Seattle Age Group Open Meet Recap

Jay Pearson

Age Group Seattle Open

What a weekend as we returned to Colman Pool for the first time since 2019! For most of the athletes, it was their first meet ever at Colman, and for many, it was their first time ever swimming long course! At least we had a great setting at Lincoln Park next to the Puget Sound, and decent weather for most of the meet (if a bit cold and windy on Friday morning!). It was great fun to enjoy seeing the Olympics to the west and watch the ferries crossing the Sound. Great viewing for the parents as well!

The highlight swim of the weekend was Rina Yuan deck entering the 50 Free and qualifying for her first-ever Senior Zones meet, as well as earning her first AA time! Congrats, Rina!

High School Group

We had some amazing swims from the athletes who participated! This is the first long course meet for almost all of you and I am so proud of how well you did! There won’t be many with time drops considering this is the first long course, but next year! Looking forward to seeing what’s in store for the last meet this month! In yards, of course!

  • Tanvi Bathe earned her first B cut for the season in her LCM 50 Free! She did a fantastic job swimming the 50 Back, 50 Breast, and 50 Fly.
  • Irina Burac grabbed her first BB cut of the season and in her LCM 50 Free! She also received a B cut in her LCM 100 Free and swam a great race in her 50 Breast, 100 Fly, and 50 Back.
  • Cayden Chen earned his first cut of the season in his LCM 50 Free. He also tried his hand in the LCM 400 Free and got a great time.
  • Kaler Duryee earned two BB cuts in his LCM 50 and 100 Free! He wasn’t too far off on his 200 Free with a B cut! Kaler had a great swim in his 100 Back, 50 Back, and 400 Free.
  • Evan Galuska earned a B cut in his 50 Free! He had a great first LC meet swimming 50 Breast, 100 free, 50 Back, and 50 Fly.
  • Aarohi Gandhi had some great swims in her 100 Fly as well as all four free events. The 100 Free and 200 Free were B times and the 50 Free was a BB time. She also dropped a total of -7.03 in her 50 Back.
  • Aditi Kandiah: This was not her first time swimming LCM! She had some great time drops: -6.79 in her 50 Breast, -14.02 in her 100 Free (including a B cut), -4.17 in 50 Back, -12.59 in 50 Fly, and -5.80 in 50 Free for a qualifying BB cut!
  • Maya O’Neill swam LCM for the first time and did fantastic! She earned a BB cut in her 50 Free and a B cut in her 100 Free. She had great first swims in the 50 Breast, 50 Back, and 50 Fly.
  • Ishana Pathak also swam LCM for the first time and performed great! Her first LCM events were 50 Breast, 50 Back, 50 Fly, and 50 Free.
  • Aayona Pattanaik dropped -4.60 in her 50 Back. She had great swims in her 50 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Fly, and 50 Free.
  • Neha Phatak cut a massive -13.06 in her 50 Breast! But that was not the only huge drop for Neha. She also dropped -7.18 in 50 Back, -9.31 in her 50 Free (getting a B cut!), and had a fabulous 200 Free and 50 Fly.
  • Anaya Teredesai had three huge drops: -6.22 in the 50 Breast, -11.42 in the 50 Back, and -6.67 in the 50 Free! She also swam the 100 Breast and 50 Fly for the first time.
  • Shailja Tyagi swam all four 50s for the first time. Good job, Shailja!
  • Samuel Yi had four massive drops: -9.03 in the 50 Breast, -12.89 in the 50 Back, -18.22 (!!!) in the 50 Fly, and -5.86 in his 50 free earning a B cut!
  • Sarah Yi dropped time in two events:  -1.36 in the 50 Breast and -0.86 in the 50 Free.
  • Rina Yuan dropped -0.29 in the 50 Free qualifying for Zones and earning an AA national motivational cut. She also went out strong in the first 100 of the 400 Free trying to drop a second in her 100 Free trying to qualify for Zones again. She just barely missed it! Nice try! You’ll get it next year!

Black Group

Four of the nine qualifiers from Black Group were able to make the trek to Colman Pool this past weekend, and for all of them it was their first time at this hidden Seattle area gem.

I can’t imagine a more scenic pool than this with the sound, islands, mountains, and ferries all visible both from the deck and in the water.

It has its downsides too, being part saltwater, the long walk from the parking lot, and weather that can be questionable, especially early in the morning when the wind kicks up!

All four athletes were able to experience all this, in addition to representing WAVE at a locally famous meet attended by many of the fastest swimmers in the area.

Natalie Whitbeck, Lingyi Li, Joy Huang, and Berit Dunn were each a bundle of nervous energy out of the pool but swam terrific once they hit the water. They had a ton of fun and were excited to be at this meet with one another.

I hope the is the first of many future trips to Colman for these young ladies!

Purple Group

Purple Group did very well at Age Group Seattle Open with it being the first time swimming long course for most of the Purples! Congratulations to all the kids who conquered their first long course meet!! Some highlights are:

  • Madeleine Cheng dropped more than 10 seconds in her 50 Breast and 50 Free
  • Mutian Gao dropped more than 10 seconds in his 50 Breast and 50 Fly
  • Chloe Lewis dropped more than 9 seconds in her 50 Breast and 50 Free
  • Kamilla Shapiro dropped 17 seconds in her 50 Fly
  • Raina Tuladhar dropped 29 seconds in her 100 back and more than 13 seconds in her 50 Breast and 50 Free
  • Ananya Varadarajan dropped at least 1+ second in all her races
  • Ekansh Verma dropped more than 15 seconds in his 50 Free, 24 seconds in his 50 Back, and a whopping 44 seconds in his 50 Breast 

Again, congratulations to everyone who participated and got their first Long Course times at this past meet!!

Age Group Select

In a summer where we’ve had one great meet after another, this one was our best so far! The athletes turned in many excellent swims, topped by five swimmers who qualified for their first-ever PNS Champs: Alison Wang, Navya Sainani, Yihan Li, Grace Zhang, and George Ursulenko! One of the most exciting races was watching Bimu Beibit and Claire Gao race side-by-side in the 400 Free. They tied on most of their splits and pushed each other to big, big drops! Below are highlights:

  • Alex Arlouski had five best times, including a 9.74-second drop in the 100 Free!
  • Bimu Beibit had a best time every time he dove in, including a monster drop of 25.72 seconds in the 400 Free to go along with three new AA times! He also won the 200 Free and added two 2nd places!
  • Arjun Bhate swam in his first-ever LCM meet, so he went 4-for-4 in best times!
  • Kamilla Bugaitsova dropped time in her first four races, then added a total of 0.25 in her final two. One of her best swims was a stunning 100 Free where she once again ran swimmers down in the final 10 meters!
  • Deniz Cankaya had a big drop in the 100 Free and a new best time in the 50 Breast
  • Ethan Chan swam three races he’d never done in LCM, and picked up a PNS Champs cut in one of them, the 200 Breast!
  • Ellen Feng swam her first-ever 400 Free and scored a BB Time + a PNS cut, then swam her first-ever 50m Fly and grabbed her second A time! She finished 3rd in both of those races!
  • Claire Gao’s biggest race was the 400 Free where she just outdueled Bimu and dropped more than 10 seconds to pick up a new AA time and the win! She also won three other events and added a second place.
  • Abby Gray had two new best times, including a first-ever 100m Fly!
  • Olivia Henaire had several best times, highlighted by a monster swim in her 100 Breast where she dropped more than 3 seconds and snagged 2nd place! She repeated her effort in the 50 Breast, dropping 2.5 seconds and adding another 2nd!
  • Nora Herman had five best times, including a BB Time/PNS Cut in her first-ever 400 Free!
  • Yuzuki Ishizuka earned a new BB time in all four of her best times, three of which she had never done in LCM!
  • Dami Jung went a perfect 6-for-6 in best times, including a 4.75-second drop in her 50 Free and a BB time in her first-ever 200m Free!
  • Richelle Li swam her first-ever LCM meet and earned best times in all five events!
  • Yihan Li earned not 1, not 2, but 3 BB Times, her first ever, and dropped 3+ seconds in all three events!
  • Olivia Liu missed going 6-for-6 by only 0.19 in the 50 Breast. Her phenomenal meet included two new BB times and a B time in her first-ever 200m IM!
  • Molly Mayfield dropped an impressive 5.32 seconds in her 50 Fly and earned four new best times!
  • Lainey Meyer earned two new best times in the 50 Back and 50 Fly!
  • Theresa Nguyen earned five best times, including a very impressive 200 IM!
  • Prisha Parikh earned four best times, including a 2.55-second drop in the 50 Breast! Her two adds totaled less than 0.5 second! She also blasted her way to 2nd in the 200 Free and 1st in the 100 Back!
  • Irene Qu had a big drop in the 50 Back and picked up new motivational times in all three of her first-time events!
  • Aayush Rane swam his first-ever LCM meet, including a couple of impressive swims in his 50 Back and 50 Fly!
  • Navya Sainani earned several new best times, including her first-ever PNS Champs cut as an 11-year-old!
  • Sanvi Shrivastava landed four new best times, including BB times in her two new races!
  • Beata Sobol went a perfect 6-for-6, snagging three new BB times along the way!
  • Max Stevenson went 5-for-6 in best times, highlighted by his first-ever 400 Free, in which he also finished Top 8 for the first time at a major meet with a 5th place finish!
  • George Ursulenko swam in his first-ever LCM meet, earning motivational times in every event, with his best swim being a BB time in the 100 Breast…and his first-ever PNS Champs cut!
  • Alison Wang swam her first-ever LCM meet and also earned motivational times in each event. Her best swim was the 50 Breast, where she earned a BB time and her first-ever PNS Champs cut!
  • Audra Whitbeck swam her first-ever LCM meet, grabbing 5 best times, all of which were motivational cuts!
  • Kailyn Wing continued her rampage as all her hard work in practice has been really paying off big time! She was a perfect 6-for-6, topped off by a fantastic 100 Back where she earned a new BB time!
  • Andy Yang was yet another swimmer whose great work ethic in practice showed up in the meet, as he not only went 6-for-6 but shattered his previous best times by a minimum of 2 seconds! His biggest race was the 50 Free, where he dropped nearly 6 seconds from earlier this season!
  • Isshin Yokoyama had a perfect meet as well, with four new BB times to go along with six best times. Most of his races were those he does not usually swim, and he smoked the competition by scoring in five of those races, including a 3rd place in the 200 Free!
  • Ally Yuan had a great meet, adding two new B times, with her biggest swim in the 50 Free where she dropped well over 2 seconds!
  • Kyra Yuan picked up four best times, highlighted by a monster 5-second drop in her 50 Fly!
  • Grace Zhang made PNS Champs for the first time by chopping more than 4 seconds in her 100 Breast, leading her to a 5th place finish!

White Group

Kudos to the 24 white groupers who swam & slam dunked in the Age Group Seattle Open! They braved weird (salty) water and character-building cold to swim 5500 yards, missing the wall 139 times! (because it’s long course!)

CERTIFIED CHAMPIONS: 6 swimmers punched a ticket to Age Group Champs at the meet:

  • Karina Maksyutov (50 Free)
  • Emily MacDonald (50 Free)
  • Landon Yuan (50 Breast)
  • Jonah Lynn (50 Back)
  • Maria Kokhan (100 Back)
  • Ahana Bhattacharya (200 Free)

MOTIVATIONAL GRADUATES: Swimmers who earned their first-ever B or BB times at this meet!

  • First BB times:
    • Bani Bhuyan (50 Fly)
    • Emily MacDonald (50 Free, 50 Back)
    • Karina Maksyutov (50 Free)
  • First B times:
    • Jayden Hor (50 Breast)
    • Rihit Gandhi (50 Free, 50 Breast)
    • Elizabeth Luo (50 Back)
    • Derek Xu (100 Breast)

CLOSEST CALL:

  1. Bani Bhuyan missed a Champs cut in her 50 Fly by 0.81…

BREAKTHROUGH:

  1. Adi Beibit was BB and Champs caliber in every event save backstroke before the meet, but he bore down on back and discovered that not-bobbing is way faster than bobbing backstroke.

Senior Prep

Despite a very cold Friday morning, we had many excellent swims both days, including several new PNS cuts! Top 20 Mindboggling Time Drops, led by Bill Wang, who dropped nearly 3:00 over his six events!:

  • Bill Wang: -56.11 (200 IM)
  • Bill Wang: -54.89 (200 Free)
  • Deming Gates: -41.27 (100 Back)
  • Bill Wang: -26.14 (100 Back)
  • Ananiah Gashaw: -24.90 (50 Fly)
  • Bill Wang: -23.08 (100 Free)
  • Alex Shibalov: -21.10 (50 Breast)
  • Nethaniah Gashaw: -20.66 (200 Fly)
  • Thomas Claux: -19.12 (100 Back)
  • Alex Shibalov: -16.84 (50 Free)
  • Neil Rawal: -14.62 (50 Back)
  • Nethaniah Gashaw: -13.56 (50 Fly)
  • Bill Wang: -9.71 (50 Free)
  • Amelia Pletosu: -9.38 (200 IM)
  • Ella Tulanon: -9.11 (100 Fly)
  • Sophia Gorveatt: -8.91 (100 Back)
  • Neil Rawal: -8.06 (50 Free)
  • Nethaniah Gashaw: -8.84 (50 Breast)
  • Ananiah Gashaw : -7.54 (50 Breast)
  • Deming Gates: -7.29 (100 Back)

New US Motivational Times

AA

  • Bimu Beibit: 50 & 100 Free, 50 Back
  • Claire Gao: 400 Free
  • Rina Yuan: 50 Free

A

  • Oleg Arlouski: 200 Free
  • Bimu Beibit: 200 & 400 Free
  • Lena Duryee: 400 IM
  • Ellen Feng: 50 Fly
  • Kyle Fontelera: 50 & 100 Free
  • Deming Gates: 100 & 200 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast
  • Bennett Geitz: 100 & 200 Free
  • Adrian Juco: 50 Free

BB

  • Barun Acharya: 100 & 200 Breast, 50 & 100 Free
  • Alex Arlouski: 100 Breast, 100 Free
  • Oleg Arlouski: 200 IM
  • Adi Beibit: 50 & 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Fly
  • Arya Bhatt: 50 Free
  • Ahana Bhattacharya: 200 Free, 50 Back
  • Bani Bhuyan: 50 Fly
  • Ric Brusilovski: 100 Fly
  • Kamilla Bugaitsova: 100 & 200 Free
  • Irina Burac: 50 Free
  • Maddie Cheng: 50 Free
  • Olivia DeAmicis: 200 Back
  • Kaler Duryee: 50 & 100 Free
  • Lena Duryee: 200 Back
  • Ellen Feng: 400 Free
  • Kyle Fontelera: 200 Free
  • Claire Gao: 100 Fly
  • Nethaniah Gashaw: 50 Free
  • Bennett Geitz: 200 Back
  • Sophia Gorveatt: 50 Free
  • Kirsten Hau: 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Free
  • Penelope Hepkin: 200 Free
  • Nora Herman: 400 Free
  • Yuzuki Ishizuka: 100 Back, 200 Free, 200 IM, 50 Fly
  • Dami Jung: 50, 100 & 200 Free
  • Aditi Kandiah: 50 Free
  • Maria Kokhan: 100 Back
  • Yihan Li: 50 & 200 Free, 100 Back
  • Olivia Liu: 100 Back, 200 Free
  • Jonah Lynn: 50 Back
  • Emily MacDonald: 50 Back, 50 Free
  • Karina Maksyutov: 50 Breast
  • Anton Mazepa: 100 Breast
  • Maya O’Neill: 50 Free
  • Vien Pogue: 50 Free
  • Irene Qu: 100 Back, 50 Breast
  • Alex Shibalov: 50, 100 & 200 Breast, 50 Back, 50 Fly, 50 Free
  • Radha Shiriam: 200 Free, 50 Back
  • Sanvi Shrivastava: 200 Free, 50 Breast
  • Beata Sobol: 100 Breast, 200 Free, 200 IM
  • Max Stevenson: 100 Back
  • Ella Tulanon: 200 Back, 50 Free
  • George Ursulenko: 100 Breast
  • Alison Wang: 50 Breast
  • Bill Wang: 50, 100 & 200 Free, 200 IM
  • Kailyn Wing: 100 Back
  • Andy Yang: 50 & 100 Back, 50 Breast
  • Isshin Yokoyama: 100 Breast, 200 Free, 200 IM, 50 Fly

B

  • Barun Acharya: 100 Back
  • Tanvi Bathe: 50 Free
  • Alex Belkin: 50 Free
  • Ahana Bhattacharya: 50 & 100 Fly, 200 IM, 50 Free
  • Bani Bhuyan: 100 Fly, 50 Free
  • Neel Borate: 50 Free
  • Lucy Broyles: 100 Free, 50 Breast
  • Irina Burac: 100 Free
  • Deniz Cankaya: 50 Breast
  • Cayden Chan: 50 Free
  • Sanvi Chaudhary: 50 Free
  • Maddie Cheng: 100 Breast
  • Thomas Claux: 100 Back, 100 Breast
  • Kaler Duryee: 200 Free
  • Evan Galuska: 50 Free
  • Rihit Gandhi: 50 Breast, 50 Free
  • Mutian Gao: 50 Free
  • Nethaniah Gashaw: 100 Free
  • Abby Gray: 100 Fly
  • Kirsten Hau: 100 Fly
  • Fiona Herman: 50 Free
  • Jayden Hor: 50 Breast
  • Iris Huang: 100 Back
  • Kirill Kadach: 50 Free
  • Kunaal Kadam: 50 Free
  • Aditi Kandiah: 100 Free
  • Arvin Kandiah: 50 Back, 50 Breast
  • Emily Kehm: 50 & 100 Breast, 50 Fly
  • Kiara Keim: 50 Free
  • Surabhi Koundinya: 50 Free
  • Olivia Liu: 200 IM
  • Elizabeth Luo: 50 Back
  • Jonah Lynn: 100 Back
  • Karina Maksyutov: 50 Free
  • Max Malinovskyi: 50 Back, 50 Free
  • Maya O’Neill: 100 Free
  • Roshni Padmanabhan: 50 Free
  • Karolina Pastusiak: 100 & 200 Free, 200 IM
  • Aayona Pattanaik: 50 & 100 Free
  • Neha Phatak: 200 Free
  • Vien Pogue: 100 Back, 100 Fly, 100 Free
  • Irene Qu: 50 Free
  • Neil Rawal: 50 Free
  • Navya Sainani: 50 Breast
  • Radha Shiriam: 100 Fly
  • Beata Sobol: 50 Breast
  • Max Stevenson: 400 Free, 100 Breast, 50 Fly
  • Raina Tuladhar: 50 Free
  • Vedah Tuladhar: 100 Back
  • George Ursulenko: 50 & 100 Back, 50 Breast
  • Alison Wang: 50 Free, 50 Back
  • Bill Wang: 100 & 200 Back
  • Audra Whitbeck: 50 & 100 Back, 50 & 100 Free, 100 Breast
  • Kailyn Wing: 50 & 100 Breast, 200 Back, 50 Free
  • Daniel Xia: 200 Back
  • Derek Xu: 100 Breast
  • Andy Yang: 50 & 200 Free, 50 Fly
  • Samuel Yi: 50 Free
  • Sarah Yi: 50 Free
  • Isshin Yokoyama: 100 Fly
  • Ally Yuan: 50 & 100 Back, 50 Breast, 50 Fly, 50 Free
  • Kyra Yuan: 100 Breast
  • Grace Zhang: 50 Free

WAVE ON 3!!