, we have some improvements to make with athletes checking in with their coaches, getting behind the blocks early, communicating with timers and getting up at the right time for their event. We will continue to work on this at practice. These kinds of meets and mistakes are great learning experiences for our younger athletes!
Once they were in the water, they swam great. We had forty two first time swims of various distances (25’s, 50’s, 100’s) that were successfully completed, which is awesome!
Some really great overall meets from Sammie Angus, Kamila Bugaitsova, Elin Beeler, Lasya Viswanadham, Max Malinovkskyi and Ishansh Yadava, among others.
A few (of many) outstanding races came from Senul Wickramaratna (50 Breast), Vedah Tuladhar (50 Free), Kavya Sudhakar (50 Free), Beata Sobol (50 Free), Rachael Rose (50 Free), Kunaal Kadam (100 Free), Lauren Hizzey (50 Fly), Sophia Gorveatt (100 Free), Ethan Chan (50 Breast).
Congratulations to all of our athletes in the Black Group who attended the meet!
White
There were 218 successful races at the October Challenge meet for the white group swimmers. The average improvement over our baseline times for all 185 races where a swimmer already had a time was 3.5 seconds per race, and over 75% of our races were best times. I did not include DQs in these calculations as there is no result to compare to the baseline time. We had thirty three swims where a swimmer swam an event for the first time. Congratulations to the following swimmers for trying something new: Aayona, Aleksandr, Aleksei, Alex, Ananiah, Anton , Arnav A, Arnav J, Chloe, Cora, Daniel, Ella, Gwen, Kyle, Lavanya, Maho, Matthew, Nethaniah, Nimi, Oliver W, Shailja, Simone, Sri, Surabhi, and Thomas.
Our top 10 time drops were to the following swimmers: Aayona who dropped over a minute in her 100 Breast; Kirsten who dropped over 26 seconds in her 200 Free; Shayaan who dropped over 21 seconds in his 100 Free; Lena who dropped over 19 seconds in her 200 IM and over 17 seconds in her 200 Free; Zoe who dropped over 19 seconds in her 200 IM and almost 18 seconds in her 100 Free; Nethaniah who dropped over 17 seconds in her 200 Free; Matthew who dropped over 17 seconds in his 200 Free; and Ian who dropped over 17 seconds in his 100 Free! Wow, great job swimmers!
We had seventeen swimmers qualify for the Age Group Invite meet in November at the October Challenge. Congratulations to Barun, Simone, Daniel, Thomas, Grady, Lena, Kyle, Ananiah, Nethaniah, Kirsten, Anton, Nimi, Zoe, Kamilla, Bailey, Oliver W, and Oliver Y for qualifying for this meet. We had three swimmers qualify for the Pacific Northwest Swimming Championship meet in December at the October Challenge. Congratulations to Thomas, Kyle, and Anton for qualifying for this meet.
Purple
What an outstanding meet! Not only were there countless best times, but multiple swimmers qualified for PNS Champs and the AGI meet! Aiden Li led the way with 6 best times and several cuts, including a PNS cut in his first-ever 200 back. Anouk Balog broke the 6:00 mark in her 500 free while Hailey Crawford easily qualified for PNS in her first-ever 500 free and 200 breast. Allie Bai had 6 best times, including an A time in her 100 breast. Itai Ami ad had four swims where he dropped more than 11 seconds in each! Purple's best event was the 200 free with several swimmers dropping 15 or more seconds including Arlene Shergill, Tanay Boda, Carr Chellis, Neha Phatak, Bill Wang, Dylan Vu, Daniel Xia, Paolo Villanueva, Kyle Li, Peter Hansen, Mutian Gao, Aarohi Ghandi, and Julien Wang. Swimmers with new PNS cuts included Maddy Kelly, Carter Drazich, and Annie Purkayastha. Other phenomenal swims included Iris Huang (3 swims with 10+ second drops), Rashmi Joshi (7 second drop in 100 fly), Sophie Lai (first ever 500 free and 200 IM), Ethan Na (9 second drop in 200 IM), Victor Zhang (first-ever 200 breast), Leo Zhu (5 second drop 50 breast), and Sarah Yi (24 second drop in 200 IM).
Senior Prep
It was great to see the group improve so much from the Purple and Black meet. Clearly the hard practices are beginning to pay off as the swimmers look stronger every time they get in the pool. Luke Barnett performed great on Saturday with an almost 1 minute drop in his 500 Free, while Samuel Yi dropped 45 seconds in his 200 IM earlier that morning. Rina Yuan dropped more than 12 seconds in both the 200 IM and the 200 Breast. Jaiden Sreenivasan swam 5 new Champs cuts in his 6 swims, including cracking the 1 minute barrier in the 100 Free for the first time! Joshua Wu swam a “BB Time” in his first attempt at the 400 IM after dropping 20 seconds in his 200 breaststroke earlier that day. Shea Skarda came away with a new “BB Time” after dropping 17 seconds in his 200 IM. Both Olivia Meverden and Zoe Meyer swam great 100 butterflies, with Zoe dropping 10 seconds and Olivia dropping 25 seconds!
Senior
The Senior group had many outstanding swims at the October Challenge. Matthew Yi was inspired this weekend going 6 out of 6 personal best times with a fantastic 22 seconds drop in the 200 Breast. Priyanka Kulkarni put together a strong meet swimming 5 lifetime bests with a standout 17 seconds drop in the 200 Back. Ella Reedy also swam 5 personal best times with a fantastic 1 minute and 18 seconds drop in the 500 Free. Nicholas Imig has been working on his endurance and dropped a full minute in the 500 Free while Grace Liu dropped 24 seconds in the same distance. Melis Gursoy had outstanding swims dropping 27 seconds in the 200 IM plus 23 seconds in the 200 Back. Alexander Claux had a huge improvement in the 200 Fly dropping 15 seconds. Ann Huynh had a fantastic 39 seconds drop in the 400 IM while Kohki Kita dropped 27 seconds in the same event. Ameya Madhugiri and Alexandru Popov had impressive drops in the 200 Breast with 42 seconds and 23 seconds respectively. A special mention to Vincent Ngo and Isaiah Taylor who swam the 400 IM for the first time and also to Graham Petersen and Priyanka Kulkarni for their first experience in the 500 Free.
Senior Elite
The Senior Elite Group had a great meet after a very tough week of practice (and a practice Saturday morning). The kids were focused on technique changes showing up in their raises, intensity in attacking the front of each swim, and challenging themselves to push past the fatigue from training. The kids did a great job and showed a lot of fight in all their swims.
Some stand out swims:
-Isabella Bono dripped time in her 50 Free.
-Gianna Tan had a weekend full of fast times and time drops.
-Aidan Blackmon did not drown despite best efforts of swimming the 2back (best time), 2fly (just off best time), and 4IM all within 45 minutes.
Great Job to the Senior Elite swimmers. The grind continues
