PNS Championships Recaps

Over the first two weekends of December, Wave competed in the PNS Age Group and Senior Championships, the first full short course championship meets in 3 years!

Due to an issue at KCAC, the Age Group championship meet was split in half, with the 12&Unders competing the first weekend at Juanita and the 13-14s joining the Senior Meet the following weekend.

Wave was the only team that stood up to open their pool to host the Age Group Championship and did so with only 3 days to get the Age Group meet moved to Juanita. Many many thanks to Coach Chad, Steven Blackman, and the Wave Aquatics Pool Ops staff for stepping up! Many thanks also to the parents of our 13-14 swimmers, who had to shift their weekends at the last minute.

A big shout out to all our relay-only swimmers and their parents who attended either meet. Relays are a huge part of Championship meets, not just for the joy of swimming in them, but they score big points as well!

A special shout out to Coach Dillon, who earned an Ironman Award as he spent both weekends (instead of just one) coaching all day!!

Both meets included 30+ teams from across Western Washington and once again, our swimmers had spectacular performances between the two meets!

Age Group Champs

Black & White Groups

Our Sport Team sent five swimmers to participate in relays, helping our 12&Under team to a 6^th place finish. Alex Wang, Ilia Maxsimchuk, Han Sun, Henry Cheng, Andy Nguyen, and Keshav Iyer all raced with several of the swimmers going the fastest they’ve ever swum!

Age Group Select

AGS had nine swimmers qualify for individual events (“A” time was required) and several more who swam in relays. We had many stunning performances, most notably Ellen Feng and Claire Gao’s finishes in the 50 Fly. Ellen picked up two places on her final stroke to medal while Claire held off two challengers on her final stroke to win the B Final by 0.07! In addition, Isshin Yokoyama and Prisha Parikh both broke the :30 barrier in the 50 Free!

Relay-only swimmers included Yihan Li, Olivia Liu, Audra Whitbeck, Alison Wang, Vedah Tuladhar, Ahana Bhattacharya, Grace Zhang, Ally Yuan, Alex Arlouski, George Ursulenko¸ Ryder Hsu, Sawyer Hsu, Arvin Kandiah, Rihit Gandhi, and Deniz Cankaya.

• Ellen Feng finaled in three events and earned Top 3 finishes in the 50 Fly and the 100 Fly. She dropped 5 seconds in her 100 Fly in Prelims, then another 0.4 in Finals. In her 50 Fly, she swam the 3^rd fastest time in Wave history for 10&U Girls!
• Claire Gao scored in four out of five races, including a Top 6 finish in the 50 Free and winning the B Final in the 50 Free!
• Olivia Henaire scored three times, highlighted by a 1.3-second drop in her 50 Breast!
• Fiona Herman scored in the 100 Fly and dropped more than 5 seconds in her 100 Free!
• Dami Jung scored in the 50 Free and picked up three new best times!
• Prisha Parikh scored in five of her six events, picked up four new best times, including her first-ever AA times!
• Irene Qu scored in the 50 Back and earned a new A Time in the 50 Breast!
• Beata Sobol picked up three best times, scored in two events, and shattered the 1:10 barrier in the 100 Free, dropping to a 1:08.09!
• Isshin Yokoyama had four best times in five events (while scoring in all 5 events) and earned a Bronze Medal in the 50 Back! To top it off, he earned an A time in the 50 Back in Prelims then turned it into a AA time in Finals!

Senior Champs

Senior 1

Senior 1 had nine swimmers compete, and the group performed incredibly well at their Championships. This group really stepped up and trained hard this season and it really showed in all their races with some absolutely monster swims, tons of new best times, new motivational time standards achieved, and three new Senior Zones cuts. It was a super fun weekend watching the swimmers compete so well and seeing how happy they were with their swims and times. The group is looking forward to continuing our training and seeing even faster swimming in the new year.

• Nik Brusilovski was totally dialed in for the entire weekend, dropping time in every race. In his 200 Free, he dropped 4 seconds in prelims and earned himself a spot in finals. In finals, he dropped another second picking up his first Senior Zones cut. He then kept the ball rolling and swam an exciting 500 free finishing 7^th overall, dropping 5 seconds, and claiming his second Senior Zones cut of the meet.

• Rik Brusilovksi was a man on a mission at the meet! His mission was to swim fast and he accomplished just that. He turned in an amazing 200 Free, dropping almost 3 seconds and smashing through the 2:00 barrier for the first time. He would back that up with monster swims in the 400 IM (12 second drop) and 500 Free (4.5 second drop).
• Hailey Crawford was right on her best times in all her individual events. She turned in her fastest 100 Breast of the season, looking super strong in the race. Hailey was also an incredibly valuable member of several relays over the weekend helping both her 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays score points.
• Henry Geitz continued to show great improvement on his season. He started the meet off with a bang dropping 3 seconds in the 200 Free, breaking the 2:00 barrier for the first time. He would then go to have a huge day racing five times the first day and capping it off with a huge 6-second drop in the 400 IM. He would then go on to drop 7.5 seconds in the 500 Free getting him his first-ever AA time.
• Peter Hansen was pretty much all smiles at the meet as he dropped in three races and turned in absolutely stunning relay performances. He started off strong, dropping 2 seconds in his 100 Breast. He turned in a best time in the 100 Free then later that same day led off the 400 Free Relay even faster than he had just swum the 100 Free.
• Iris Huang was very pleased with her races and had some pretty big smiles after a couple of them. She has been training well and it really showed. She showed off her pure speed dropping more than 1 second in the 50 Free from a time she had swam just a month prior. She kept the sprint free ball rolling, dropping half a second in her 100 Free and going under 1:00 for the first time ever.
• Ethan Na continued to crush it in his sprint events. He turned in a monster 100 Fly and dropping 2 seconds off his previous best. Then he turned to the sprint free events and went best times in the 50 going under 24 for the first time and the 100 going under 53 for the first time.
• Dylan Vu showed that he can be an incredibly versatile swimmer excelling in sprint events all the way up to the 500. He started it off with a huge 1.5 second drop in the 200 Free and never looked back on his way to best times in the 50, 100, and 500 Free events. He is looking forward to keeping the training going and getting even faster at all these events.
• Rina Yuan turned in some great individual performances, going three best times and hitting her exact time in her fourth event. She had a great 100 Free swimming strong throughout the whole race and stayed tough the last 25 earning her second Senior Zones cut along the way. She also had a huge impact on relays, helping her 200 Free, 200 Medley, 400 Free, and 400 Medley Relays all move up and get into scoring position.

Senior Epic

Senior Epic was on fire at PNS Champs! They trained really hard throughout the season and came ready to swim their best. We had a number of fantastic swims during the weekend including many new personal best times, athletes coming back for finals, new cuts achieved (one Futures and four Spring Sectionals cuts), and also a new Team Record (Boys 17-18). Enjoy some exciting performances from our group:

The Breaststroke Crew

• Alex Popov has been swimming fast the whole season and went a best time in all his events. Popov got his first-ever Futures cut after dropping 1.68 seconds in the 100 Breaststroke (58.28!). Besides that, he made Finals in the 50 &100 Breast, 200 IM (4.43 second drop), and 400 IM (9.57 second drop) and also achieved two new Spring Sectionals cuts in the 200 Breast and 200 IM.
• Alex Werth went three personal best times and had a fantastic swim in the 200 Breast where he swam a personal best at prelims earning his spot to swim again at finals. Then he came back even stronger and shaved off a few more tenths of second with a total of 1.2-second drop at the end of the day.
• Tyler Kong recovered from being sick a week before the meet and managed to put together an excellent 200 Breast where he dropped 4 seconds going way below the Spring Sectionals cut, adding another event to his menu. He also went a best time in the 100 Breast going 1:00 for the first time.
• Lola Reynolds has improved her breaststroke technique and was able to race a great 100 Breast dropping time (again!) at Champs after achieving a personal best during the High School Season.

The Sprint / Mid-Distance Crew

• Fredrik Larsen dominated the backstroke events qualifying for A Finals in all of them and showing super consistent underwater dolphin kicks. He broke his own Team Record (Boys 17-18) in the 200 Back swimming 1.65 seconds faster than his old time and also broke the 24-second barrier in the 50 back for the first time (23.79). Freddy also demonstrated his versatility in other strokes and got a Sectionals cut in the 200 Breast and a best time in the 50 Free leading off the 200 Free Relay.
• Jenna Kimborowicz turned the sprint mode on and crushed the 50 and 100 Back going best times in both events. Jenna tied in 24^th place in the 50 Back and had to swim again to fight for a spot at finals. The whole team went behind the block to support Jenna's swim-off where she dropped another half second from her first swim (total of almost a full second drop). She also finaled in the 100 Back where she went faster than prelims and almost broke the minute barrier (1.00.28).
• Noah Sattari was ready to swim fast and went a best time in four events. In the 100 Fly, he swam a personal best at prelims, but he was confident he could go faster, which he did during Time Trials the next day. He dropped a few more tenths of second with a total of 1.20-second drop getting very close to the Sectionals cut.
• Raymond Chen swam two events and two relays at Champs and crushed all races, going a best time in the 100 Free and in the 50 Fly. Ray dropped 2 seconds in the former and 0.22 tenths of second in the latter.

The Distance Crew

• Kyler Brumfield raced 4700 yards in four days!! Kyler swam all three distance events plus 200 Free, 100 & 200 Back, and three relays! She demonstrated exemplary consistency during the meet and managed to swim a best time in the 1000 Free, 200 Back, and 200 Free (welcome to the sub 2:00 club: 1:59.51!). Kyler qualified for Finals in the 200 Back and 500 Free where she had a very strong swim and was satisfied with her race strategy going right at her time.
• Anouk Balog has been working a lot on her flip turns and was excited with her improvement in that specific skill while racing at Champs. She had a best time in the 100 Free (with great walls) and swam right at her time in the 200 Free and 100 Fly.
• Boston Borg swam four freestyle events and went best times in all. His outstanding swim was the 500 Free where he dropped 3.35 seconds at prelims and earned his spot to swim again and score points for the team in the B final. He is less than 2 seconds off getting the 500 Free Sectionals cut now!
• Owen Ledrick has been training much more freestyle lately and came strong to get a best time in all freestyle events he raced. It was the first time that Owen swam the 1000 Free and he had an excellent swim holding the same pace (literally) for the whole race.
• Jaiden Sreenivasan got sick the week of Champs and was unable to swim his individual events considering the effort required to swim long events. But he stepped up for the team and showed up to swim all the relays he was entered in before the meet started. Jaiden helped his teammates and his team racing really hard and swimming right at his best times in the relays.

Congrats to all Senior Epic swimmers for the extraordinary season! I had lots of fun coaching you all and I can't wait to start all over again and see our group swimming even faster in 2023!

Top 12/Top 16 Individual Finishes

Top 12 finishers scored in Age Group Champs while Top 16 scored in Senior Champs

• Boston Borg – 15^th 500 Free, 16^th 1000 Free
• Nik Brusilovski – 7^th 500 Free, 8^th 1650 Free & 200 Back, 11^th 200 Free
• Rik Brusilovski – 14^th 400 IM
• Daniel Chen – 4^th 50 Back, 11^th 500 Free
• Ellen Feng – 3^rd 50 & 100 Fly, 6^th 50 Back
• Claire Gao – 6^th 50 Free, 7^th 100 Free, 8^th 50 Fly, 10^th 200 IM
• Bennett Geitz – 2^nd 500 Free, 3^rd 200 Fly, 4^th 400 IM, 6^th 200 Free, 7^th 100 Fly, 10^th 50 Fly
• Sophia Gorveatt – 10^th 500 Free
• Kirsten Hau – 12^th 200 Breast
• Olivia Henaire – 7^th 200 IM, 8^th 50 & 100 Breast
• Lauren Hizzey – 9^th 200 & 500 Free
• Fiona Herman – 9^th 100 Fly
• Dami Jung – 9^th 50 Free
• Freddie Larsen – 4^th 50 & 200 Back, 7^th 100 Back
• Cora Ledrick – 12^th 200 Free
• Prisha Parikh – 5^th 50 Free, 7^th 100 Back, 8^th 100 Free & 50 Back, 9^th 100 IM
• Amelia Pletosu – 7^th 1650, 8^th 400 IM, 12^th 500 Free
• Alex Popov – 10^th 50 Breast, 14^th 400 IM, 16^th 100 Breast
• Irene Qu – 9^th 50 Back
• Beata Sobol – 9^th 100 & 200 Free
• Lasya Viswanadham – 12^th 50 Breast
• Isshin Yokoyama – 3^rd 50 Back, 6^th 50 Free, 7^th 100 Free, 10^th 50 Fly

Top 12/Top 16 Relay Finishes

• 10&U Girls A 200 Free Relay – 2^nd (Ellen Feng, Beata Sobol, Dami Jung, Prisha Parikh)
• 10&U Girls A 200 Medley Relay – 2^nd (Irene Qu, Olivia Henaire, Ellen Feng, Prisha Parikh)
• 10&U Boys A Medley Relay – 6^th (Deniz Cankaya, Ryder Hsu, Isshin Yokoyama, George Ursulenko)
• 11-12 Girls A 200 Free Relay – 6^th (Lasya Viswanadham, Sophia Gorveatt, Lauren Hizzey, Claire Gao)
• 11-12 Girls A 400 Free Relay – 6^th (Nora Herman, Lasya Viswanadham, Lauren Hizzey, Claire Gao)
• 13-14 Boys A 400 Free Relay – 8^th (Dylan Vu, Nik Brusilovski, Rik Brusilovski, Ethan Na)
• 10&U Boys A 200 Free Relay – 9^th (Alex Arlouski, Arvin Gandhi, George Ursulenko, Isshin Yokoyama)
• 13-14 Boys A 400 Medley Relay – 9^th (Nik Brusilovski, Rik Brusilovski, Ethan Na, Dylan Vu)
• Men Open A 400 Medley Relay – 10^th (Freddie Larsen, Alex Popov, Jaiden Sreenivasan, Alex Werth)
• Men Open A 800 Free Relay – 10^th (Freddie Larsen, Boston Borg, Alex Werth, Jaiden Sreenivasan)
• 10&U Girls B 200 Free Relay – 11^th (Olivia Henaire, Fiona Herman, Yihan Li, Olivia Liu)
• 10&U Girls B 200 Medley Relay – 11^th (Vedah Tuladhar, Olivia Liu, Beata Sobol, Dami Jung)
• 11-12 Girls A Medley Relay – 11^th (Shir Netz, Lina Wu, Olivia DeAmicis, Claire Gao)
• 10&U Boys B 200 Free Relay – 12^th (Andy Nguyen, Ryder Hsu, Deniz Cankaya, Rihit Gandhi)
• 13-14 Boys A 200 Free Relay – 12^th (Ethan Na, Henry Geitz, Nik Brusilovski, Dylan Vu)
• Women Open A 400 Medley Relay – 12^th (Jenna Kimborowicz, Kyler Brumfield, Anouk Balog, Rina Yuan)
• 13-14 Boys A 200 Medley Relay – 13^th (Nik Brusilovski, Adrian Juco, Ethan Na, Dylan Vu)
• 13-14 Boys B 400 Medley Relay – 13^th (Anton Mazepa, Barun Acharya, Oleg Arlouski, Daniel Xia)
• Men Open A 200 Medley Relay – 13^th (Freddie Larsen, Alex Popov, Jaiden Sreenivasan, Alex Werth)
• 13-14 Boys B 400 Free Relay – 14^th (Daniel Xia, Thomas Claux, Henry Geitz, Oleg Arlouski)
• Women Open A 200 Free Relay – 14^th (Rina Yuan, Lola Reynolds, Hailey Crawford, Kyler Brumfield)
• 13-14 Boys B 200 Free Relay – 15^th (Peter Hansen, Oleg Arlouski, Barun Acharya, Daniel Xia)
• Men Open A 200 Free Relay – 15^th (Freddie Larsen, Jaiden Sreenivasan, Tyler Kong, Alex Popov)
• Women Open A 200 Medley Relay – 16^th (Jenna Kimborowicz, Hailey Crawford, Anouk Balog, Rina Yuan)
• Women Open A 400 Free Relay – 16^th (Rina Yuan, Lola Reynolds, Anouk Balog, Hailey Crawford)

New US Motivational Cuts

AAA

• Nik Brusilovski – 200 & 500 Free
• Ellen Feng – 50 Fly
• Alex Popov – 100 Breast

AA

• Boston Borg – 200 Free
• Nik Brusilovski – 200 Back
• Rik Brusilovski – 50 Free
• Ellen Feng – 100 Fly
• Claire Gao – 50 Free, 50 Fly
• Bennett Geitz – 400 IM, 200 Free, 50 Fly
• Henry Geitz – 500 Free
• Iris Huang – 50 Free
• Tyler Kong – 200 Breast
• Cora Ledrick – 200 Free
• Owen Ledrick – 1000 Free
• Ethan Na – 100 Fly
• Prisha Parikh – 100 Back, 50 Free
• Alex Popov – 200 & 400 IM
• Dylan Vu – 500 Free
• Daniel Xia – 50 & 100 Free
• Isshin Yokoyama – 50 Back (Finals), 50 Free
• Rina Yuan – 100 Free

A

• Rik Brusilovski – 500 Free
• Thomas Claux – 50 Free
• Ellen Feng – 50 Back
• Sophia Gorveatt – 500 Free
• Iris Huang – 100 Fly
• Adrian Juco – 100 Breast
• Dami Jung – 50 Free
• Owen Ledrick – 100 & 200 Free
• Ethan Na – 100 Breast
• Alex Popov – 100 Free
• Irene Qu – 50 Breast
• Daniel Xia – 200 Breast, 200 Free
• Isshin Yokoyama – 50 Back (Prelims), 50 Fly

BB

• Peter Hansen – 100 Free
• Fiona Herman – 100 Free
• Amelia Pletosu – 1650 Free