Wave AGI Meet Recap

Wave hosted several PNS teams for the last big meet before championship season. We saw a lot of very fast swims, several of which were qualifying swims for the champs meets in March. The highlight was Fredrik Larsen’s team record in the 17-18 Boys 200 Back!

Many thanks to all the parents who volunteered as officials, timers, and the other vital roles that make our meets run so smoothly. A special shout out to our Boosters President Steven Blackman and our Meet Director Alan Cardwell. Without those two, our meets would not be so successful!

Age Group Select

All our hard work in practice really paid off with many great swims at this meet, highlighted by Elise Kabakci earning her first BB times, Olivia Liu earning her first A times, and Claire Gao breaking the 1:00 barrier in the 100 Free! Well done, all AGS swimmers!

• Alex Arlouski has been applying himself far more than ever before, and had three best times, including a 4.24-second drop in the 50 Back and 12.37-second drop in the 50 Fly!
• Bani Bhuyan earned five new best times, highlighted by a 7.78-second drop in the 10 IM and almost 6 seconds in the 50 Breast!
• Lucy Broyles was a perfect 6-for-6, including chopping off 11.37 seconds in her 200 Free and 6.66 seconds in her 200 IM where she finished 5^th!
• Deniz Cankaya picked up new best times in his 50 Breast and his 100 Back, where he dropped almost 3 seconds and swam to a 6^th place finish!
• Ellen Feng earned five best times, all of which were Top 6 finishes. She broke the 1:10 barrier in the 100 Free and dropped 6.5 seconds in the 100 Back as well as 5.5 seconds in the 100 IM! All this plus three new Age Group Regional cuts!
• Rihit Gandhi was another swimmer who went 6-for-6, a reflection of his superb efforts in workout! His biggest improvements were in the 100 Back (-4.58 seconds) and 200 IM (-8.48 seconds)!
• Claire Gao was a beast for Wave and AGS, making finals in all her events and swimming 12 races in two days! In finals, she swam faster than in prelims in five of her races. The highlight was breaking the 1:00 barrier in the 100 Free where she went a 59.95 in prelims then swam a 59.12 in finals!
• Olivia Henaire picked up a best time every time she dove in! Among her six new besties, she dropped 5.69 seconds in the 200 IM (including a 3^rd place finish) and 4.18 seconds in the 100 Fly!
• Fiona Herman picked up her second A time as a 9-year-old, this time in her 50 Fly, while her biggest drops came in the 100 Back (-3 seconds) and the 100 Fly (-2.67 seconds, just missing an AA time)!
• Sawyer Hsu has worked hard on improving his turns, and it paid off big time in his 100 Back, where he slashed 8.46 seconds off his time, and another 3.08 seconds in his 50 Fly!
• Dami Jung had a fantastic 50 Free, swimming a 30 for the first time!
• Elise Kabakci’s first-ever BB times came from a 10-second drop in her 200 Free and an almost 4-second drop in her 50 Back! She also demolished her previous 100 Free time by 7 seconds!
• Arvin Kandiah picked up five best times, including a jaw-dropping 40.03 seconds in his 200 IM! That was on top of a 6-second improvement in his 100 Back and a 10-second improvement in his 200 Free! This is what happens when you work hard day-in and day-out at practice!
• Maria Kokhan added five more best times, including an A time and 6^th place in her 50 Back as well as 6.8 seconds lopped off her 100 IM and 8.3 seconds in her 50 Fly!
• Yihan Li was the lone AGS swimmer who earned a first-time Spring Showdown cut, thanks to a 7.5-second drop in her 100 Back, one of five best times during the weekend! Congratulations Yihan!
• Olivia Liu earned her first two A times with a big 6.3-second drop in the 100 Fly and a 2-second drop in her 50 Fly. She also dropped 7.3 seconds in her 100 Free, another of her five best times!
• Eleanor Lopez earned five new BB times and posted six new best times! Her biggest drops were in the 100 Free (-9.48 seconds), 100 IM (-5.09 seconds), and the 200 Free (-12.74 seconds and 5^th place)!
• Prisha Parikh, in her final Wave meet before moving to Houston, just missed her first AAA times in the 50 Back and the 50 Free, where she swam her first-ever 28! She also finished Top 6 in every race! Good luck in Texas, Prisha! We already miss you!
• Beata Sobol earned two best times in the 100 Back and the 200 Free. In the latter race, she executed flawless race strategy, moving up to second after starting the first length in last! Coach Jay was extremely proud of this swim!
• Leo Steijn picked up three new best times, two of which had unbelievable time drops (unbelievable only if you haven’t watched him in workout!): -13.69 seconds in his 100 Back and -26.43 seconds in his 100 Breast.
• Han Sun—like Leo—has been a Lane 1 beast in practice, and went a perfect 6-for-6, slicing off chunks of time every time he dove in! His biggest improvements came in the 100 IM (-4.38 seconds) and the 50 Back (-6.63 seconds)!
• Vedah Tuladhar has put a ton of effort into regaining her focus and technical skills, and it paid off big time with three new best times and two swims that were just off her best. Her biggest swim was an amazing 200 IM where she slashed 15+ seconds off her previous best to earn 6^th place!
• George Ursulenko picked up three more best times, including a big 4-second drop in his 100 Free and 7^th place in his 50 Free!
• Alison Wang swam only one race (100 IM), but boy did she make it count as an outside smoker in lane 1, finishing half-a-length of the rest of her heat and dropping more than 4 seconds!
• Isshin Yokoyama added five new best times to his collection, including two 2^nd places, two 3^rd places, and one 4^th place. His biggest drop came in the 100 IM, where he improved by nearly 2 seconds!
• Ally Yuan crushed several of her previous bests, highlighted by her 6.41-second drop in the 100 Fly and more than 1 second on her 100 IM!
• Grace Zhang was our fourth swimmer to go a perfect 6-for-6, including drops of 6 seconds in her 100 Free, 8 seconds in her 100 IM, and 9.5 seconds in her 200 Free!

Purple Group

Dario Giulani was our lone participant, and he made the Purple Group proud! Dario had two big drops in his 100 Breast and his 100 IM. He also finished 10^th in the 100 IM!

Black Group

Kenshin Yokoyama starred for Black Group, one of the only 8-year-olds from any team who qualified for the meet! He swam amazing, dropping 5 seconds in his 100 breast and more than 12 seconds in his 100 IM!

High School

This meet showed the work and dedication the High School group has put into training. Our swimmers all had great swims!

• Tanvi Bathe: She dropped -8.56 in her 100 Back! She swam just as hard in her 50 Fly, dropping -1.77!
• Surabhi Koundinya: She had some fantastic swims highlighted by a mighty swim in her 100 Back!
• Oliver Wang: He swam hard in all three of his events, with his standout swim being his 100 Free!
• Kamilla Shapiro: Her best swim came in the 50 Breast where she dropped 1.28 seconds and just missed breaking the :40 for the first time!

Senior 1

The Senior 1 group had 18 swimmers compete at the February AGI Meet. Everyone who competed really stepped up and put everything they had into their races. We had tons of new best times and one new Age Group Regionals qualifier. It was a super fun weekend watching the swimmers race hard and seeing how proud they were of themselves for their improvements. This group has been training incredibly hard the past two months and it is so rewarding to see all their hard work leading them to fast swims. I am excited for the remainder of the season and to see what the group can accomplish at their end of season meets.

• Oleg Arlouski has been recovering from a broken finger that kept him out of the water for a month. He competed hard in everything he swam and even though he was slightly off his best times he is ready to keep working hard and getting himself back into tip top shape. His best race was the 100 fly where he made finals and was only slightly off his best time at finals.
• Nik Brusilovski competed for the fourth straight weekend. He rose up to the challenge well and put his all into his swims. He opened the meet with a super strong performance in the 500 free going sub 5:00 for the fifth time in as many swims.
• Rik Brusilovski really made the most out of his weekend, going best times in two of his three events and putting up a strong showing in the third. His best race was his 200 IM where he swam an incredibly strong race, dropping time from just two weeks ago.
• Daniel Cho has really been training hard and focusing on gaining some endurance in his breaststroke to help out his 200. This weekend proved that his training has really worked. He posted best times in all the breast events, getting his first A time in the 100 and 200. His biggest improvement came in the 200 where he dropped 7 seconds.
• Hailey Crawford had a full weekend of racing as she made finals in all six of her events for a total of twelve swims over the course of the meet. She really stepped up and raced hard in finals going faster than her prelims swim in four of her events. She had an awesome 200 free in finals that was well split and just off her best time. She is looking forward to really nailing her training the rest of the season and crushing it at Regionals.
• Aarohi Gandhi put up a wonderful showing herself dropping time in four of her events. She had some awesome races in prelims to secure herself spots in finals. She did an amazing job stepping up and racing in finals moving up in all of the races she qualified for. She turned in a stellar 100 free dropping a second and getting closer and closer to breaking the minute barrier.
• Henry Geitz has been working hard on his speed as well as training for longer events. He put that to the test the first day of the meet swimming the 400 IM and 500 free and going best times in both events. He continued to drop time in his events throughout the meet. His most exciting swim was the 200 free where he dropped 2 seconds from his prelims swim and almost won his finals heat.
• Iris Huang has really been finding her speed in her sprint events. She has been working hard on her butterfly training and that really showed at the meet. She posted a blazing fast 50 fly winning the entire event. She then turned it on in the 100 fly dropping time and finishing second overall.
• Adrian Juco has been working on his breaststroke races a lot in practice. The work he has put in really showed at this meet as he absolutely crushed the breast events going best times in all three. In the 50 breast he broke 30 seconds for the first time, in the 100 he dropped 2 seconds, and in the 200 he dropped 4 seconds.
• Aditi Kandiah always pushes herself everyday at practice. It was so awesome for her to see the returns from her hard work. She had a fantastic meet going best times in four of her events. Right before finals of the 200 free she wasn’t feeling well but decided to swim it and just do her best. Her best turned out to be an absolutely killer swim moving her up three places and dropping a second.
• Ethan Na has continued to show his speed in the sprint events. He has been working hard and his pure speed and it is starting to really pay off. He turned in a blistering 50 fly dropping time and finished fourth. He then stepped up on Sunday in the 50 free finishing second and dropping time from just two weeks ago.
• Joseph Nguyen has been working his way back as some illnesses sidelined his practice after the end of high school season. He made the most out of his races doing a great job executing his race strategies and putting his all into his events. He had a strong swim in the 100 free dropping half a second. He would go on to achieve a best time in his 50 fly as well.
• Sonny Nguyen has returned from the high school season and is getting back into the swing of training. He put up a strong showing over the weekend making finals in both of his races. He turned in a sweet 100 free in finals dropping a second and moving up three spots.
• Neil Rawal has been back to training hard and really saw the results. He was all smiles all weekend as he turned in best time after best time. He achieved best times in five of his races. His biggest drop of 5 seconds came in the 50 breast. His most dominant race was the 50 free where he looked stellar from start to finish on his way to dropping a second in the race.
• Boris Shakhov is getting back into the full swing of training. He raced well all weekend and was close to his best time in most of his races. His best events were the 50 fly where he made finals and was right at his best time and the 50 free where he had a strong swim that was just off his best.
• Dylan Vu continues to dominate in the sprint events and is really finding his speed. He had an awesome 100 free finishing second, dropping time, and putting together a complete swim. He would continue on to drop time in the 50 free and finished the meet with a blazing fast 100 IM breaking the 1:00 barrier for the first time and winning the event.
• Daniel Xia was on a mission to get his Age Group Regionals qualifying time in the 100 free. He put his game face on and did just that, blasting the cut in prelims then turning around in finals and going even faster. He is excited to see his progress and to see what he can do to end his season.
• Rina Yuan used this meet to work on some of her off races and post new best times. She had a great meet dropping time in all six of her races. She has been working on her endurance and that really showed as she had amazing swims in the 200 free achieving a best time and the 200 IM dropping 5 seconds in prelims and another second in finals.

Senior Epic

Senior Epic had a number of exciting swims and many new best times achieved in their strongest events. There was a notable improvement on skills we have been focusing on during the season such as underwater dolphin kicks, breakouts and pullouts! Among the amazing swims, our group had a new Team Record (200 Backstroke -Boys 17-18), a new Sectionals cut and two almost cuts (0.13 and 0.06 off the Sectionals cut)!. See some highlights from our group:

• Anouk Balog had a strong meet and her outstanding swim was the 200 Fly where she managed her energy throughout the race and finished strong going not only a best time but also getting an A Time.
• Boston Borg brought home 4 new personal bests and had one of the most exciting races this meet, racing hard in the 200 Free until the last 25. His efforts resulted in one more best time (after achieving his personal best many times during the HS season) and got him even closer to the Sectionals cut (only 0.13!!).
• Kyler Brumfield had a great weekend and was very consistent with her Backstroke events. She had a fantastic 200 Backstroke where she managed strong splits and dropped almost a full second getting sooo close to the Sectionals cut (only 0.06!!).
• Raymond Chen showed a strong technique in all Fly events. Ray demonstrated great rhythm in the 200 Fly and swam a personal best dropping over a second in the prelims. Ray got 3 new best times last weekend.
• Jenna Kimborowicz had a solid meet swimming strong in all her Freestyle events and gaining confidence in her race strategies for the upcoming meets. She also had an aggressive 100 Backstroke going out fast and holding her pace until the end.
• Tyler Kong had a strong meet with many fast swims in both Freestyle and Breaststroke. His strongest event was the 200 Free where he paced himself and was able to hold his stroke together until the end. He dropped almost 2 seconds achieving an A Time.
• Fredrik Larsen came ready to race hard and was focused on executing his race strategy in the 200 Backstroke and so he did! He performed a phenomenal race dropping almost a full second, going a lifetime best and breaking the Team Record (Boys 17-18) one more time!
• Owen Ledrick has been working hard in the Freestyle distance sets and had solid events. His outstanding swim was the 200 Free where he improved his strategy for finals going out fast and holding his pace to finish stronger than prelims.
• Lola Reynolds has been working on her dolphin kicks and performed them extremely well in the Backstroke events. Lola dropped 1.5 seconds in the 50 Back and also went a best time in the 100 Back.
• Aadhav Saravanan went a best time in the 200 IM and swam right at his time in the 400 IM. He is looking forward to improving his breaststroke and backstroke in order to get stronger in the IM.
• Noah Sattari swam all Butterfly events this weekend and did an excellent job in all of them. His outstanding swims were the 50 Fly and 50 Free where he demonstrated powerful underwater dolphin kicks going lifetime bests and winning both events. Noah dropped 1.38 seconds in the former and 0.84 in the latter.
• Jaiden Sreenivasan finished the weekend with 3 new best times and several swims that were right at his times. He demonstrated great improvement in his Breaststroke with a strong technique and powerful finishes in both 100 Breast (- 0.91) and 200 Breast (-2.36). He also got a new Sectionals cut in the 200 Backstroke where he dropped a full second from his old time.
• Alexander Werth managed to swim a personal best in his strongest event, the 200 Breaststroke. He dominated the race with powerful pullouts and great rhythm from beginning to end, winning his event. He also went a best time in the 50 Breast dropping 0.20.

I am excited to see how fast they can swim at Champs in the upcoming weeks!

Senior Prep

Sr. Prep did very well at the Age Group Invite. Sr. Prep had 221 successful swims where 94 of them were best times, which is 42% of all of our races.  We had another 37 swims that were within 0.5 second of our best time. The average time drop for all swims was .11 second drop average per race! This average time drop includes anything we successfully swam and had swum before, so for example, this average includes swims were swimmers added time including if they dropped in prelims and added in finals or vice versa. This average time drop was lower than normal, mostly from having prelims and finals and many swimmers making it back in all events each day. This is okay and normal when we do 9-12 races in two days it is common to add time as we get fatigued we focus on practice racing our races the right way and racing the other swimmers who are also tired from the same race format. When we rest for our big meet at Age Group Regionals or Spring Showdown, we will be better able to race fast even when tired. We had one swimmer who successfully swam an event for the first time: Amelia Pletosu did a great job swimming the 200 Fly in prelims and then coming back and swimming it for a second time in finals! Great Job at the AGI Meet, Sr. Prep!

Top 25 Time Improvements at the meet:

• Amelia Pletosu dropped 17.33 seconds in the 200 Free & 7.38 seconds in the 500 Free
• Bennett Geitz dropped 11.13 seconds in the 500 Free, 6.95 seconds in the 200 IM, 4.06 seconds in the 200 Fly, & 2.91 seconds in the 100 Fly
• Kamilla Bugaitsova dropped 10.25 seconds in the 500 Free and 3.27 seconds in the 100 Fly
• Kirsten Hau dropped 8.77 seconds in the 400 IM
• Ella Tulanon dropped 8.69 seconds in the 500 Free
• Karolina Pastusiak dropped 8.09 seconds in the 500 Free, 5.59 seconds in the 200 IM, and 3.69 seconds in the 200 Breast
• Olivia DeAmicis dropped 7.54 seconds in the 200 Free
• Deming Gates dropped 6.93 seconds in the 200 Breast
• Rahul Purkayastha dropped 6.24 seconds in the 200 Back & 5.1 seconds in the 200 Breast
• Daniel Chen dropped 5.12 seconds in the 200 Breast & 3.23 seconds in the 500 Free
• Anton Mazepa dropped 4.41 seconds in the 200 Back & 4.11 seconds in the 200 Free
• Tandisse Rahimi dropped 2.93 seconds in the 100 Fly
• Nora Herman dropped 2.91 seconds in the 500 Free
• Tanay Boda dropped 2.73 seconds in the 200 IM
• Sophia Gorveatt dropped 2.62 seconds in the 200 Fly

White Group

White Group has plenty to be proud of this AGI. We had 28 swimmers qualify for the meet and they burned through their last best times, many of them recent. We scored five new B times, seven new BB times, leveled-up four swimmers to BB, and one swimmer qualified for the Spring Showdown!

Our 100 Breast blew me away. Not only did we drop time by the bushel, but three swimmers landed their first 50 faster than their 50 Breast time from the day before! Henry Cheng also qualified for the Showdown after saying that he wasn’t as good at the 100 Breast!

Our 100 IM was also impressive. The last event of the meet is usually when swimmers get floppy, tired and distracted...but every single IM’er landed it legally AND dropped time while Nico Palfreyman logged his first legal time!

MOTIVATIONAL GRADS: first ever BB times at this meet

• Elizabeth Luo (100 Back, 50 Back) won it with her Fly skills, specifically dolphin kicking
• Rachel Siu (100 Breast) - dropped 10s from a month ago!
• Jayden Hor (100 Breast) - swam the first 50, 2s faster than his best 50 BR time (the day before)
• Rinat Makyutov (50 Back) shaved 0.64s off with some fast arms and a smoother flipturn.

SHOWDOWNer: Henry Cheng dropped 7.5s off his 100 Breast time from a month ago to qualify for the Showdown meet! Fun fact: He swam his first 50 faster than his 50 Breast from the day before!

BREAST BREAKTHROUGHS: these guys swam a faster 50 split in their 100 Breast, than they did in their 50 Breast the day before! They didn’t get stronger overnight - they got smoother.

• Jayden Hor 50 Breast: 51.22 100 Breast-50 split: 49.20 (2s faster!)
• Henry Cheng 50 Breast: 44.20 100 Breast-50 split: 43.95
• Joshua Hunter 50 Breast: 54.58 100 Breast-50 split: 50.43 (4s faster!)

LOSS LEADERS: total time dropped at the meet

• Cut 20s+: Henry Cheng (-21.5s), Harper McDonnell (-20.6s)
• Cut 12s+: Rachel Siu (-14.8s), Joshua Xia (-14.5s), Joshua Hunter (-13.9s)
• Cut 10s+: Ilia Maksimchuck (-10s)
• Losingest Winner: Elizabeth Luo (-24s) dropping time off all 6 of her events.

ON FIRE: Serena Zhang (-11.5s) dropped big on all her events, most of which she swam a month ago (also with steep drops!)

ONES TO WATCH: swimmers that narrowly missed big motivational firsts this meet

• Ilia Maksimchuk dropped 1.3s off his 50 Back, to land 0.34s from his first BB time!
• Berit Dunn dropped 0.23s off her 100 Breast, to land 0.36s from her first BB time!

New US Swimming Motivational Times

AA

• Ellen Feng – 50 & 100 Back, 100 IM
• Adrian Juco – 200 Breast
• Noah Sattari – 100 Free
• Daniel Xia – 200 Free

A

• Anouk Balog – 200 Fly
• Raymond Chen – 50 Free
• Daniel Cho – 100 & 200 Breast
• Ellen Feng – 100 Free
• Claire Gao – 50 Back, 50 Breast
• Bennett Geitz – 500 Free
• Henry Geitz – 200 Free
• Olivia Henaire – 100 IM, 50 Fly
• Fiona Herman – 50 Fly
• Maria Kokhan – 50 Back
• Tyler Kong – 200 Free
• Olivia Liu – 50 & 10 Fly
• Anton Mazepa – 200 Back, 200 Free
• Lee Nguyen – 100 Free
• Amelia Pletosu – 50 & 100 Fly, 200 Free
• Daniel Xia – 100 Back
• Isshin Yokoyama – 50 Fly

BB

• Alex Arlouski – 50 Back, 50 Fly
• Bani Bhuyan – 100 IM, 50 Beast, 50 Free
• Boston Borg – 100 Back
• Lucy Broyles – 200 Free, 200 IM
• Henry Cheng – 50 Back
• Rihit Gandhi – 200 IM, 50 Back, 50 Breast
• Deming Gates – 200 Breast
• Bennett Geitz – 100 Fly, 200 IM
• Fiona Herman – 100 Back
• Jayden Hor – 100 Breast
• Sawyer Hsu – 100 Back
• Arvin Kandiah – 100 Breast, 50 Back
• Maria Kokhan – 50 Fly, 50 Free
• Yihan Li – 100 Free, 50 Fly
• Olivia Liu – 100 Free
• Eleanor Lopez – 50, 100 & 200 Free, 100 IM, 50 Fly
• Elizabeth Luo – 50 & 100 Back
• Harper McDonald – 100 IM, 50 Back, 50 Fly
• Amelia Pletosu – 200 Fly
• Rahul Purkayastha – 200 Back
• Tandisse Rahimi – 100 Free
• Rachel Siu – 100 Breast
• Beata Sobol – 200 Free
• Han Sun – 50 Back, 50 Breast
• George Ursulenko – 100 Free, 50 Back
• Ally Yuan – 100 Fly
• Rina Yuan – 200 IM
• Grace Zhang – 100 & 200 Free, 100 IM
• Serena Zhang – 100 IM

B

• Tanvi Bathe – 100 Back
• Kamilla Bugaitsova – 100 Fly
• Henry Cheng – 50 Fly, 50 Free
• Lucas Deng – 50 Breast
• Dario Giulani – 100 Breast
• Arvin Kandiah – 200 IM
• Ilia Maksimchuk – 50 Fly, 50 Free
• Rinat Maksyutov – 50 Back
• Melissa Nguyen – 100 IM
• Rahul Purkayastha – 200 Breast
• Leo Steijn – 100 Back, 100 Breast
• Han Sun – 100 Free
• Vedah Tuladhar – 50 Free
• Serena Zhang – 50 Fly

WAVE ON 3!!