PNS Champs: 13-14

Jay Pearson

PNS Champs (13-14)

Our 13-14s had their shot last weekend at their first big champs meet for most of them in two years! As was the case with the 12&Unders, the dive tank was not available for warmup/warm down, but parents could cheer their swimmers on and, of course, there were relays!

Jaiden Sreenivasan led the team with a phenomenal performance, setting five team records!!! He crushed 4 of his own records and set 1 new record. In addition, he won two golds and broke the SwimStrong Dryland record in the 13-14 1650 free!

Many of these races had more than 100 entrants, so special congratulations to those who made finals!

Again, thanks to all the parents who drove all those days and especially those who officiated or served as timers!

Purple

Purple had one swimmer attend the 13-14 PNS Championship meet: Henry Geitz. He swam four incredible races: the 100 free, 100 back, 50 free, and 50 back. Most notably, he dropped 4.5 seconds in the 50 back, as well as 0.99 second in the 50 free, breaking the 28-second barrier! What an incredible achievement, and way to represent our group!

Senior Prep

We had a very good 13-14 PNS Championship Meet. There were 60 successful swims with an average time drop of 0.54 per race. We also had another 7 swims that were between a 0.01-0.50 second off their best time. There were lots of learning opportunities, such as eating to fuel your body for your races, how odd/even heats on separate ends of the pool work, how important warm down is when you are swimming that many races in a weekend.

Shout Outs:

  • Peter Hansen and Ethan Na for very large 11-second improvements in their 200 fly and 200 IM, respectively
  • Hailey Crawford for the highest place finish in the group (12th)
  • A big congratulations to our four Sr. Prep finalists: Anouk Balog, Dylan Vu, Iris Huang, and Hailey

I am especially looking forward to this meet for next year when we will have many more 14-year-olds who will have an easier time making finals at the top of their age group.

Sr Prep swimmers, I am proud of your hard work that you all have put in this first half of our short course season. Great Job!

Twenty Biggest Sr. Prep Drops of the Meet

  • Peter dropped 11.63 seconds in the 200 Fly, 5.02 seconds in the 200 Breast & 2.15 seconds in the 100 Breast
  • Ethan dropped 11.17 seconds in the 200 IM, 4.28 seconds in the 200 Breast & 2.03 seconds in the 100 Breast
  • Dylan dropped 2.78 seconds in the 200 Back
  • Iris dropped 2.75 seconds in the 200 IM & 2.73 seconds in the 100 Fly, & 1.74 seconds in the 200 Breast
  • Boris Shakov dropped 2.49 seconds in the 200 Free
  • Bill Wang dropped 1.46 seconds in the 50 Back
  • Nik Brusilovski dropped 1.36 seconds in the 100 Free
  • Anouk dropped 1.27 seconds in the 200 Free, 1.13 seconds in the 200 IM, & 1.07 seconds in the 100 Fly
  • Rik Brusilovski dropped 0.98 seconds in the 200 IM & .97 seconds in the 100 Fly

Senior Epic

As mentioned above, Jaiden Sreenivasan had a phenomenal weekend at the PNS 13-14 Champs last weekend and set five Team Records!!! He crushed four of his own records and set one new record. Jaiden also won his first-ever race at PNS Champs and he did it twice (500 Free & 1650 Free)!! The records were:

  • 200 IM: 2:00.76
  • 400 IM: 4:11.00
  • 200 Free: 1.44.82
  • 500 Free: 4:43.75
  • 1650 Free: 16:21.62

Jaiden added the 200 IM record to his list of records and had stellar time drops in the other four events to update his own records. On top of that he also broke the SwimStrong Dryland record in the 13-14 1650 Free (again!) and got two new Summer Sectionals cuts (500 & 1650 Free).

Congrats Jaiden! Your dedication, discipline, hard work and commitment are an example and inspiration to our team!! Keep grinding it and dreaming big!

Senior 1

The Senior 1 group sent four swimmers to the PNS 13-14 Championships this past weekend. All four swimmers put on their game faces and raced incredibly well. They all achieved best times in at least one race and two of them went best times in every race they swam. It was an absolutely awesome weekend for these swimmers, and it was so much fun to watch them see the success of all the work they have put in. They really worked hard for this and deserved all the fast times.

Highlights:

  • Vidhi Mehrotra had an absolutely incredible weekend achieving new best times in five of her six events. She achieved an A time in the 50 free, dropping almost a full second. On the final day of the meet—her birthday—she qualified for finals in the 50 breast by dropping 1.66 seconds.
  • Kyle Li has been training incredibly hard and it showed in his races. He went best times in every race he swam and was a valuable member of the 200 frees relay. He started the meet with a monster swim in the 200 free, dropping 1.33 seconds. He was not done there, however, as he dropped 3.81 seconds in the 200 back.
  • Taryn Han was on point all weekend. She achieved best times in every race she swam and made finals in the 200 back, 100 back, and 100 free. All her races were very exciting but none more than her 100 free where she won the C final, leading start to finish, dropping 1.12 seconds, and earning her first Senior Zones qualifying time!
  • Julia Larsen showed up ready to race and race she did. Julia qualified for finals in all six of her individual events. Following in the footsteps of those before her, she established herself as a top backstroke swimmer finishing 6th in both the 50 and 100 back and added a huge 4.03-second drop in the 200 back. She continues to prove herself as a sprinter as well, achieving an AAA time in the 50 free.
  • Julia and Taryn participated in all four relays, which all posted best times. The 400 medley relay finished 7th and the 400 free relay finished 5th. They were all smiles in the 200 medley relay, 200 free relay, and 400 free relay as they achieved Senior Sectionals qualifying times in all three!

Top 16 Finishes

  • Hailey Crawford – 12th in 100 breast
  • Julia Larsen – 6th in 50 back, 8th in 100 back, 13th in 100 free, 14th in 200 back
  • Jaiden Sreenivasan – 1st in 500 & 1650 free, 2nd in 200 free & 400 IM, 7th in 200 IM
  • 13-14 Girls – 5th in 400 free relay (Hailey, Taryn, Anouk, Julia), 7th in 400 medley relay (Julia, Hailey, Anouk, Taryn)

New US Motivational Times

AAAA

  • Jaiden Sreenivasan – 200 & 500 free, 400 IM

AAA

  • Julia Larsen – 50 free

AA

  • Anouk Balog – 200 free
  • Julia Larsen – 200 back, 200 free

A

  • Nik Brusilovski – 100 free
  • Rik Brusilovski – 100 & 200 free, 200 IM
  • Vidhi Mehrotra – 50 free
  • Ethan Na – 100 free, 200 IM
  • Boris Shakov – 100 & 200 free

BB

  • Peter Hansen – 100 & 200 breast
  • Iris Huang – 100 fly

B

  • Leo Zhu – 200 breast
  • Peter Hansen – 200 fly

Way to go Wave Swimmers!