PNS Senior Champs

WAVE swimmers came strong to PNS Senior Champs and crushed the weekend at KCAC! With many Champs Meets during the month of July, our team was split in different meets and thirteen swimmers represented our team at PNS Champs. Among our achievements we had one new Summer Sectionals Cut and three Zones Cuts (all first-time qualifiers) during the weekend!

Enjoy some outstanding swims:

• Kaitlyn Blackmon chose the PNS Senior Champs to be her taper meet despite having cuts to swim at Sectionals. Her standout swim was the 100 Free where she dropped 2.23 seconds with a very strongest finish! Also, Kaitlyn qualified for Finals in the 100 Breast with two solid swims both in Prelims and Finals.
• Tyler Kong got three new best times with an outstanding swim in the 100 Breast where he achieved the Summer Sectionals cut! Tyler swam very close to this cut for the past two meets (Montana and Seattle Open) and he finally got it at Champs! Note: he got his cut wearing a speedo, not a tech suit!
• Lola Reynolds let her Breaststroke shine and got her first-ever Zones Cut dropping 4 seconds at Prelims and another 3 seconds at Finals with a phenomenal 7-second drop at the end of the day! She went best times in all her four events.
• Owen Ledrick came strong for the meet and went 3-of-4 personal bests. His standout swim was the 800 Free where he achieved his very first Zones Cut, dropping more than 5 seconds from a fresh time made at Seattle Open two weeks before!
• Melis Gursoy swam only one day to tune up for Zones, which will be her taper meet a week after. Her strongest event was the 200 IM where she went a best time qualifying for Finals and dropping time twice. Her overall drop was 1.13 seconds.
• Raymond Chen swam both Butterfly events at the meet and had a fantastic 1.33-second drop in the 100 Fly achieving the Zones Cut for the first time! Ray also went right at their time in 200 Fly swimming with a very consistent technique during the meet.
• Alex Popov tapered for Sectionals a week before Champs where he went 3-of-4 lifetime bests. Then he came to Champs and swam a full meet. His outstanding swim was the 400 IM where he qualified for Finals going only a few seconds slower than his best time achieved at Sectionals.
• Aarjav Jain swam only one day at the meet and did pretty well! He went a best time in the 100 Free and swam right at his time in the 200 Back demonstrating a solid technique the whole race.
• Renee Yin had to cut her events to only one day after not feeling well in one of the days. She had a rough day before her races where she was trying to recover, but she showed up to swim for the team and did her best effort in both events she competed at.
• Alex Werth swam only one day to get ready for Zones, which will be his taper meet. He swam the 800 Free and had a massive 45-second drop. Alex has been improving a lot in the distance events lately opening more opportunities for him.
• Suhas Kannam swam four events and went a best time in two of them. His strongest swims were the 100 Free where he dropped 1.44 seconds breaking the 1:00 barrier by far (58.56) and the 200 IM where he raced hard until the very last stroke.
• Blake Nilsen swam three events and brought home a personal best time in the 100 Fly dropping 0.35. He also had a solid 200 Back where he went a second and half off his best time.
• Artur Sobol swam two events at the meet and had huge time drops in both. He dropped more than 7 seconds in the 100 Free and another 8 seconds in the 200 Back to wrap up his LC Season in great style.

Congrats for the excellent swims at PNS Senior Champs wrapping up a great Long Course Season for our Senior Groups!

Top 24 Finishes

• Kaitlyn Blackmon 18^th (100 Breast)
• Melis Gursoy 22^nd (200 IM)
• Alex Popov 23^rd (400 IM)
• Lola Reynolds 21^st (200 Breast)

New US Motivational Times

AA

• Kaitlyn Blackmon – 100 Free
• Raymond Chen – 100 Fly
• Tyler Kong – 100 Breast
• Owen Ledrick – 800 Free
• Lola Reynolds – 200 Breast

A

• Lola Reynolds – 200 IM
• Alex Werth – 800 Free

BB

• Artur Sobol – 100 Free, 200 Back

WAVE ON 3!!