Metro Splash & Dash

Last weekend, Wave sent 70+ swimmers to Tacoma for a challenging meet! Our 11&Overs swam Prelims and Finals with only a short rest between sessions while our 10&Unders swam a Pentathlon. The 10&Under Boys had a particular challenge, as they swam all five events in less than an hour! Not to mention multiple deCongratulations to everyone who survived the location change, meet delays, and limited rest!

Purple Group

We had great swims over the past weekend at the meet! Even through some delays of the meet, the kids made it the best it could be. Some superstars of the meet were:

• Victoria Seto had a GREAT 100 back with beautiful kickoffs off each wall and dropped her time to 1:32!
• Carlo Villanueva dropped almost five seconds off his 50 fly in prelims to a 52.9 and then dropped to a 51 in finals!
• Raina Tuladhar had consistent drops in her first two events and had a strong first 200 breast
• Kamilla Shapiro dropped 15 seconds in her 200 breast!
• Kirill (Kay) Karachi had a great first 200 breast with a 3:51, then came back in finals and cut off 4 more seconds to a 3:47!

Congratulations to everyone who attended this meet! I’m proud of how you all handled the chaos of this weekend and dug deep to pull out some awesome swims! Now, back to practice, so we can get even stronger in the water and accomplish our next goals!

Senior 1

The Senior 1 group had one swimmer compete at the meet this past weekend.

• Carr Chellis had an absolutely wonderful showing at the meet, making finals in all of his races. He had huge time drops of more than 3 seconds in both the 50 fly and 50 back. He managed to win the 50 fly in prelims then followed up by winning the 50 back in both prelims and finals.

Age Group Select

Although there were only three AGS swimmers at the meet, they made their presence known with some incredible swims and best times! I am proud of their confidence when they stepped up onto the tall blocks and fearlessly dove into the water, which was only 5 feet (much shallower than they are used to!). Awesome swimming this weekend, AGS!

Special shoutout to Max and Isshin for swimming FIVE back-to-back swims (50s of each stroke and the 100 IM) in less than an hour! Despite a challenging lineup of swims, the boys gave their best effort which was evident with some best times!

• Max Stevenson swam right on his best times but what impressed me the most was how he identified things about his swim that could be improved and how he would implement these changes in practice. Way to go, Max!
• Isshin Yokoyama dropped more than 5 seconds on his 100 IM to earn himself a new B time! Isshin was also the TOP 9-year-old swimmer at the meet, sprinting his way to first place in all his events.
• Kyra Yuan executed a beautiful 50 fly, resulting in a 4.5 second time drop! Kyra was also the only AGS swimmer on Saturday and did a great job of representing the group with her leadership and team spirit by cheering on other WAVE swimmers.

Senior Prep

Senior Prep had a fantastic prelim/final meet this past weekend! Almost everything that could possibly go wrong at a meet went wrong at this meet (lane confusion during warm-ups, timing system delays, wonky blocks, and pool configuration) but one thing the swimmers focused on was maintaining a positive mindset. The four swimmers quickly understood these were factors they could not control and instead focused on things that they could! I am especially proud of how they critically evaluated their races and set up a game plan on how to improve these things at practice. Great work, Senior Prep!

• Tanay Boda made finals in 5 out of 6 of his events, most notably placing first in the 50 breast for 13 & Overs. He also sprinted his way to six new best times with the largest time drop in his 100 fly (more than 7 seconds!).
• Ananiah Gashaw dropped a whopping 13 seconds in the 100 fly (the largest time drop of the group) and more than 2 seconds in the 100 breast. She had an extremely successful meet with three more best times in the 200 IM, 50 fly, and 50 free.
• Nethaniah Gashaw’s focus and execution of race strategy paid off as she dropped more than a second in both the 100 fly and 200 IM. She also placed third in the 200 breast. Awesome job, Nethaniah!
• Penelope Hepkin only swam the first day of the meet but sure made it count! She swam her way to best times in the 100 back and 50 breast and finaled in the 50 breast where she placed fourth

Senior Epic

Senior Epic had only a couple of swimmers at the meet, but they represented us really well! Great job boys!

• Noah Sattari came to this meet after dropping time in five events at the Wave Meet two weeks ago, but he wanted more and had a full meet in Tacoma. Noah swam right at his best times and his outstanding swims were the 100 Fly and 50 Free where he was 0.17 and 0.24 seconds, respectively, off his best times!
• Blake Nilsen swam only one day at the meet and went home with a best time in the 50 Free. He was extremely happy with his race where he dropped almost half a second and broke the 25-second barrier for the first time. He also had a solid 100 Fly in prelims, going only 0.68 second off his best time!

Black Group

The Black Group had 24 athletes who ventured down to T-Town over the weekend and got some valuable experience in! The athletes worked on trying to focus on their own start stance for each race instead of looking at one another, as well as getting familiar with the signals from the starter.

We were able to use the smaller warm-up/warm down area for warm-up. We had it all to ourselves, and that let us spend a little time working on finishes and push-offs. It was a different pool and a different set up, so the athletes had to be a bit flexible and learn on the fly how the meet was running.

Overall, the athletes raced really well, and continued to show the improvements they are working to get down in practice. There were still hiccups of course, and full disclosure: the meet host didn’t have very many officials, especially on Sunday, so there were some non-calls, but that can happen at any meet.

I had a great time watching the kids race and seeing their growth both in the pool, as well as how they handle themselves out of the pool between races.

Saturday

Our 8&Under Girls were fantastic, racing hard and busting out some improved swims:

• Aria Beazer was dramatically better in her free events.
• Norah Braun was better in her races across the board.
• Claire Chen showed some improved swims and finished her first 50 in a meet
• Ella Gao finished her first 50 in a meet, and nailed her back finish to successfully complete that race for the first time
• Abby Gray did a terrific job racing and finished in the top two in all her events
• Zoey Harmetz looked stronger in her free races and remembered her finish in her breast race
• Tula Henkin raced really well in her 25 free with some strong kicking pushing her down the pool
• Fiona Herman posted a new best time in her breast
• Olivia Horng did a great job of bringing more intensity to her races and getting her strong kick going, powering her to some new best free times
• Anika Lichtenberg looked much better in her breast and really used her arms well with that stroke
• Cecily Paulus completed her first 50 free and 25 breast
• Keira Spitze raced super hard in all her events and brought lots of good energy to the meet
• Clara Stevenson nailed her breast and fly finishes, and used her strong legs to motorboat through the water on her free events
• Lexi Watrous also nailed her breast and fly finishes, and did a terrific job racing in her free events
• Ally Yuan was an awesome racer at the meet and finished in the top two in all her events
• Olivia Kang was the lone 9-year-old from Black Group on Saturday, and she had a terrific meet with some vastly improved swims (50 free, 50 breast) and two new swims she hadn’t done before (50 fly and 100 IM)

Sunday

The boys had it a bit rough on Sunday with very little time between their races. Their whole session was done in 45 minutes, and they were constantly moving from the pool to staging or behind the blocks for their next race. Despite that, they stepped up and raced hard every time.

• Arseniy Arhikhmin did his first legal back race, using the finish he had worked on in practice
• Adi Beibit raced super well with lots of intensity, including a great effort in his 50 free with a new best time
• Ruzgar Koc swam best times in three of his races
• Rinat Maksyutov had some really nice races, finished his first 50 free and 25 fly
• Benji Ovendale has been doing some good work in practice with his free and that showed in this meet
• Kenshin Yokoyama looked way better in his breast and fly races
• Andrew Zhu did a terrific job in his first meet with the team
• Max Malinovskyi was the lone 9-year-old boy from Black, and he handled the short session really well, even though he was looking a little worn down by the time the 100 IM rolled around. Max still swam three best times and finished second in two of his races.

White Group

This was an ‘interesting’ meet, but 18 White Groupers made the trek down and weathered the oddities to put on a great show. On Saturday, the girls’ session was a bit long and weirdly numbered (due to pool switching). The boys 10&U session was so quick it felt more like a reverse 200 IM. They barely had time to climb out of the pool before they climbed on the block for their next event!

What we didn't do was almost as impressive as what we did do: only 4 DQs, and 0 no-shows! Not a single swimmer in the group missed a single event, even when the boys were swimming 5 events 3 minutes apart...without a clock, or even Event/ heat display!... "White out" < drops mic >

• Claire Gao burned a Claire-sized hole through the water! She was on fire, cropping all her times (only two weeks old!) and landing her first three BB times in 50 free, 50 breast, and 100 IM! She is now an everything specialist. Her 50 breast time would have earned her a ticket to PNS Champs...had it happened two weeks earlier.
• Prisha Parikh is a believer in streamlines and glides, now, tearing 8 seconds off her 50 free, 9 seconds off her 50 back, and 11 seconds off her IM at the end of the meet! And her previous IM time was only two weeks old!
• Elin Beeler dropped 20 total seconds off her best times, including almost 14 in her IM. The trick? Flatter fly!
• Alice Khudyukov tucked her head down tight to earn her second B time in the 50 breast!
• Maria Kokhan powered up her 50 breast (-6s) and 50 back (-4s) to earn her third and fourth B times. She also legalized her IM!
• Sanvi Shrivastava's story is one of close calls: she cut 6 seconds off her IM, landing 2 seconds shy of a BB; 4 seconds off her 50 breast, landing 1.5 seconds shy of a BB; and she cut 0.6 seconds off her 50 free landing 0.31 seconds short of a BB! Ssoooooo close she can smell it!
• Rihit Gandhi lost time like an F-15 flying east: 27 seconds in total spread across all five events.
• Alex Arlouski turbocharged his 50 free for his second B time. He also dropped 9 seconds off his 50 breast, winning his war against his gammy flop foot!
• Kayson Taylor dropped time in every event he had a time for! And he landed legally everywhere else!
• Tommy Ovendale stretched out his 50 breast and 50 free, dropping 5 seconds on each.
• Joshua Hunter leveled out his back, shaving 12 seconds off his time.
• Legalized IMs: Emma Koss, Tyler Han, Mila Paulus, Kayson, Maria, and William Scott joined the 'Legal IM' Club! 40+ ways to DQ an IM, and they did none! In fact, this was William's first meet with Wave, and he didn't panic once (so he won it)!

High School Group

The High School Group did a fantastic job at this meet! We continued to see progress from a number of swimmers. Check out the following huge time drops and amazing swims:

• Arnav Agnihotri: -9 seconds in the 50 fly
• Lucas Blat-Phillips: great first 200 free! -8 seconds in the 50 back! and -3 seconds in the 50 breast
• Kaler Duryee: -9 seconds in the 200 free, -6 seconds in the 200 IM, and -1 second in the 100 free
• Evan Galuska: great 50 and 100 frees!
• Aarohi Gandhi: great 50 free!
• Yuvika Gupta: -2 seconds in the 100 breast
• Varshini Hari: -1 second in the 100 free
• Joseph Moore: -10 seconds in the 100 breast, -2 seconds in the 200 IM, -13 seconds in the 100 back, and -12 seconds in the 100 free! Wow!
• Maya O’Neil: lost 3 seconds in the 200 free, -2 seconds in the 50 breast, and -1 second in the 100 free
• Neha Phatak: -17 seconds in the 200 back
• Paolo Villanueva: -3 seconds in the 200 IM and -1 seconds in the 200 breast
• Julien Wang: -6 seconds in the 200 free, -2 seconds in the 100 IM, and -34 seconds in the 200 back…amazing!
• Rina Yuan: great 50 free!

New Motivational Times

BB

• Claire Gao: 100 IM, 50 free
• Joseph Moore: 100 free

B

• Alex Arlouski: 50 free
• Maria Kokhan: 50 back, 50 breast
• Joseph Moore: 100 back, 200 IM
• Isshin Yokoyama: 100 IM

CONGRATULATIONS, WAVE!!